Chapter Fourteen

A Trip To The Movies

 

Gwen and I stood at the gates of chaos for a moment. We headed out towards genetics labs I knew we could use, to get started on our research project. I felt the beginnings of a contact and paused. It was Injarda-o.

"Bring me through" he said.

"Where are you?" I asked.

"It's not important, just bring me through" he insisted.

"It's important, where are you, what're you doing? Hey, you have my trump?" I realized.

"Suhuy gave it to me, remember?" he asked. Whatever. I pulled him through.

"What're you guys up to?" Injarda-o asked

"Uh, heading out for the genetics labs as soon as we grab Timtallagay" I told him.

"Don't. I don't want that Lothos finding us" Injarda-o insisted.

"No, we want to grab Tim and get him out of there."

"How?" asked Injarda-o

"We're gonna try to grab him and pull him away" I replied.

"Don't let Lothos through" Injarda-o insisted.

"We will try not to, however, I'm not just going to leave TimT there to try to make peace with something like Lothos" I retorted.

"You have to remember, Tim jumped in between Fiona, Mandor and Gerrilack, and said stop" I reminded him.

"I went home" Injarda-o said softly

"Fiona and Mandor..." I began, confused.

"No, no, no" Injarda-o stopped me. Something in his voice was upsetting. "I went home" he insisted. "There's nothing there. It's not good."

"You're not making any sense" I told him.

"I went to my teacher's studio, I've shown you that trump. I went to the barn. He is not home. No one is home, nothing is there, no one seems to be there at all."

"Your home shadow is empty of life?" I tried to ascertain that's what he meant.

"No one was there at all " Injarda-o verified "But it was daylight, and there should have been people doing all kinds of stuff."

"Ok" I agreed, beginning to comprehend the severity of this "this is not good." There were a number of possibilities. One was that this was directly related to the activity of Lothos. There was a nagging doubt in the back of my mind, wondering if Injarda-o really was Dworkin's. Maybe that whole shadow was a creation of his to invent the shadow atmosphere he wanted Injarda-o growing up in. With Injarda-o out in shadow and developing beyond that, perhaps the shadow was no longer necessary. It was possible. This wouldn't even have to be Dworkin, I'm sure any number of the Amberites would have been capable of such a thing. I had no intention of telling this to Injarda-o yet, though.

"We need to find out what's going on and get everyone back" I commented "although I wouldn't mind leaving 01, we do have to get Timtallagay back"

We decided that we needed to get TimT back, but we certainly couldn't try to contact them and get them back while we were at the Courts. I noted that it would be good to get several things done at the same time, so we should head off to a high technology shadow, where we could both call Timtallagay and conduct our experimentation.

Injarda-o had a number of high technology shadows among his trumps. Out of two which seemed to have the potential level of science we needed, we decided on one and went. Considering the time flow, Gwen and I decided to get a few things done before getting back to the group, while we had the opportunity, and the lack of 01 and Tekvar.

In our first series of experimentation, we found no differences between our respective DNA patterns, and tried the next high-tech shadow Injarda-o knew of. We repeated our experimentations in the next shadow, to no great avail. Disgruntled, we attempted to contact Timtallagay.

The contact was made, but it was hazy and indistinct. I realized that it wasn't going to hold long.

"Timtallagay you have to come through" I told it. S/he hesitated for 01. "Grab 01, I don't care" I said.

"Tim, this contact's not strong, and it's going. Come on!"

"01" TimT said "will you come with me please. 01?"

I saw Timtallagay reach out his hand. "Will you come?" 01 hesitated, self-absorbed as ever.

"Where are we going?" I heard Lothos ask brightly. Injarda-o, over my shoulder, started closing the trump. I tried to grab TimT to pull him out of there before the trump contact was broken.

There was a rushing noise and light, and I was standing next to Timtallagay in some bizarre throneroom. I noted that Injarda-o and Gwen were here as well.

"Timtallagay, that was annoying! Why did you yank me through?" I demanded.

"We didn't" TimT said firmly. I looked around, and noticed Lothos, just as I heard Injarda-o softly say "He did", pointing at Lothos. Lothos smiled. He had two children attending him on his throne, both ragged and dripping blood. Oh joy.

"Oh, funny guy" I quipped. "Whelp, I don't need to call you now, do I?" I directed at Timtallagay. I had a very bad feeling about this. How had Lothos pulled us through the open trump when he wasn't part of the contact, and wasn't near Timtallagay? Not good. We had to get away from this guy.

"How many trumps do you have?" 01 asked.

"A whole collection" I snorted, still disgusted at Suhuy, "47." I pulled out a small pile of my collection of Corvina trumps and waved them at 01.

