TheOmphalosArdenWarEderynThe Omphalos Arden War Ederyn(Continued from The Omphalos Arden War) The rent in time and space that opens is a trump gate, and it isn't. A rent, like a trump except in shades of crimson and red, almost opens within Brieanne itself. What lies through is not visible but that doesn't stop Carl. He rushes through the rift blind, the two Rangers following behind him. Brieanne starts collapsing and the rift wavers, but Hadrian is at Brieanne in an instant and props her up. Ederyn's eyes widen as he takes this in. "If that opens exactly where he is -" He doesn't bother to finish the thought, but starts forward toward the rift. Hadrian, the man holding up Brieanne, and the Moonrider Galen next to him look at, and study Ederyn and the Weir as they reach the rift right in front of the propped up Brieanne. The man gives a nod. Ederyn can hear a muted growl from Boaz as he looks over Galen. But the four of them are through the rift and away. The passage through the rift is nauseating to Ederyn, as if the worst of the trip by sea to Amber from Montenegro were compressed into one crystaline moment. His vision is full of red, and black, a space that is not-space. But then he is through, and has emerged...elsewhere. His sword is already drawn, though held so as not to accidentally skewer anyone ahead of or behind him. He instantly extends his senses to examine the place - sight, hearing, even smell, and of course his esoteric awareness of Earth and Fire. His senses are muted in a way he has not seen before. This building, this place is made of metal, but beyond it, things become muddied, muddled, and unclear. And, his awareness of the Rebma door is gone, vanished. A very large room, larger than any of the great halls he has seen. In the center of this room is a man in chains, in a chair. One of the Rangers who preceded him through the gate is using a hammer on the chains. Carl is fighting with a soldier, blade to blade. The female Ranger is shooting arrows at more soldiers who are approaching from the chair-side of the room. "There's more intruders!" comes a voice, and another, separate wave of a dozen Omphalos soldiers, bear down on Ederyn, Boaz, Cyrus and Kezia. These soldiers are differently dressed than the ones in Arden, wearing strange black cuirass like armor. Although most have swords, some of them are carrying what look like curiously shaped throwing hammers, but are being held...and aimed, as if they were Montenegran crossbows. A couple of them are being aimed at Ederyn. Even as he notices this, he is already charging them, sprinting at his best speed (which is quite fast indeed). Reflexively he decides to treat those strange objects as a threat, like a crossbow. He watches the faces of those holding them, looking for the tiny signs of commitment to action that mean the threat is active. He intends to dodge and roll when he sees that, hopefully coming up almost among the enemy. As before, his sword is primed to cut deeply into metal, or to absorb the fire-blasts of any mages that might appear. Following Ederyn's lead, the Weir begin charging the "throwing hammer" soldiers as well. There are strange sounds, like dog barks that emit from the items, but Ederyn manages to duck and roll. He didn't see any bolts of any kind. The Weir, however, did not dodge and roll, simply running into the teeth of the enemy. Something was emitted from the throwing hammers, as Boaz and Cyrus stop in their tracks, suddenly, sprouting wounds in their shoulders and chest from unseen missile weapons. Kezia manages to avoid getting hit and joins Ederyn in attacking the enemy. Within the body of the soldiers, the soldiers seem reluctant to use their invisible bolt weapons on Ederyn and Kezia, instead fighting Ederyn with swords. Here, Ederyn's sword proves useful again, as there is no shortage of targets. Again, the soldiers are not as potent as those of Norwend and several fall to his blows. In the midst of this martial fury, Ederyn will note that both Boaz and Cyrus are slowly trying to rise, their wounds not fatal. Julian has been freed by the Ranger with the hammer, and the two Rangers are trying to move him back toward the rift. Carl is fighting a holding action trying to keep the soldiers at bay. The soldiers fighting Ederyn are starting to try and separate and disengage from Ederyn and his sword, presumably to give space to the "throwing hammer" soldiers to aim their weapons. And more and more soldiers are appearing on the scene. Ederyn cleaves one of the strange weapons into two pieces (along with one of its wielder's arms), and makes a decision. "Kezia," he shouts, "Help Julian. Run!" Then he ducks someone's wild swing, scoops up a dropped