Chapter Nine
Dawn of the Dead

We all landed in a really wierd shadow. This place was hideously multi-colored. No, really hideous. No, worse than that. It was painful to look at, it was so bright. We were in a field of grass that seemed totally limitless. The sky, grass, ground and the few trees in the distance were all changing, shimmering rainbow colors, so brilliant it made your eyes ache. More like home than Amber, but definately not there.
Gwen pulled out a trump and concentrated on it. I sat in shock, squinting at the brightness. Suddenly, Tekvar was standing next to Gwen, holding her hand.
Injarda-o pulled out a bottle of black ink. He dripped a drop onto the grass, then jumped back away from it and restoppered the bottle. 01 hunched himself over the spot, drawing up into a little ball.
"Um, 01" I asked "what are you trying to do?"
"Rust" he replied. Wierd, I decided. I left 01 alone for a moment.
Alarmed, Gwen looked over "What's he doing?" she asked.
"01 did nothing" several people answered her.
"Timtallagay, which end are we closer to?" I asked
"Well I was waiting for..." he said, then paused and looked at me, "which end of what?" We all giggled a bit.
"You mean how close to Amber and how close to Chaos?" Timtallagay asked.
"Yes" I told it.
"Give me a few moments to try and discern" it answered.
I turned back to 01, "What effect does that have that will help you?" I asked, not able to contain my curiosity about the rusting.
"What?" he returned.
Exasperated, I exclaimed "You're hovering over black ink-painted grass. Why? Tell me. Share. Is it, like, meaningful to you?"
Gwen began backing away from the area.
"How does it help you, is there anything we can do to speed it up?" I asked.
"No" he replied.
"Are you sure?" I returned
"Well, if you list off your abilities, I'd be able to..." 01 zoomed back to his pointless one-track mental wreck.
"Tell me what that does and I'll tell you if I can help. Isn't that easier than me giving you a long list?!" I exploded at the stubborn idiot.
"Ok, the effect that you saw that I had. Can you do that?" he asked
"What the hell was it?" I retorted.
"Exactly" he said smugly. I threw up my hands and walked away.
"I need to do that to the spot, and make it grow" he called. "If you're asking for an explanation.. well, I will need to recharge first."
Gwen was putting some distance between herself and 01. Injarda-o pulled out a large, empty ink bottle and settled down near 01 in anticipation. I had no idea what they thought they were doing at this point, and headed over toward Gwen. Tekvar had arrived in a chaos form I noted. Interesting.
Timtallagay commented that the pattern didn't work around here, and Injarda-o piped up that trump didn't either.
One last attempt at civility. "Is there anything we can do to recharge you?" I called back to 01.
"Possibly" he replied. I stopped and turned.
"Is there any way we can dump energy into you to recharge your battery?" I asked him.
"Possibly" he answered slowly "but I don't know if that would be hazardous to your health."
"Heh. I bounce back" I answered. "What do you need?"
"Energy" he said slowly.
"Of what sort?" Injarda-o asked.
"Do you want me to just blast you with raw energy?" I asked, "Can you be a bit more vague?"
"A violent energy discharge would not assist me, however I could possibly drain energy although I do not know what that would do to you."
"What about opening up a conduit?" I asked him. "To an energy source? Would that help you?"
"Possibly" he answered again.
I concentrated to call up the Sign. It wasn't there. Not, far away, or difficult to reach, it simply wasn't there. I felt slightly panic stricken, and I began having a bad feeling about the whole thing. I tried digging up a spell to open a shadow gate to somewhere else. Gwen started whining about the same thing at the same time.
Injarda-o turned to Tekvar, who was quietly observing.
"Wasn't Orenstein better here?" Injarda-o asked.
"Well, yes. And he wants his body back" Tekvar said.
"Oh!" exclaimed Injarda-o.
"You see" Tekvar continued "Prescott is Orenstein."
"I asked you that!" Injarda-o protested.
"And you got an answer" Tekvar snapped back.
"Excuse me?" I said to Tekvar.
"Prescott is in the amulet" Tekvar stated.
"What?" I said, dully.