"See, I have this one of me, and this one of me, and this one of me, and this one of me...ack. They're like calling cards. Are you happy now?" I suppose had I been thinking clearly, I would never have done this in front of Lothos, but he seemed like an annoyance, not a real threat. I was more pissed off at 01 still not being able to mind his own business to think about Lothos clearly. As I've said, I am not known for my intuitive character judgements.

"Can I have one?" Lothos asked with a smile.

"No" I snapped petulantly. The group around me giggled a bit. I stared. "Any particular reason you want one?" I asked curiosity getting the better of common sense.

"I could make it into something fun and special for you. What is it you desire most?" he asked.

"Ok, look, you gotta work with me here, I need a definition of fun."

"What is it you most desire?" he asked again. This is not a question I deal with well. I certainly have a good handle on what I want most, what I desire. But I doubt I can have it, so I keep it locked up pretty tight. I felt slightly tempted, only if this Lothos had half the power he claimed, but I didn't believe him. Besides, he was certainly not on my list of people to practice learning to trust on.

"That's something I won't discuss in a public forum, but I might tell you privately" I answered him.

"Oooh" he smirked "is it obscene?" Yeah, that figured.

"Could be" I told him. I decided to challange how powerful he was. I pulled out one of the trumps of myself and tossed it at Lothos.

"There, now you have a copy" I smirked back. You know, I wish I was not so damn arrogant sometimes.

There was an immediate trump contact, which I was just not stupid enough to answer. Lothos grinned.

"Have you ever wondered" he asked "what would happen if you met yourself?"

Obviously he thought this was new and different. Obviously he hadn't paid much attention to Timtallagay.

I shrugged at him. "Yeah" I answered, pointing at our own TimT "that would." The group dissolved in laughter. "That's what would happen if you met yourself" I continued "we already know."

Through the gales of laughter, I added "Been there, done that, that's not new."

Lothos just smiled in a tolerant manner. I should have panicked right then and there, but arrogance is an amazingly good shield against common sense.

"So you are everything" 01 told him, "you just don't KNOW everything."

"Maybe he knew it and forgot half just to annoy the shit out of you" I threw at 01.

The contact faded away.

01 stared at me for a moment. "You seem awfully hostile" he observed. Give the boy a medal. When was I ever nice to him? You really need a big brick to hit him in the head before he gets it.

"I haven't had my coffee yet" I told him. He nodded, like this was a fact. Ack.

"Does anyone have any fingerpaints?" Lothos asked. There's something you don't hear every day...

Everyone turned and looked at Injarda-o.

"I think I do, actually" Injarda-o commented.

"May I borrow some?" Lothos asked politely. That should have been the first hint right there. But no, we didn't see it coming. Injarda-o walked slowly up to the throne as Lothos blithered on about him kneeling to hand over the paint.

"What's with this kneeling thing?" I asked him.

"Um, I don't know" he dismissed the issue. I, however, wasn't done discussing it. "I know the courtly reasons for it, but, it's so blaise. I mean, they do it in Amber, they do it in the Courts, why bother, really?" How far could I push him?

"Humiliation" he answered.

"It would have to be humiliating to the subject" I observed.

He pointed out that it was worth it when they felt degraded or were forced, and I had to agree the humiliation value there was significant. I noted that Lothos started playing with the fingerpaints. Injarda-o had handed him the primary colors, red, blue and yellow. He dipped three fingers in the available colors, and pulled out my trump. I think my stomach fell down around my knees, literally.

01 vanished.

With a flourish, a flare and lots of ta-da's, Lothos finished painting on my trump. So, I figured he'd turn me blue or something. I could shift out of it.

Timtallagay, Gwen and Injarda-o stood near me, Injarda-o looking worried, and Tekvar got himself a good distance from everyone. Well, I did have to respect self-preservation.

Injarda-o started making a quick sketch. I assumed that he was sketching Lothos.

Lothos held up the trump he had mutilated, grinned at me, and I felt a trump contact start. I resisted, I had no intention of being a guinea pig. The card had been changed into a primitive stick figure.

I began fighting this off with everything I could, as it got more and more insistant. He was really pushing, damn him. All those years fencing off Dara began to pay off. I pushed back. Timtallagay put a hand on my shoulder, as did Gwen. They began to help me fend off the call, feeding me energy. I realized that all three of us were being forced to our knees from the strain of resisting the trump call, but it still wasn't getting through.

"Aw, this isn't fair" said Tekvar. Injarda-o stared, bug-eyed at the trump.

Lothos chuckled. The trump contact stopped and he began clapping. "Very good. Such determination. You find that so rarely." The three of us sat on the ground, panting from the exertion.

