Fiona is right before me, and is sitting on a chair, tied and gagged, and has obviously been beaten quite recently. Not severely, but it looks like it hurts.
I look around, and almost immediately see two men standing behind me, one with a cat-o-nine-tails, the other with a club, in seeming states of joint shock at my sudden arrival.
Fortunately, my shock lasts about a millisecond shorter than theirs. I grab the haft of the club held by the closer man (both are in uniforms, and appear like humans, but the farther one has a long flap of skin hanging down from his nose, about 6 inches long), and I bring it up to smash into the face of its wielder. It was a hard hit, and he drops for now, at least.
The other man is now sensible enough to put up a fight, and I am almost sensible enough to stop and think about what I am doing before attacking these guys not knowing what is going on. Almost, but not quite. Besides, this club feels good in my hands.
So, with a quick side-step I dodge his attempt to strike me down, and with a return shot to the side of the head, I smash into him hard enough that I wonder if I killed him. He hits the wall and drops. The other guy moans a little, and I kick him in the back of the head. He doesn't move for the rest of the time I am in this room.
Fiona is looking at me wide eyed for a moment after things calm down, and then begins struggling with her bonds, obviously wanting me to free her. I do so, starting with her gag.
"Miyel, what the hell are you doing here?!? Jesus, get these things off of my hands. Vialle has gone totally crazy, we still don't know if we will ever get her back. She has Corwin, now, too. I don't know where Benedict is. Have you seen Flora? The bitch bolted as soon as Vialle sprung on us. When the hell did you get here? That dolt Duncan severed the gate before we could grab Vialle and we are stuck here now. Did you know that? We will never get home! We still have to stop Vialle, though, or else she will kill us all."
This all comes out as one continuous stream, not like Fiona normally. But otherwise, she seems her old self, if worse for the wear.
Despite my strange circumstances, and the fact that I have no idea what the hell she was just talking about, I am glad to see her. I have just freed her when she has hesitated enough for a response.
After I free my Auntie, I give her a huge hug and a warm kiss on her cheek. Then I go on my little spiel.
"The Pattern here is fixed. I patched it up on the other side. We can leave here after we free the others. But we should rescue them with haste, since Amber is currently under siege now. Plus there are several other forces looking to destroy Amber while you guys are gone. So we need to get them back and return to Amber as soon as possible. Here, have a club. They are quite cool! This Vialle here is not our Vialle. Our Vialle is in Remba hiding out. I know this from my mother."
We are both sitting on very comfortable furniture in this store room, facing each other. The furniture is rich and lacquered, but much of it has flaws here and there.
"What? No, she isn't, she is here and trying to kill us all! I swear, if she wasn't our Queen I would haul off and kill her myself, but no, we have to bring her back alive," Fi replies.
"No, Auntie Fiona, my mother told me that she is with Vialle in Rebma."
"Look, Miyel, I don't know what your mother is talking about, but as usual she has no clue what is really going on. Listen: these gates opened, right? Well, Vialle was the first one to realize there was trouble. She just felt it or something, right? So Random did some investigating and as it turns out, she was right, these new patterns were causing some big trouble out in shadow and our universe was threatened. So, Random had a big meeting with all of us about it, and we decided we ought to go out and fix things.
"Only there was one problem: Vialle was having some psychic link to the gates or something. She was somehow in tuned with them, and by the same power that she knew they were here, they somehow put her into a trance. So, she disappeared right before we were all going to go out and sever the gates. Well, Random managed to talk to Dworkin, and he told him what happened, that Vialle had been controlled be some power on this side of this gate, and had somehow gotten to this side and was planning to attack Amber!
"Well, Random is a fool sometimes, and instead of telling us all, he found a fake Vialle to sit in for a couple days, and he and Gerard came here to rescue her. They didn't return, and we found out what happened by probing the mind of the fake Vialle left behind. Come to think of it, I have no idea what happened to her after that.
"In any case, we all rushed here to try to save Vialle. I think Random was caught. We were fighting against some forces that Vialle was sending against us. She seems to be under some influence against us. We were fighting when Duncan showed up. We retreated shortly thereafter to return to Amber and stage a new attack, when we realized he had severed the gate. We were trapped then, and had to separate and flee to try and get away. I didn't make it.
"So, now we have to rescue everyone and get the hell back, including Random and Vialle. I don't know what your mother is thinking, but whoever she has down there sure isn't Vialle....."
"That Vialle was the one who told us all about the problems the alternate universes were causing. She told us to help you guys close the gates. She knew that you guys had gone to one of the universes, either the Broken Pattern one or Corwin's. We were supposed to close the other one. "
"I think Random created a Vialle very much like the real one, with the same basic memories and personality. She might have been acting on her real feelings, thinking she was actually Vialle."
"Hmm. I guess that makes sense then. This Vialle wasn't aware of the psychic connection that the real Vialle had to this universe.
There is so much I wish to talk to Fi about, but circumstances has delayed that talk for now. And I'm almost positive that these circumstances will keep us busy for a long time to come. I can only take solace at seeing her again after a long absence. I give her a long smile, for I have a feeling I won't have the chance to give her another one for a long time to come.
"Maybe if we could create some sort of big diversion we could distract a lot of the Castle and thereby move around without as much fear. Right now, they don't know either of us is here and free, so we have a short term advantage, but if they find us, they are very powerful, and could capture us.