"He's in the horse's head amulet around his neck" Timtallagay clarified.
"Prescott is in the amulet around your neck" I said.
"Yes"
I stared at Tekvar in disbelief. "May I ask you a question?"
"Me or the amulet?" Tekvar asked.
"You." I said "How did Prescott get in...."
I was interrupted by the voice of my dead nephew at this point "I'll answer too.."
"How the hell did you get in there?!" I snapped at him.
"I don't know" Prescott whined.
"How did he get in there?" I directed at Tekvar.
"I don't know! He's the one that bopped around my neck!" Tekvar protested.
The rest of the group dissolved into laughter. I'm beginning to get the idea they all knew this, or had a suspicion of it all along. And didn't mention it to me. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
"How did....what...?"I stuttered.
Responding to Tekvar's protest, Injarda-o mumbled "That's true."
"Aunt?" asked Prescott.
Whew. I took a deep breath and tried again. "Ok. How did the amulet come to be with you?"
"I teleported around his neck" Prescott claimed.
"How? Why?" I asked him.
"He was the only shapeshifter in the bunch that I liked" Prescott replied.
"Yeah, alright." I muttered. That I could understand.
"I notice how he clarifies that" 01 said petulantly. Oh shut up tin can.
"How did you get into an amulet?" I asked Prescott.
"Fiona killed me" he said seriously.
"The real Fiona or the fake Fiona?" Gwen piped up.
"I don't know" Prescott said, sounding annoyed, "I'm just an amulet, what do you want, God?"
"Well you weren't an amulet when she killed you!" Gwen pointed out. Good point, that.
"She was Fiona" Prescott said sulkily. "Ask him, he knows better."
I looked at Tekvar expectantly. "Yes, well, I know some things."
"Oh please, enlighten us" quipped Gwen.
"Why.....no accusations....I would just like to know why you didn't bring this to light before when we were discussing Prescott?" I asked Tekvar.
Tekvar smiled "Because there was a certain person who didn't want anyone to know" he said, pointing at the amulet.
I considered this. If my nephew actually thought that Fiona, or some construct of Fiona had killed him, being dead did have a lot of advantages. Elder Amberites were less likely to hunt you down if they thought they already had. On the other hand, if some creature or force were creating false images of the royal family in order to construct a new or different Pattern or Logrus, they certainly wouldn't want to know they'd left an eye witness. While it might annoy Merlin, it could be more advantageous to let Prescott stay dead for a while. Ghostwheel, on the other hand, was a different story. Something would have to be done to placate Ghost's sense of vengence for his 'brother'. Unfortunately, I doubted that Ghost would listen to anyone besides Merlin, and even then he may not listen to him. Hmmmm, interesting problem. This would require some thought.
"Alright" I said to Tekvar, slowly.
"And may I assume from this that Prescott is the one you got my trump from?" Gwen asked.
"Sort of" Tekvar replied, looking uncomfortable.
This was a totally different story. If this was true, then Tekvar's entire attitude, and his fight with Gwen, was an attempt to protect Prescott, whom he called Orenstein. Still, we would have to solve Prescott's unsuccessful murder. It was also clear to me at this point that the entire party was NOT informed. Half of them seemed as befuddled about this as I was.
"What happened?" I asked Tekvar quietly.
"By the way, I do aplogize for going after you like that. I was a little stressed out." Gwen added.
"You're lucky I didn't kill you" Tekvar replied. Attitude boy.
"Mmmmmmm, we won't get into that, but..." Gwen started.
"I don't want to discuss from here on who could kill who, lets just not go there" Injarda-o opined, and was echoed by agreement from Timtallagay.
"It's a ridiculous discussion, and unnecessary" I added, even though my personal opnion was I would love to know exactly what Tekvar or 01 thought they could do. Heh.
"Why is everyone arguing about not discussing the thing nobody's trying to discuss?" 01 asked. I've know toasters with more personality.
There was a silence as everyone just looked at each other, thinking.
"So, how do we get Prescott out of there?" Gwen asked.
'No, no, no, no" I commented, "wait, please, wait. First, what happened? You were going to say what happened. Please explain."
