Chapter Two
Forest Arden

The trees were immense, lushly green, and rose out of sight. The forest was dark and thick, but truly beautiful. The trees were of the variety I believe they call redwoods. Something was not quite right here, but I couldn't put my finger on it. I started feeling vaguly nauseous. I couldn't figure out where Dara had sent me, but I was definately going to get even for this one. Nice acting job on her part though, looking defeated and dissapointed.
I filed this one away under Reasons Not to Trust Dara. Taking a quick personal inventory, I realized I had exactly nothing with me except Merlin's Trump. Now, I decided would be a good time to call Raven. Both retrieving the package AND getting some transportation besides walking held a great deal of attraction. I sent a summoning through our mental link, and it felt as if he was too far away. The contact was faint, and then it was gone. Confused, I sat down to concentrate and called up the Sign of the Logrus. It was much more difficult than usual, and it took me a while to manage it. Strange.
Extending my arms into the intertwining limbs of the Logrus, I formed a desire for Raven, and began to search for him through Shadow. I reached and reached, and time dragged by. I don't remember ever reaching this far into Shadow before, and I began getting very nervous about my whereabouts. I finally felt a hint of Raven, so far away that my nervousness turned to near panic. Just as I was about to touch him and bring him to me. I was startled into dropping the summoning by the approach of horses and hunting dogs.
Several men thundered up to me, along with a wild-looking pack of what I would swear were hell-hounds. One man seemed to be leading them, and he rode forward into the pack. He was tall, even on the horse, with straight dark hair, crystal blue eyes, and wore white plate and scale armor. There was a hunting horm looped around his neck, and the horse he was riding was the biggest, nastiest looking animal I've ever seen. I found myself, unexpectedly, at a loss for words and did the most intelligent thing I could think of. I stood very still with my jaw hanging open.
The man in white pointed at me. "Who are you and what are you doing here?"
I am not particularily fond of orders, and I don't usually answer people who don't even introduce themselves, but this was definately not the time to point this out.
"Under the circumstances, I believe I'll just answer you," I said, "I'm a messanger to King Random, from Merlin."
"Who are you?", he snapped. Huh, I thought, touchy.
"Merlin's sister."
He snorted in disbelief. "Yeah, sure you are. You're the sister of the King of Chaos. What do you want with Random?"
Who IS this guy, I wondered. "Merlin sent me to deliver a package and a letter to Random." "Let's see it" he retorted. Uh-oh. This could get tricky. I began to sweat a little then, I knew I was right, but this guy did NOT look easy to convince. Geesh, who WAS he anyway? I had a feeling I ought to know.
"Ummm", I stammered, "it's not here yet. It's, uh, on it's way" Oh, great. That sounded convincing.
He looked as convinced as I sounded. He dismounted his horse.
"Prove you're who you say you are."
I thought for a minute, then wondered, what the hell did he want me to do?
"How do I do that?", I asked.
"If you're Merlin's sister, then you'll know."
Oh, enough is enough here. "Look, who are you?" I finally asked.
"Julian" he replied.
"Oh". I said. OH, I thought. UH-OH, I further thought.
Julian looked relaxed and confident (geesh, why not) and pointed the business end of his sword in my general direction. I got the idea.
"Tell me why I shouldn't just kill you right now. That's what we do to trespassers in Arden".
Arden. ARDEN!!! As in Forest of..., Amber's border. Dara, I hate you. This was a low-down dirty, rotten... Sigh. I DID ask to go to Amber, leave it to Dara to interpret her way.
Trying to look cool and collected, I looked Julian in the eye. "Because if I'm telling the truth, it might be diplomatically unsound. Why don't we let Random decide?"
He scowled at me, and told me if I was lying he would kill me himself.
"Fine with me," I said. I was quite sure this was not the response he expected, and he seemed to be measuring me up. "You said the package was on it's way?" I nodded.
"Fine, we'll wait for it", he decided.
I looked up at him, "I can get it here a lot quicker."
"How", he asked, "with a Logrus summoning?"
Remind me not to mess with him. "Yes, that's what I was doing."
"Go ahead".
I settled back down, with my back to a tree, and resumed summoning Raven. He was a little closer, but definately lost in shadow. I contacted him, and guided him to where we were. A few long moments later, a large black jaguar loped through the trees towards us, carrying Random's package in his mouth. "Ravenwind?" I thought at him, "Where'd you learn this?" I'd never seen him as a cat before.
Raven told me he was trying to sniff out my trail. Uh-huh.
I retrieved the box from Raven, and showed it to Julian.
Frowning, he asked "What does the letter say?"
I love straight lines, and I was feeling a little more confident again. "I don't know, it's not addressed to me. I'm just the messenger. But if YOU want to open it and look, that's your business, not mine."
Julian shot me a dirty look, and took the box and letter behind one of the trees. It began to sink in that this place still felt wrong, and I was definately getting sick. I could feel a headache coming on, and I just wanted to get out of there. Wow, was I pissed at Dara by this point.
Julian came back around the tree, and I could swear he looked a little pale. When he handed me the box and the letter, which had definately been opened, his hand was slightly shaking. This did not make me feel better.
"Take these to Random. The hounds will escort you out of Arden. It's a long walk but just follow the road. Take your cat and go." He paused, with a look that clearly said he would prefer not to, but, "Would you rather ride?"
"Thanks", I said, confused, "but I'm set". I told Raven to shift to a horse, since I was not about to walk however far was left. Julian's attitude was an abrupt turn-around. Five minutes ago he was threatening to run me through. Now he's escorting me on. I suppose he doesn't like diplomatic incidents either, but something also scared him. What the hell was in the box?
I followed the hounds out of the forest to the road. They vanished back into the woods. I found myself more and more curious about the contents of that box. I wanted to know what could spook Julian. I opened the letter, now that Julian had kindly broken the seal for me. It was short and to the point, written in High Thari:

Random
This was Oberon's. You'll need it.
Merlin

Damn Merlin. He told me he'd write an introduction for me, and there's not a word in here. It's a wonder Julian didn't just spit me on that sword. Ah well. I stuffed the letter back into the envelope, resealed it as best I could, and turned my attention to the box. The box sat there being enigmatic. No hinges, no seams, no lock...just a black box. I shook it, and it rattled obligingly. On closer inspection, there was something engraved on the lid.
It was vaguely symmetrical, and seemed orderly, but I had no idea what it was. Pushing and pulling on the box, and tracing the pattern on the lid did not help. As I turned it around, looking for a clue, I noticed there was carving on the botton as well. This helped more. Inspecting the carving, I noted that it looked suspiciously like a cross-section of the Logrus in freeze-frame.
That thought made me look up. I looked back at the trees, looked at the surrounding valley, the mountains ahead and the road. THAT's what was making me feel sick. Everything was so still and unmoving. It was giving me a terrible headache watching everything just sit there. How do they get used to this, I wondered.
Looking back down at the box, I tried tracing the carving of the Logrus with my finger. Nothing happened. I looked all around to make sure we were alone. Not a soul was anywhere in sight. I summoned up the Sign of the Logrus (no wonder it was so hard to do here!) and looked at the box again. The design glowed. Ah-ha. Extending a small tendril of the Logrus, I traced that line. The little box popped open as happily as it had rattled. I liked this box. Inside was a ring, a plain, greyish metal ring, with bands running around it. It was heavily spelled, and seemed to create a compulsion that wanted me to put it on. It was drawing in and giving off an incredible amount of power, and I realized that I was seriously considering obeying the compulsion. Then I remembered it had belonged to Oberon, and I became uncertain as to what I might be playing with. The Logrus showed me that the ring had forces and spells in it that were more complicated then anything I have ever worked with. Fighting the compulsion, I shut the box and tucked it into my tunic.
As it got later in the day, I decided to camp, and finish (I hoped) the journey to the city of Amber in the morning. Casting through shadow, I used the Logrus to seek out camping gear, food, drink, and weapons to arm myself with. The entire experience in Arden had been unsettling. I ate some supper, fed Raven, then eased back to enjoy the small fire and get some rest. I set Raven on guard, telling him to wake me if anything wierd happened. I opened the box again, to further examine the ring. The compulsion got stronger, and I had trouble not putting the thing on. Better to gain Random's favor then piss off the Kings of Amber and Chaos, even if it was just Merlin. Maybe this would serve my goals faster. I shut the box again, and carefully put it under my pillow. Just as I was relaxing into a good sleep, Raven, shifted into cloak form, wrapped himself around me and snuggled me awake. He warned me that something was coming. I tried to examine the situation inobviously, and realized that there was a woman approaching me from the vicinity of my feet. As she drew near, I noted her firey red hair and glowing green eyes. She looked very familiar, then I realized that she reminded me of me. Quickly reviewing my history lessons, it occured to me that this must be Fiona. Who was missing with Mandor. This could be interesting.
"Umm, hello?" I tried. There was no answer, and she just kept walking towards me at a steady pace. Suhuy always said that Oberon's brood wasn't very stable, but this was a bit much.
"Hello, can I help you?" I asked. Fiona kept coming towards me, in silence. Even if she was a potential relative, this was too damn wierd for me. I got to my feet, with the box, and began backing away from her. Raven was wrapped around me, quivering in abject terror. "Who are you? What do you want?" I asked, but on she came. This began to feel vaguely nightmarish. As I backed away, I summoned up the Sign of the Logrus. Looking at her through this, she looked both substantial and insubstantial, and I saw wisps of tentacles radiating from her and reaching for me. Panicking, I brushed one away with a tendril of the Logrus. The result was a painful jolt, which made both of us jump. Her tentacle and my tendril blew each other up. Unfortunately, she kept coming, and so did the tentacles. I had no intention of letting any of them touch me. I told Raven to shift to equine form, and it took a lot of coaxing to convince him to let go and shift. Meanwhile, I kept fencing with the Fiona thing. Finally, Raven complied, I leaped onto his back and we took off. We outdistanced the Fiona thing easily.
I realized about this time that because of Dara's obnoxiously clever trump-like trick, I had no idea how to get home. I didn't know how I'd gotten here, and had no practical knowledge about how to move through Shadow, let alone get from Amber to the Courts. With a mental sigh,
I decided we would ride straight through to Amber. Between Julian and Fiona, I had already had enough, and I needed a safe and stress-free night's rest. I figured if Random was the reasonable guy that Merlin seemed to think he was, we'd be in a comfortable bed by morning. We pushed through, and finally arrived in Amber.

Go on to Chapter Three

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