sword, and hurls it point-first at one of the other 'hammer' wielders. Kezia doesn't hesitate, her loyalty outweighs instincts, as she moves toward the two Rangers carrying Julian. The 'hammer' wielder takes the unexpected thrown sword to the upper chest. It does not appear to pierce the armor deeply, but the force of the throw object is enough to knock her off her feet. Once Kezia is behind him, Ederyn changes tactics. Letting the soldiers disengage, he skips backward a couple of steps himself and then swings his sword in a wide, vertical arc, concentrating fiercely. Fire streams out of the sword like a banner, more color than heat for the moment, spreading out till it reaches from the floor to about eight feet high, to obscure the enemy's view of him (and Boaz and Cyrus, as well). "He's got a flammenwerfer spell!" one of the soldiers shouts. The soldiers give the curtain of flame a very wide berth. Backing up another step towards the rift, he extends the flickering yellow-orange curtain, as swiftly as thought, to hide Julian - to separate Carl from his opponents - and then as far as is needful to keep the other soldiers from properly aiming those weapons. As the passage of flame Ederyn creates reaches and cuts off Carl, the Rangers, Kezia and Julian, there are the sounds of confusion and shouting from the Omphalos soldiers. There are no attempts to breach the wall, however. Ederyn sends up a silent, heartfelt prayer of thanks to Loki for their misunderstanding of his work. With Kezia carrying him bodily, alone (and relatively easily), Julian, the Rangers and Carl approach where Ederyn, Boaz and Cyrus are. And then Ederyn hears one of the Omphalos give a command. "Deploy the Vulcan. Kill everything inside that curtain of flame. Even the Prince." comes a command. An ominous whirring sound starts and quickly becomes louder. One more thing. There is not as much local magical energy as Ederyn would like to power his spell. Keeping this curtain of flame up for more than a couple of minutes more is likely not going to be possible. And it will take at least that long to get Julian and company through the door. Grimly, Ederyn points his sword in the general direction the whirring sound is coming from. His curtain of fire abruptly contracts into a seething, head-sized sphere of flame. Upon identifying the device, he points at it, and sends the concentrated fire towards it - intent on burning, melting, or otherwise disrupting its operation. The curtain of fire's contraction reveals that the "Vulcan" is something like a very large version of the weapons the soldiers had been using to fire projectiles at Kezia, Cyrus, Boaz and Ederyn, except this is sitting on a three legged stool of metal of some kind and has two soldiers manning it. It just manages to get off a single burst of its projectiles before Ederyn's conversion of the flame wall to the fireball goes off. The whirring sound is accompanied by sharp whistling sounds as the weapon fires. One of the Rangers, the bow-wielding one, is hit by the missiles and goes down, but then the fireball impacts the 'Vulcan.' It explodes, and explodes rather satisfactorily, engulfing the two soldiers and several more besides in an explosion that sends the soldiers not engulfed or knocked over scrambling for cover. It appears to have started a fire as well. In the meantime, Julian, aided by Carl and Kezia, have reached the rift and are now going through it, leaving Ederyn, the two male Weir, and the fallen Ranger still in this strange place. Without prompting, Cyrus moves to pick the fallen Ranger's body. While Ederyn stares in astonishment at the unexpected burst of flame, Cyrus reaches the Ranger and scoops her up. Boaz, however, comes to a halt by his Jarl's side. This is enough to bring Ederyn's attention back to the important business of leaving, and he turns to dash through the rift. The explosion, fire and the chaos engendered by both give Ederyn plenty of opportunity to step through the rift, with Boaz and Cyrus following on his heels. The transition is as abrupt and quick as the prior one, and Ederyn is presented once again with the clearing of the burned house in Forest Arden. Things have not been idle in Arden while Ederyn has been away. The Door is gone, as is the sorceress captured by Aura. In point of fact, Aura herself is gone as well, although Noys and Lorius are still here. Hadrian is cradling the unconscious Brieanne, the creatrix of the still-active rift, in his arms. Julian has been brought to an open spot by Carl and is being ministered to. Boaz and Cyrus move to bring the fallen Ranger to the site. Lorius veers toward Brieanne, Hadrian, Galen and the rift. He makes a gesture with his left hand