Tekvar explained that Prescott, or Orenstein as he preferred, could only communicate in certain places or shadows. Tekvar calls them worlds. He explained that Orenstein only speaks to him under certain conditions. This I find interesting. As an item, it would appear that my nephew is under magical restraints or limitations. I'd love to analyze the amulet, but I don't think Tekvar would allow it, and I'm not sure what it would do to Prescott. Hmmm.
Tekvar stood up and cleared his throat. "Ok" he said "here's the grand event."
"Basically, Orenstein was, well Prescott since he was Prescott at the time, was in a lab or something in Amber Castle, and he was doing something with Fiona. Fiona left. And then, from what Orenstein told me, Fiona came back in, but he isn't sure, he doesn't think it was Fiona, apparently it was a ghost image, which could be a black and white image, explaining why when we saw the black and white other people they said they got the blood of Prescott from Fiona. Well, she killed him, the black and white one I'm guessing, though it just as well could have been the color one I suppose. But he was sure it was Fiona or something that looked like Fiona."
"When you saw this ghost image of Fiona, do you remember if he gave any description of anything unusual about it?" I asked.
"Ask him" Injarda-o promted.
"Prescott?" I asked.
"What?" he sounded testy.
"Was there anything unusual about it?"
"It was Fiona" he sulked.
"She have any...how did you look at her, just...look...at her?" I finished lamely.
"It was Fiona" he repeated in a tone that suggested he felt about relatives much like I do. Smart kid.
"In color?" I checked.
"Of course she was in color" he snorted.
"See now this is kind of interesting, cause you told me earlier she was in black and white, or that she was a ghost" Tekvar looked annoyed.
"Well, Fiona wouldn't have killed me, she liked me. So I assumed she was a ghost" Prescott explained.
I sighed. "I've seen another image of Fiona, but it wasn't black and white" I volunteered. But it had wisps and tendrils coming off of it"
"Well, I don't know if she was black and white" Tekvar interjected, "I was assuming because he said it was a ghost."
"Wisps and tendrils?" Gwen asked.
"I've seen an odd version of Fiona. Near Amber. That's why I'm wondering if this was the same one" I tried to explain.
"Wisps and tendrils?" Gwen mumbled again, quizzically
"That's a piece of information that seems relevant, it would have been nice to know of" 01 complained.
"I think she mentioned it before, actually" Gwen told him.
"I did" I confirmed.
"Also, though Orenstein said that it didn't feel exactly like her, the Fiona that came to kill him" Tekvar continued.
"Well, you know how she has this presence?" Prescott asked.
"How did she kill you?" Gwen asked, which I echoed when he didn't answer.
"I don't know, I was busy dying!" Prescott snapped. The tone was pissy and sulky at the same time, and got a few snickers from the group. Poor Prescott.
"Well did she stab you?" I asked.
"Did she use a spell?" Timtallagay prompted.
"I was busy dying, give me a break" Prescott whined. Geesh.
I sighed again "Anything you can remember will help us figure it out Prescott."
"Well maybe if I got my body back I'd think about it" he shot back.
"Well maybe we'll figure out how to get your body back if we can solve how it was taken away in the first place" I snapped at him. Brat. Don't be so obnoxious.
"Sorry Auntie" he sneered.
"Can it" I told him.
"Ok, what else do you have to say Tekvar?" Timtallagay asked.
01 mumbled something about attitudes and the functioning of biologicals.
"It's nothing biological" I told him "it just has to do with being in my family." Gwen started laughing, yeah I though she'd understand that. "That's where you don't want to be" I added. "Uh, let's see" said Tekvar "that was basically what he told me. Although, once he was dead already, she came back. Didn't she?" he directed at Orenstein.
"Yeah", he continued "she came three times. Once was just the first time, the second time I think he got killed.. The third time..."
"The blood was drained?" guessed Injarda-o.
Tekvar disagreed "No, the blood may already have been drained."
"The third time I was an amulet" Prescott said. "Don't ever die Auntie, it's really painful."
"Thanks for the advice" I told him, but this was bothering me more that I wanted the kid to know.