"Impressive. Well, no, not really." Lothos quipped. "I am amused, I have not been so amused in hundreds of years."

As we stared at him, I felt a trump contact. Lothos was quick to assure me "It's not me this time." Yeah, like I'd believe him. Well, I can't live in fear. I took the call.

I heard my name spoken over the trump contact in a whisper, and almost dropped in shock. It was Dara, actually calling me.

"Yes?" I responded very seriously. If Dara called me, this was not a joke.

"You should get out of there. Mandor has told me who you are talking with." Dara's tone was dealy serious, and she spoke very quietly. I can not remember anything in my entire life that frightened me more than this.

"Can you help us? Can you get us out of here?" I asked her.

"No, I'm not willing to do that now. But you should leave" she replied. I wanted to beg.

"How dangerous is it?" I asked, needing to know the whole of the truth.

"Lothos? Lothos is unbelieveably dangerous" she said slowly.

"Oh boy"

"He could swat you aside as if you were nothing" she warned.

"In other words, stop laughing and run." I guessed the flippant and brave approach would have to do since it didn't seem groveling was going to work.

"This isn't funny. But as long as you amuse him, you're safe. The man is NOT sane. Hold on" her presence faded to the background.

I found myself on trump 'hold'. I hate that. I could feel her presence, but she was having a discussion with someone else. I felt that presence come to the foreground. It was Uncle Suhuy.

"Uncle" I said.

"Dara is right" he said "Lothos is dangerous. Oberon imprisoned him once. He escaped. I don't know how, I don't know why, I don't know who."

I stuttered. "That's disturbing. That's the story he told."

"He should not be free" Suhuy continued.

"Uh-oh" I muttered.

"Can you open your eyes for a moment?" Suhuy asked me. I did so, feeling Dara active in the background.

Suhuy looked at the two children, still dripping blood. I felt him shudder. Again, I was impressed with the gravity of the situation, it took a lot to phase my uncle.

"Would you like to stay and watch?" I invited, hoping he'd say yes because the company would have been comforting.

"No, I don't think so" he decided. Damn. "Watch out for the blood, though."

"Why?" I asked "Is it dangerous?"

"It's contagious" he explained. I choked.

"Does it turn you into one of them?" I asked.

"At best" he said. "You're probably immune to his most common effect, but don't listen to it too much."

"What is it?" I asked.

"The one where he goes 'Arise, Shadow armies, arise', or something similar to that. He changes it from time to time, he is anarchistic, at best." Suhuy's voice echoed deep disgust. I don't think I've ever heard him refer to chaos or anarchy with disgust before, and it served once again to convey the remarkable nature of this very conversation to me.

"What can he do?" I asked him then. If I was stuck here, I certainly wanted to have a better grip of the possibilities. I was not, however, about to tell Suhuy that I'd apparently lost my mind and arrogantly handed this monstrocity a copy of my trump.

"Just about anything he wants. Just don't make him want it" Suhuy replied thoughtfully. I felt distinctly sick.

"Get out" Suhuy advised. When I was silent, he continued "or don't get out. We can always have more nephews and neices., or whatever."

"Got it" I said, and the contact was broken. I had to get that trump back from Lothos, but I had no idea how. For now, I was going to deliberately forget all about it.

I repoened my eyes and looked at the throneroom with new respect, and I figured with no color in my face. I listened for a minute to the ongoing conversation. Tekvar was babbling something about convenience stores and beer, and Lothos was counter-pointing this ideal evening with burnt children. Nothing I needed to follow too closely, apparently, but Tekvar was successfully keeping him entertained. That was good.

Lothos noticed that 01 was gone, and began to inquire about it. Oh good, maybe he'll take an interest in 01 and track him down for a while.

"So, where did Spudly go?" he asked. Spudly? Yeah, that's fitting.

"Oh, he probably opened up a tunnel and walked himself somewhere else" I told Lothos.

"You mean the metal one?" Injarda-o checked.

"I named him Spudly." Lothos announced "The one with the mask, the silver, Corwinish look. So where is he? He just crawled away?"

"Yes" I said "he does that. Often" I added.

"Really" Lothos commented "How does he do it?"

"We don't know" I told him.

"Would you like to know?" he asked suddenly.

"Sure" I told him, even though I should have known better than to fall under his spell.

"Those who would like to know, how does a Spudly move? Let's all watch. Let's go to the movies. Let's see what Spudly's up to" Lothos commented, and waved a hand.

"I'd like some popcorn too, by the way. Anybody like some popcorn?" Lothos had one of his servents bring buckets of popcorn for everyone there. The whole situation was both horrifying and compelling at the same time.