to Ederyn of his four fingers closed in his palm, and his thumb sticking upward. The grin on his face suggests that it is a positive and friendly gesture. He decides to take this as it is apparently meant. Noys comes up to Ederyn. "You did it!" she says with a delighted tone. "Where did the rift take you?" "To a great hall," he answers, sheathing his sword. "A very plain hall, with walls and ceiling made of metal." "An aerodrome's hangar, maybe?" Noys says, with a surprised tone. His tone conveys the astonishment he didn't have time to feel, before, at the idea of using rare and precious metal for such things. "It was empty, except for our uncle and some soldiers. They had swords and also some strange weapon things, which coughed and maybe shot very small quarrels. I couldn't see them, but they hit Boaz and Cyrus." He looks toward the two Weir, as if he might call them over to describe what hit them. Boaz gets the hint and comes over as Cyrus speaks quietly with Carl, Kezia and the Rangers. Boaz gives Noys a head bow of respect. "Lady" he says. "To answer the Jarl's question. the weapons shot small balls of some metal. Not iron." Boaz says. "Pellets of some kind. I can feel them embedded my skin." "Guns!" Noys says. "They were using firearms on you, Ederyn. Dangerous weapons, firearms are. Thank the Unicorn that only one man has ever found guns that work here in Amber." She pauses a moment. "Two, actually. May the Omphalos not learn what they did." "Fire arms?" Ederyn repeats. "I felt no fire but mine. But, it was hard to feel anything of the elements there." He frowns thoughtfully. "It was strange; there was so little magic there, but the soldiers thought my work was a dangerous spell. 'Flammenwerfer,' they said. And that reminds me - why were they speaking Thari?" "Flammenwerfer." Noys says thoughtfully. "That is not a Thari word at all. I don't know what it means. But if they were speaking Thari while over there..." she squints and looks over to Hadrian, Brieanne, "Lorius!" she calls. "Ederyn has some information you might want to hear about the Omphalos." Lorius looks at the still-open rift one more time, says something quiet to Hadrian and floats over. "Yes?" he says. "My brother was in a low-magic world on the other side of that rift." Noys explains. "They used guns, and seemed to be speaking Thari. Mostly." Lorius turns toward Ederyn. "Guns? Low Mana." He whistles. "That sounds like the Omphalos home universe you were in cousin." Lorius says. "Or they found a conveniently similar shadow here they're using as a base. As far as the Thari, they probably were not speaking Thari, but rather had a babelfish spell. Val has told me that translation spells and gear are one of their strengths. You notice the one who came here spoke Thari here without a problem, too. Or so the ear heard." "Only a couple of us have actually been to Capital." Lorius continues. "Valerian will want to talk to you, and the King. They will want to debrief you." "Remove his underclothes?" Boaz says. "I think not." Noys laughs. "Question him." Lorius says, shaking his head with a smile. Ederyn's lips also quirk a little, but he turns to another question that interests him. "They need translation everywhere? Even in their home place?" "A good question, Ederyn. We don't know enough of their culture to know why. Maybe it was set up to question Julian." Lorius muses. He shrugs his shoulders. Ederyn picks up the thread of his story. "So, what the enemy saw was a curtain of flame, taken from my sword, to hide us from the ones with the 'guns.' And one shouted that it was this 'flammenwerfer' spell, and I'm glad none doubted it, because it would not have hurt them very much." "They must have thought it was a far more potent wall than you made." Lorius says. "Flammenwerfer..." Noys repeats. "Flamethrower?" She says. "Then, another ordered the use of a 'Vulcan' to kill all of us - even the Prince, he said - and there was a strange noise, so I made the flame into a ball and threw it at this bigger gun. And it caught fire and came apart, swiftly. But not before it hit that Ranger," he notes regretfully. "The noise and fire confused them very much, though, and we escaped." "Bigger gun to kill all of you." Lorius says. "Sounds like a machine gun to me. You're lucky you blew it up, it could have done more than just injuring the Ranger. A lot more." "Very lucky." Noys says. "I'm glad Carl, Julian and you survived intact." "Milord." Kezia comes up at this point to Ederyn, Noys and Lorius. "The Prince Julian has been roused, and would like to speak to all members of the family here." Noys looks over to the still unconscious Brieanne, and Hadrian, the rift still open. "He will not be happy