"Ok, now, you want your body back but it has been slain. What were you thinking of for replacing this body, cloning it?" Timtallagay asked.
"I don't know, I've never been dead before" Prescott answered.
"I would suggest I tried maybe...hmmm. You father doesn't know you're still alive" I remembered.
"He never cared, either" Prescott observed.
"I think he does" I offered, but Prescott just snorted derisively.
"Ghostwheel does" Injarda-o told him.
"Ghostwheel would" Prescott said thoughtfully.
"Ghostwheel cares a lot" I added .
Gwen looked up, with a confused expression. "How did you end up in the amulet?"
"He doesn't know" I told her, while I heard Prescott protesting at the same time that he still didn't know.
"And the next thing you knew you were in the amulet" Gwen clarified.
"Yes, and the next one that looked attractive at all was...Tekvar" Prescott finished.
"The rest of you were just too........solid" he added.
"You may be right about your father, though" I mumbled quietly. Merlin's apparent lack of concern, and his not making the time to look into this himself had bothered me. It was looking very much like Prescott had a point regarding his father's paternal concerns. Timtallagay was looking distressed at Prescott's last comment. Prescott seemed to notice his confusion.
"It's a shapeshifter thing" Prescott said breezily. "Don't worry about it."
TimT, the undauntable, cheered right up "Oh ok" it smiled.
We all sat in silence for a while, considering these latest developments.
"Ok, well now. This is..." TimT trailed off.
"Where is his body, what happened to his body after he was killed?" Gwen asked.
"It rotted" said Injarda-o. Nice. Tactful.
I made an observation "This would certainly clear your names."
"Yes, it would" answered Timtallagay.
"Beyond a shadow of a doubt" I continued, as Gwen realized the extent of the situation and started giggling again.
"And if you still had the trouble with Merlin, we could contact him now" 01 interjected.
"Except trumps don't work so well here" Gwen said.
Oops. I knew there was something I forgot. "Um, I don't have the trump" I had to say.
"What happened to it?" Gwen frowned at me.
"It's in your castle" I told her.
"You dropped the trump?!" she responded incredulously.
"Merlin told me to" I said sadly. I was feeling a little stupid for having listened to that one. Prescott/Orenstein snorted at me with laughter. Ok, that was deserved, I guess. There was a mumbled conversation going on between Timtallagay and 01. I decided I didn't want to hear 01's latest explosion of stupidity.
"Hey, I have a trump for the Courts!" Gwen offered.
"Oh" I said brightly.
"It's not of Merlin" Gwen said slowly.
"Who cares?" I asked happily. "Let's go there." Ah, home again. As much as I'd wanted to leave, I couldn't wait to get back, really. I wasn't too fond of anywhere I'd been yet.
"Um, do we know whether or not Orenstein wants to clear our name?" Timtallagay spoke up.
"Do you care if they're being accused of murder?" I directed the question at my nephew, the amulet, "Specifically yours".
"He wants his body back" Tekvar spoke up.
"Well, do we know how to get him a body back?" I asked the group.
Everyone started talking at once, coming up with weird ideas. I listened to the jumble for a minute, then added to it.
"Ghostwheel might be able to figure out a way. Ghostwheel cares if he's alive or dead."
"Yes, but" Timtallagay responded "we can't speak to Ghostwheel because Ghostwheel wants us not to be alive."
"Prescott could stop that" I said softly, mostly for my nephew's benefit. He had to have some Courtly manners buried in there.
"Assuming that he doesn't think it's a trick, blah, blah, blah.." Tekvar said "you had already said that the only way was to have Merlin attempt it."
Sometimes Tekvar amazes me in his ability to cling relentlessly to the literal, making no apparent connections between even blatently related facts.
"That was when I though Prescott was actually DEAD dead, and not stuck in a piece of jewelry. That's a very different story!" I snapped at him.
"Hey" he protested.
Timtallagay tried sorting out options. "So, do we want to try to get a new body for Prescott, or, do we want to try to gather proof and ..."
"Get a new body, I guess, if you can figure out how" I interrupted. Timtallagay means well, but it can drive me nuts waiting 5 minutes for him to finish making a point.