"Buckets of popcorn and beer and wine and champagne. It's so good to be free!" Lothos exclaimed.

"We need some previews before the main picture. So. I will pick...the two individuals that I saw, let's have a look at them, shall we?"

A split screen image appears in front of us. One side shows an image of Fiona, and the other side shows a red-headed man who could only be Bleys. I choked on my popcorn. Lothos began throwing popcorn at the screen. The picture was in three-dimentional color. I felt sick.

Bleys seemed to working on something on a bench. Fiona is standing on a cliff, and Mandor walks up to her and puts his arm around her.

"Oh a repeat. I've seen this one. Damn" Lothos complained.

Fiona looked old and concerned, much older than now.

"My she's grown" Lothos commented. "I think she's filled out pretty nicely."

"Can you actually go through these?" Injarda-o asked. Lothos' eyes glittered.

"I don't know, you want to see?" he responded.

"Don't do that. I don't think that's a very wise idea, Injarda-o." I said. I noted Lothos gaze on me. "You've had better ones. I remember them" I continued blithely, getting the effect I was looking for, laughter. This was a very dangerous chess game.

"Not many though" Tekvar opined. Good for you Tekvar.

"Not many though" I agreed, "There's a few there though, they just snuck right in."

Lothos grew bored with the banter and went back to his movie. Phew.

The focus on Bleys moved around, but what he was working on remained obscured. It seemed to be a large, round, shiny and reflective object, but it was impossible to tell exactly what it was. Lothos looked terribly interested in whatever he was doing. The image spun to show Bleys' face, but the shiny object remained elusive. Lothos continued to show interest in what it might be.

"Sounds unfinished, sounds perplexing, sounds fun, bring it here!"

The object Bleys had vanished from the screen and appeared in the hand of Lothos.

Bleys looked alarmed, worried, and upset, and vanished before the screen closed.

The object, now within sight, seemed to be a spherical ball of metal that dinged loudly when shaken. The dinging got progressively louder as Lothos continued to shake it, and we all began to back off.

Lothos announced he was bored with the previews - it was Spudly time. He turned back to the screen, and we all looked.

01 appeared on the screen, in an unusual setting. He was in a Victorian living room, with two overstuffed chairs, and overstuffed couch, fireplace and mantel, and fireplace impliments. There was one window in the room. Outside the window was blasted rock, as from a lava flow. The room seemed familiar to me, although I wasn't entirely sure where he was, I was sure I should know.

I came up with an idea to get us all out of there, but it depended on Injarda-o being able to open that cowland trump gate without a trump. I started whispering to him, trying to see if he could do it. Lothos looked vexed. He announced that he hated talking in the movies, and cast a spell of silence over us. Just as well then. I got out my notebook and began writing information.

Injarda-o began, I hoped, making contact with that particular place.

Catching Tekvar's eye, I motioned him to come over to me. He did, and I wrote a note telling him to watch for me putting my hands behind my head. At that signal, he was to make sure he was in physical contact with me so Injarda-o could trump us all out. I make sure that the note got to Gwen and Timtallagay as well. After the note made it's rounds, I ate it along with my popcorn. Yuck. While waiting for Injarda-o to make contact, I went back to watching 01 in the Victorian room.

01 went through the window, and Lothos burst into applause.

"Bravo, bravo, wonderous ending to that act. I thought that was beautiful. Of course, he's toast!"

Lothos waved the silence spell away.

"Do you know where 01 currently is? It looked very wonderous." Timtallagay said.

"Oh it is a....glorious experience" Lothos told him.

"Will he enjoy it?" I asked.

"Where is he?" TimT chimed in.

Lothos looked at me. "No. BUT he will be better for it" he laughed.

"Well that's very important I agreed" with him.

"Absolutely" Lothos decided. I realized, at this point, that 01 had just begun to essay the Logrus. Oh, the agony.

"He's in the process of discovery" Lothos announced grandly.

"He's in the process of pain" I retorted.

"That too" allowed Lothos. "He's learning a new way of things, of looking at things. Smelling the flowers."

"Going insane" I muttered.

"All worthwhile pursuits!" Lothos yelled happily.

"Yes it is fun, isn't it" I noted.

I kept glancing furtively at Injarda-o, hoping he would finish making contact soon, so we could get out of here. I tried to keep up a running banter with the quickly growing bored Lothos, trying to keep him occupied. He seemed to be getting dangerous. Injarda-o glanced at me and nodded. While chatting with Lothos I stretched and put my hands behind my head.

Timtallagay, Tekvar and Gwen all reached to touch me as I leaned on Injarda-o, and we all trumped out to...