about his daughter." Ederyn also turns his sober gaze in that direction. "It was her choice." He wishes the rift was closed already, but he can only guess at how it was made. Trump magic, perhaps, or something else he knows nothing about. With his sister and cousin, Ederyn approaches Julian, interested to meet another of his father's brothers. Julian is not quite in a fully seated position, but something soft has been propped up so that he can be at least not flat on his back. He doesn't look that much like Ederyn, or his father. The resemblance to Carl, though, and to Brieanne clearly marks them as a family unit. Knelt next to his father, Carl gives a nod of respect to Ederyn, and a lesser nod, but not disrespectful, to Noys. He does not even give a passing glance to Lorius. Carl returns to ministering to Julian with a cup of water. Ederyn nods back to Carl, then casually folds himself into a cross-legged seat on the ground, rather than stand over his injured uncle. He looks perfectly comfortable in that position. "Aside from the craziness of what my daughter is doing to make it happen." Julian says, a pained look on his face, "My son tells me that we have you to thank for getting out successfully. They've got some of Corwin's toys where they had me captured but you dealt with them properly." He pauses and looks at Noys and then at Ederyn and then continues. "You're Eric's boy, huh? You look like he did when he was a few dozen years old." Ederyn's expression lightens, briefly, at the thought of being only a few dozen years old. "I've been shown," he replies. "Of course you have." Julian said. "And doubtless, every member of the family who knew him is going to tell you so." Julian said. "You proved here, though, you've got skills that the late King didn't emphasize." "You found him, I take it?" he says to Noys. "No" Noys shakes her head. "He came to Amber without any impetus from me." "Noys" Hadrian calls. "I need your help." Julian gives a nod. Noys gives a smile to Ederyn and heads at speed toward Hadrian, Brieanne, Galen and the mysterious rift. "Maybe she can figure out what's wrong with Brie." Carl comments. "They're close." "Perhaps." Julian says. "In a minute or three, you're going to bring me over there." He then looks at Ederyn "If you tell me, Ederyn, that your coming to Amber involves a dream and a blond haired man that told you to come here, I refuse to be surprised." Julian says. "You look more like a blacksmith than a warrior, though, even if you've got three landsmenn Weir following you." Ederyn is perplexed by Julian's reference to a man in a dream, but pleased to have his true calling identified. He feels comfortable with this plain-spoken man, more than he has with anyone else here so far, except perhaps the twins. "I am a smith," he confirms. Julian gives a nod. "But I came here because some Montenegrans found a way to Norwend. They spoke of the worlds they knew, and of course mentioned Amber, and everyone knew my father said he came from Amber." After the briefest of pauses, he goes on, "He stayed only a short time in Norwend, you see, but almost every winter someone talks about all the ideas about what that 'Amber' place might be. And I have hoped for a long time to come here, and find out." He glances at the Weir and adds, "I was shipwrecked in Weirmonken on the way. The Weir expected my father's son because of a prophecy." "Shipwrecked in a land that was tied to your father, and a prophecy that you were expected." Julian says. "Destiny and Fate are harsh and cruel, and often have a way of being helped along, especially by our relations. That's why I wondered if Noys had seen to such matters. Or even Lorius for that matter." He looks at Lorius, who shakes his head. "The prophecies about the Jarl, Great Prince Julian, have been known for decades." Kezia says. "Of course, from your point of view they would be." Julian says. "Jarl, huh?" Julian looks at Ederyn. "Random can't be happy about that. And my guess, boy, is you're not completely comfortable with it either." "He helped rally the Rangers well enough before I came here, Father." Carl says. Ederyn shrugs, and does indeed look uncomfortable. "Leading is not a task I ever looked for," he says. "... And not one I'm prepared for." "Tell that to my brother Gerard, who wound up with the Regency while half of us were in Chaos." Julian says. "He did all right for himself, though he was very happy to retire the position as soon as we came back." Julian laughs. "I remember the day we came riding back through Arden. My dear little daughter nearly put an arrow into Caine." He then looks at Brieanne, Noys, and Hadrian. The latter has his back to the still open rift, and is staring