Gwen spoke up loudly "What I see is we have four choices for that. One, we could somehow clone or create a body. Two, we could find somebody to reanimate Prescott's body, although that's sounding unappealing at the moment."
There was a chorus of disgusted groans, ewws and mumbles at this suggestion. I commented that it sounded rather messy.
"Three" Gwen continued "we could give him some shadow body of a person already out there, but I'm not sure he'd settle for that."
"Well" I said "we could always find one of his clones. One of his shadow doubles."
"Four" stated Gwen "we could give him Roland's body. Roland's dead. His body's been in stasis since the instant he was killed."
"Whose Roland?" I asked her.
"My brother" Gwen said matter-of-factly.
"You are offering your brother's body?" I asked slowly, making sure I'd gotten this one right. Neither I nor Gwen were terribly fond of family, and both of us had been the long-time victim of polical plotting, but this may be slightly over the line...
"He's dead" she stated flatly. "Unless" she giggled "he's trapped in some amulet."
We all debated the pros and cons of Gwen's four options for a time. Roland's body did have some merit, being an Amberite and all. Prescott took to whining that he didn't want a shadow copy, he wanted his own body back. Whiny brat. I told him that it probably wasn't possible, but the concept of reanimating a shape-shifter turned the conversation mobidly interesting for a few minutes.
Without warning, the ground trembled, like a small quake, then stopped.
"Can we go somewhere?" Gwen asked the group. I was inclined to agree with her. If this weird place was going to be coming down around our ears, I didn't want to hang around. Tekvar silenced the group for a minute to speak to Prescott.
"Orenstein, I've seen you turn into a horse" he said. This was interesting news. "Can you turn into your body?" he asked him.
"No, I've tried, believe me" Prescott whined. Hmm, intetesting enchantment there. I'd love to take a good long look at the thing and determine how it was spelled together.
"What can you turn into from there, besides a horse?" I asked him. The little brat was silent for a moment, then responded sarcastically, "What can you do, dear Auntie?"
"Fine" I told him. He wants to play games, I don't particularily need to help him.
"I hate family" I muttered under my breath, but Injarda-o and Gwen heard me and laughed.
"I understand that" Gwen said in an undertone.
"You would" I told her "we share very much in common." I realized I was far more fond of Gwen than I would care to admit, family relation or no.
"Ok" Timtallagay said brightly "well we can't go back to Amber."
"There's a clue" I muttered.
"Maybe the body was delivered to Merlin" he said. They all turned to look at me, and I couldn't suppress the chuckle. As if.
"I don't know" I laughed.
"We have no way of verifying that" Timtallagay sighed.
"Can we get out of this shadow?" I asked the group.
"I still don't know how we got here" Gwen commented.
This sparked a debate as to how the place worked, how we'd gotten there, and what methods might work to get us out. This group. They only seem to operate in three modes. Mode one is all shouting at the same time. Mode two is half the group plotting to get rid of the other half of the group. Mode three is brooding silence, trying to ascertain whether or not the others know things you don't. If they aren't all Amberites and Chaosites, they damn well should be! They don't like the politics games, but they play them constantly. Oh my head.
The concept was realized that although the places was distinctly nauseating, it seemed to have healing properties for 01. Everyone wanted to leave, 01 needed to stay. Therefore, we decided to give it a little while. Looking around, I did realize that sightseeing in this place was in fact more disturbing and painful than Mandor's wardrobe. I didn't think reality could get this bad... Injarda-o closed his eyes and settled back in a meditative way. Timtallagay decided to take a nap as well after ascertaining that Gwen and I were willing to keep watch, not being tired, but merely nauseous.
Hesitantly, Tekvar spoke up "I'd kind of almost like to talk to Orenstein alone for a while..."
"Go ahead. Go off, wherever you want to go, we'll be here" Gwen told him. Tekvar changed into his winged scorpion-centaur style chaos form. ( Nice, I noted to myself. Original, even ). He and Orenstein headed off towards the too-bright horizen for some privacy, and the rest of us settled down to wait for 01.

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