"Do you have any other ideas about how we can move around and find the others without being captured?" my aunt asks.
"I have a couple suggestions, but I'm not sure if they are any good. An event that would cause great commotion and attract lots of attention would be to start a big fire. But if this castle is mainly stone, then I'm not sure how effective that plan would be. Still, there are plenty of rooms with flammable materials in them. Perhaps multiple fires would also do the trick. Another plan would be for one of us to let loose through the castle, leading the guards on a wild chase. This is quite risky for the person doing the distracting, and I'm not sure how long it would last. Hmm. . .Only if we knew our way around the castle. If we could get to the library, they might have a map there. Do you know of any secret passageways to the library in Amber? They might have similar ones here. Hmm. . .or we could find us another servant or guard and probe his mind for general locations in the castle. We should try to capture the next person we happen upon, instead of killing him. (Yes, I know it was my fault the last time.) We could also probe his mind for the location of the others, especially Benedict. We could really use his tactical prowess right now.
"So shall we wait on that distraction until we can find a willing victim for a mind rape?"
"Yes, I think you have a great plan. Lets capture someone and probe them. Should we go together? I think we would have a better chance of being discovered if there are two of us. If one of us stays here, they will obviously never come looking here.
"You seem quite capable with your weapon, why don't you go knock someone out and bring them silently here. Then, once you return, I will probe their mind.
"Sound good?"
After Fi and I discussed our plans to capture a hostage and then use fire as a diversion, I went out to find a victim. The stairs up from the storage room led to a small room with a door on the left and the stairways we descended on the right. I tried opening the door, but it was either jammed or locked. Probably locked. So I listened in on any noises coming from the other side. Unfortunately I heard some. At least three distinct voices. I decided I would save this door for my last option. So I went back up the stairs into another small landing room. One door led to a large room with a fire pit in it. Another went back up the stairs. I didn't remember any other rooms being unchecked, so I decided to go with my last option. As I turned around I heard a shout, "Oh, she's gone!" The 'she' obviously meaning Fi. So I charged up there to silence them. I hoped that the other guards in the locked room hadn't heard the shouting guard. I was going to make sure he didn't get another chance. As I got up there I saw a couple guards. I wondered how they got up here. Perhaps they were the guards I originally knocked out. Well I slew one of them on the spot. But this other one is going to be tricky. I have to get him before he shouts out again. So much for a hostage. . .
Once I heard the shouting from upstairs, I got very angry at myself for not noticing them earlier. I charged up the stairs full of rage. I encountered two guards, one of them the guilty party of using his vocal chords too loudly. Fortunately for us, my little friend hadn't come yet, so I was able to spare one of them from a grueling death involving a messy castration. All men out there, do not snicker. Being in that monthly bitch mood has often been compared to being in a berserker rage.
Anyhow, I managed to dispatch of the two guards. I was still afraid that those men in the guard room had heard the commotion up here. So I stealthily crept down the stairs. I didn't encounter anyone on my way to the door. I listened in on them again. I heard the same laughter and jovial sounds that I heard before. With a sigh of relief, I went down the stairs and got Fi from the storage shed. I led her to her future victim, a young but grotesque looking fellow. He had one too many ears for my tastes. We pulled him into the room where I had originally found Fi. She had me wake him before she clasped his head between her hands. She closed her eyes and went into a trance-like state. The guard's eyes popped wide open, as a look of terror passed over his face. His eyes shifted wildly from left to right. His mouth hung open in tight tension. After a few minutes his eyes began to twitch erratically. Then he passed into another state. His eyes now stared blankly at the ceiling. His mouth closed, still leaving a bit of separation between his lips. All tension seemed to have left him, leaving him looking like a slumping mass with gelatinous flesh.
Fiona's eyes slowly opened, as if waking from a dream she didn't want to end. A sly smile moved across her mouth as she turned to face me.
"I know where everybody is," she announced. She then proceeded to inform me on the general layout of the castle. She said that the guards had come up a secret stairway up into this area. That is why I hadn't noticed them before. The stairway was only known to a few of the elite guards and to the royal family. It was built so that any nobles trapped up here while the castle was under siege could have an escape route. The door was well hidden, but Fi knew where it was. We decided to take the secret stairway instead of through the guard room since we would encounter less opposition. She was right, of course. We took a small spiral staircase down to a landing. At this landing was another staircase leading up and down. The staircase we were on also led down. Fi led us to the other staircase, which she said would lead us to Benedict. So we took those stairs up, with only a torch to lead the way. When we came to the secret doorway, I stopped to whisper a plan of action to Fi. I slowly opened the door, but not enough to be able to see clearly into the room. Then, using my most manly voice, I asked for some assistance in carrying an interesting torture device. As they approached the door, I swiftly pushed it open, threw the torch at one guard, and then stuck my sword through the gut of another one. Fi ran over to the guard with a torch in his face, while I charged the two other guards in the room. They didn't even have a chance to draw before they were drawn into bits.
This room was similar to the one where Fi was rescued from. I chose a door and burst into one of the smaller rooms. Benedict was sitting tied up in a chair. Two unconscious or dead guards lay by his feet. The only part of his body that was not bound was his mouth. He gave me a genuine smile as he raised his eyebrows. I just stood there in awe of how he managed the sight I saw before me. . .