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The light shimmered around them...and suddenly they were surrounded by blistering, scorching heat—hot rocks on all sides—dark close to, but glowing red further away ...

They were on a ledge, some three feet wide, overlooking the core of a volcano that looked far from extinct.

And standing right on the edge, peering down, was Suhuy.

Helena was immediately wide awake again. She coughed and covered her face against the heat with one hand and kept hold of Ness with the other. "Gods, we're living the metaphor out of the frying pan and into the fire. Where in the hell are we?" she asked Suhuy.

Ness remained silent, letting her sister take the lead with the stranger. She made a quick scan of the area for other beings, as well as paths leading to greater safety. And she kept her hand firmly holding Helena's.

"Above what was once a Broken Pattern," said Suhuy, without looking at either of them. "And, reckless as it might seem, it has been recently walked."

Ness started. Given that her sister knew the stranger, she had assumed he was from the Chaos end of things, and so that was where they were now. But if this had been a Broken Pattern.... She extended her senses outward to discover what Pattern energies could still be found here; and, if possible, any signature of who it was that had walked and destroyed the Broken Pattern.

At the same time, she muttered angrily under her breath, "Dammit, we should be trying to fix these things, not eradicate them!"

Helena glanced at Ness, surprised by her vehemence. She turned back to Suhuy. "Why are you here?" she asked him. "Checking out the cosmic balance sheet?"

"You could say that," said Suhuy. "You could say I was trying to work out who did this...and precipitated an eruption into the process."

A long spark of gas caught and flamed as though to agree with his words.

He turned and looked at Ness, regarding her narrowly.

"Well?" he said. "You have the gift. What do you see?"

Ness continued her perusal of the crater as she responded. "I see that no good deed goes unpunished." She sighed. "Way to go for the short-term goal, Larissa. But I guess now it was more than an overdeveloped sense of justice that motivated her, and I more than anyone know that people in love do stupid things."

At that, she turned to her sister. "So, are you going to introduce us? Or him, rather: if he is who I think he is, I'm sure he was introduced to me shortly after our birth." She smiled at Suhuy.

Helena looked abashed. "Sorry. I'm...not myself. This is Lord Suhuy, Keeper of the Logrus, and my former teacher in the arcane matters of trump." Helena didn't bother to introduce Ness—her identity was obvious whether they'd been introduced when she was a baby or not.

Clytemnestra curtsied gracefully in her faerie dress. "Milord," she said.

"What did Larissa do?" Helena asked Ness. Then her face scrunched up in annoyance, for that wasn't really the question she wanted to ask. When his student, as a consequence for asking a bad question Suhuy would give her the short obvious answer she already knew—in this case, destroyed a Broken Pattern. She had no idea if Ness played such games too.

But she was getting tired again, and Helena's thought processes felt like those high clouds she saw on fair days, all wispy and insubstantial. She ran a hand over her face. All she really wanted was a bath and food and bed. She'd settle for a blanket thrown into some corner.

"Larissa was the woman at the formal dinner that ignored everyone and read the book, right?" Helena asked. "You said justice. Does this have anything to do with the assassination attempt? I don't remember his name—the one Damien stabbed. She certainly didn't seem pro-Mandor to me."

"Yes, Larissa was the one with her nose in the book; a book of surpassing depth, I might add. She brought Johann here and they walked the broken Pattern together, presumably to undo whatever Father did to him in the dungeons. I don't know if they were successful in fixing Johann, but the strain was too much on the broken Pattern, and it collapsed."

"I don't know what Larissa's interest was in Johann at the time; mostly she seemed to be working to spite Father, as I was. But that wouldn't have been enough to risk what they did here. I can only assume they were lovers."

Ness sighed. "And there's no undoing what they did here. We might have been able to restore this, making a Pattern of Fire to restore the Earth Pattern lost beneath the Castle. Too late now. I should have sought out such opportunities ages ago, but my busy social calendar interfered. I can only assume that the balance of the universe has shifted a little more toward Chaos as a result." She looked at Suhuy for confirmation.

Helena's look in Suhuy's direction was calculating.

"Typical Amberite," said Suhuy with a sniff. "Always seeing things as Pattern or Chaos. Try thinking about this...

"The destruction of a broken Patterns weakens both Amber and Chaos—and weakens further a door of Power. Probably several doors, at that."

"Lord Suhuy," Ness replied, with all the politeness she'd learned from her aunt, "I mean no disrespect to the Logrus. You'll find few people who are more interested than myself in the wellbeing of both it and the Pattern, since my family depends upon both of them. But I know little of the Logrus, and do not understand how it is harmed by the loss of a broken Pattern. Nor do I understand what you mean by doors of Power. Would you please elaborate?"

Helena resisted the impulse to sigh. They could be here for hours if Suhuy felt expansive. "Could we talk about this someplace more comfortable? Like at Ishtarways?" she suggested plaintively. Such displays rarely worked, but regardless, Helena tried to look as pitiful as possible.

"Someone wants to talk to you," said Suhuy suddenly, a split second before Helena felt the tug of a trump.