into a trump card. Ederyn also glances that way, thinking that it is definitely worrisome that Brienne is not yet awake. Carl looks at Ederyn, Lorius and his father. "Will the two of you see him to the Infirmary? I will remain here and deal with...matters." "I am not an invalid." Julian glares at his son. "And I am not blind." Purposefully, he looks at the shell of his house and then back at Lorius, Carl and Ederyn. "But perhaps something might be gained." He sighs. "And the King will want to talk to me." "We can get you to the Castle, Uncle." Lorius finally speaks, speaking haltingly, as if his silence had struck him partially dumb. "Ederyn and I can do that, no problem." Lorius gives a glance to Ederyn. "Certainly," the smith says, and rises quickly and smoothly to his feet. Then he matter-of-factly offers a hand to Julian. Julian takes the hand. The grip is strong, but not attempt at a strength contest. Julian merely uses his strength, and a fair amount of Ederyn's, to get to a standing position. He looks once more at his house, his son, and the group around Brieanne. Hadrian now appears to be pulling someone out of a trump card. "No time like the present." Lorius says, putting a hand on Julian's shoulder and then squeezes Ederyn's hand at the same time. He motions for Kezia, Cyrus and Boaz. "Not going to make the three of you *walk*." In short order, they inserted into the circuit between Ederyn and Julian. The upwelling of arcane power, to Ederyn, is like calling to the Earth. Lorius is not calling to the earth, though, but to some other power. It feels, actually, like the Pattern. Softly and silently, the world of the clearing fades away, and is replaced with the front of the Castle Amber. "More subtle than I like, but it worked." Lorius says. He lets go of shoulders and steps away. The guards watch the proceedings placidly but not casually. Julian seems capable of standing on his own unassisted. "That was interesting," Ederyn says to Lorius. "Tell me about it, some time." Lorius chuckles. "Someone *new* to talk shop with. I had hoped Beebee would fit that role, but after what happened..." he stops his chain of thought like a horse drawn up short. "Anyway, If I had taken us right into the infirmary, lots of nasty things would have resulted. I figured to spare you all the drama." Lorius explains. "Were you coming all the way to the Infirmary, too?" Lorius says to Ederyn. "I thought that was the assumption." Julian says wryly, looking at Ederyn. "Carl will expect it, I think," Ederyn agrees. As they start toward the massive pile of stone in front of them, with the smith casually matching his pace to Julian's, he adds, "Also, if I go in there without one of you, I'll get lost." "Get lost, in Castle Amber? Nonsense." Julian manages to walk without Ederyn's age, although its at less than full walking pace to do so. "Now, if you were to visit some of the edifices some of our cousins have in their shadows, Castle Amber is a tinkertoy of a Castle by comparison. Of course, none of those palaces and domiciles have the Pattern, or the interest of the family." "All roads lead to Amber. Lorius has the truth of it." Julian says. "That doesn't mean, Lorius that everything outside of Amber can be ignored." "Wouldn't dream of it, Uncle. After all, I suspect that you, Brie and Carl have forgotten more about the archipelago of the shadows of Arden than any of the rest of us could ever hope to know." "Yes" Julian says. The route to the infirmary is relatively straightforward for Ederyn. People do stop and stare at Ederyn and company's progress, although the stares quickly go away at a withering gaze from Julian. Seeing the entrance hall again reminds Ederyn of something, and also of his uncertain understanding of how they organize time here. "When is tea time?" he asks his companions. "I am to meet Aunt Florimel then. Unless," he adds reflectively, "this attack changes things." "Tea time?" Lorius says. "Well, I suppose that is when Flora and Asteria *say* it is. I am not invited to High tea often." he smiles wryly. "But when they have deigned to ask me, its usually sometime in the late afternoon. 4 or 5 hours after Noon. Not long from now, in fact." "I think that, even though they are protocol mad, the pair of them." Lorius says "Two Omphalos Doors popping up in Amber is going to mess with even Aunt Florimel's schedule." "I would not be so cavalier in describing my sister's habits, Lorius." Julian says. "Show some respect." Lorius looks a bit chastened. "Yes, uncle. Anyway, Ederyn, she usually does meet with the King, daily." he adds. "We could drop in on the both of them and settle that." "If we need to," Ederyn agrees. (Continued in Infirmary Blues) |