"Give her some space," he added to Clytemnestra. He rocked backwards and forwards on the balls of his feet on the very verge of the crater. "Come over here and I'll show you a Door of Power."

Helena frowned at her former teacher as she answered the call. "Hello?"

Ness looked her twin full in the eyes and said, firmly—but with a smile—"Do not go anywhere." Then she turned to Suhuy and stepped confidently to where he stood. If she had any fear of the edge, or the stranger, she didn't show it.

"Helena!" Claudio Barimen didn't look as if he'd been through as much as Helena had, and the air from his end of the contact felt like a cool breeze to her, but he definitely bore the marks of weariness and strain. Undisguised relief was in his mindvoice. "You're alive! Did your sister find you?"

"Claudio," she said, breaking into a tired smile. "I'm happy you called. Yes, she's right here. Where are you?"

One corner of his mouth twitched up. "Let me put it this way... I seem to have missed you by less than a day, local time. That's what Lady Tasha said, anyway."

His expression sobered as he added, "Pavlo's here too."

"W-what?" Helena replied fuzzily, struggling to keep up. "What are you doing in...? Why is...? Pavlo is there?"

Claudio bit his lip. ^Yes,^ he answered. ^Lovisa says he came because he heard you were going to be here. Since he was assigned to the garrison I suppose that meant volunteering for the duty. But he won't be here much longer if I have anything to say about it.^

^Pavlo can make his own decisions,^ Helena replied defensively, thinking Claudio was referring to their past relationship. Buried deep but suddenly resurfacing was a strong desire to see her former lover again.

^Normally I'd agree with that,^ responded Claudio. ^But right now he's in no shape to— That is,^ he temporized, ^I'm sending him away for his health, I hope.^

^I don't understand. What does Pavlo have to say about this?^ Helena pressed.

^Not a lot,^ said Claudio. Giving up on the attempt at evasion, he went on, ^Currently he's sleeping off the aftereffects of someone sticking a blade in him.^

She startled. Claudio could sense the desire on her part to come through immediately, curtailed only by the complication of her sister still in discussion with Suhuy.

^I want to send him away in case somebody decides they didn't do a good enough job the first time. And it occurs to me,^ he added a little regretfully, ^that I may have an easier time getting him to agree to it if he knows you're no longer here.^

Helena jerked as if she'd been slapped. She stared hard at Claudio for the space of a few heartbeats as a range of emotion passed in quick succession over her face—anger, guilt, worry, more anger, and finally sulky acceptance that Claudio was right. She looked away and wiped at her face.

^Do you know who stabbed him? Or why?^ she asked, her mental voice husky and promising revenge.

^Neither one for sure. Pavlo wasn't very clear on that,^ Claudio replied. ^I'm trying to find out more about it. What I am reasonably sure of is that it wouldn't be a good idea for him to go back to the barracks right now.^ He let Helena work out the implications of that for herself.

Helena paused. ^Duke Helgram?^

Claudio's eyes narrowed thoughtfully. ^I should think... not directly. But my guess would be he's a factor.^ His gaze met Helena's through the contact. ^I'll tell you, Helena, when I first heard that he'd taken you to Tir with him, I... Well, if I hadn't already known that someone had been dispatched to find you, I'm not sure what I would have done.^

^Going with Helgram was a rather stupid thing to do in retrospect. I blame Merlin, as he's handy and put me and Amba up to it,^ Helena replied. Her eyes unfocused. ^She has my trumps so I can't contact her and don't know what's happened to her. And because she has my trumps I also can't contact my father and find out what's happening with Ishtar. Mother did something and ticked off Lord Sawall and he hurt her and I don't know how bad and now our Houses are at war and I can't contact anyone because I don't have my trumps and Pavlo was stabbed and I can't even see him before you send him away and I inadvertently destroyed a Power and almost died several times today and all I really want is a bath and some very strong whisky.^

Helena was nearing the end of her proverbial rope.

Out of Helena's rush of words, Claudio picked out at least one thing he could help with. ^I have a Trump of Amba,^ he reminded her. ^I can try to contact her and find out where she is. And once I relocate Pavlo, I'll let you know where he is, too,^ he promised. That call, he promised himself, would be shielded.

Helena refocused on Claudio and nodded numbly. She leaned through the contact and kissed him on the cheek. ^Please have her contact me. Thank you.^

^I'll do that. And I'll be talking to you again soon, I hope. Take care, Helena.^

"You too," she said out loud, then cut the contact. Helena sighed and refocused on Suhuy and Ness.

Ness had approached Suhuy...

He beckoned her forward to the very edge.

She approached without hesitation, balancing on the balls of her feet with her arms slightly spread at her sides, riding out the slight tremors caused by the volcanism below. It was evident that she was quite at home on such narrow spaces, and the twin lures of power and knowledge were quite enough to draw her like a moth to their flames.

"Look down," he said, "Once, there were several doors of power, holding back the elemental forces. Some have decayed and broken over time...such as this one. Not helped, of course, by Amberites marching across it. Look there—and there. Can you see? Shards of Pattern. It will need to be sealed again if you want to keep the fire elementals at bay. Shall I do the honours—or will you?"

Clytemnestra closed her eyes, blew out a deep breath, then opened her eyes. Then she opened her eyes again, seeing the reality behind the reality.

The agitation of the lava was as nothing compared to power that lay behind it: raw consuming elemental fire, omnivorous in the truest sense. As Suhuy had said, shards of the Pattern were all that kept it at bay, like a wolf held back a moment by the jagged remains of a broken window. Even as she watched, individual forces within that power flung themselves at those shards, slowly but inexorably breaking more bits of it away.

It took a great effort of will merely to tear her gaze away. She blinked, twice, noticing the sting of the fumes in her eyes, and wiped them on sleeve of her faery dress before calling over her shoulder to her bedraggled sister. "Try to rest for a bit, dear. I'm sorry, but this needs attending."

Helena looked at the narrow ledge they were standing on and then back at her sister. She didn't say anything, but she didn't need to—her expression was enough to convey what she was thinking.

[Ness] turned to look again at the hypnotic spectacle below. "Lord Suhuy," she said, "Please remind me to ask you about those other doors after you've guided me through repairing this one."

Lord Suhuy nodded thoughtfully. "It took two to destroy this—or very nearly," he said. "I'd let it go—but in this state it's almost as dangerous to Chaos as it is to Amber. So. It will take two to repair it, working together as though by instinct."

He beamed at her. "Lucky the two of you came, isn't it?"

He looked back at the Pattern. "One must walk it first...and draw the other to them."

"Excuse me just a moment then. I need to see if Nell is up for this. We've had a heck of a day already, and probably ought to rest for a couple of hours before attempting such a thing."

Ness walked the few steps back to her sister and crouched down beside her. Reaching far back into her memory, she recalled the furtive gestures and mumbled syllables the two had developed to communicate as children, and used them ask, <<Is this grownup trustworthy, or is he trying to hurt us?>>

<<I trust him. Mostly.>> Helena gazed back at Clytemnestra, glassy-eyed. <<I can't walk this now. Too tired. I just walked one already.>>

Ness looked at her for a moment, nonplussed. "You what? When? Where?"

"In Glimmergloom. With Thomas. Right before we found each other again. Did you wonder why I looked like crap?"

"Looked like..." Ness trailed off, looking her sister over. "Well, Darling, you could use a long hot bath, but to me you're still gorgeous. No, I had no idea what happened to you up there, or even where 'there' was. We hadn't had time to talk about it. So that Glimmergloom place had a Pattern of sorts, must have been a broken Pattern like the one here." She glanced down into the churning caldera, then sharply back at her sister. "Does it still have a Pattern?"

She looks sheepish. "Um...no. I don't think so. Does this have to be done right now?"

Ness groaned. "I wasn't sure before, but I am now. Yes, right now."

She turned to Suhuy. "Lord Suhuy, what do you mean by 'drawing the other to them'? Do I walk in front with her following after?"

"No," said Suhuy. "I believe that you should walk first...and then she will be drawn to you in the centre. Of course, I'm rather more experienced with the Logrus, so this is somewhat in the nature of an experiment."

He gave a surprisingly deep chuckle.

"Fun, isn't it?"

"You are so enjoying this," Helena remarked accusingly. Then an idea occurred to her. "Wait...when we get to the center, we'll be able to teleport wherever we desire, right? I won't have to wait for Amba to trump me to get back home. That would actually make it worthwhile..."

"Maybe," Ness replied. "But this won't be a true Pattern. For that I'd need the Jewel—", she glanced at Suhuy, "—er, the Eye of the Serpent. I assume neither of you has that tucked in your pocket." She muttered to herself, "Why is it called the Jewel of Judgment anyway? It's never seemed to improve the judgment of anyone who's had it." She sighed. "Speaking of poor judgment..."

Without warning, she turned and kissed Helena. "For luck," she explained. "Wait here." Then she lowered herself over the edge of the ledge, unconsciously following the same path Larissa had traversed earlier: down the caldera wall (muttering "Thank you Daddy for sending me to ninja camp"), into the lava tube, and down to the very edge of the lake of fire.

"Holy hell," [Ness] said, looking at the churning lava. "As if walking on water wasn't hard enough. And me still barefoot. This won't do." She summoned the lens of the Pattern to her mind, preparing to scry for a heat-resistant suit.

But she felt the Pattern fighting her. It was directing her abilities, directing her to the Pattern itself.

And she felt a sense of smothering panic...and the strangest sense of being twisted and wrenched, growing stronger as she approached the core of the volcano...

And the Pattern.

"This should be interesting," said Suhuy conversationally to Helena.

Helena looked at Suhuy sharply. "Interesting" usually meant "dangerous" when he used the word. She turned her attention over the edge where she sat and watched her sister.

Clytemnestra screamed. She looked down at her right foot. When the Pattern had drawn her to it, she'd involuntarily stepped forward, and now her bare foot was on the surface of the lava. No, not the lava, but at the endpoint a glowing white-hot line that extended back to the ledge and her left foot: the line of a Pattern.

At Ness's scream Helena leaned out precariously over the edge. "Ness!" she shouted, "Are you all right?"

Involuntarily, [Ness] began to pull the foot back, and she felt the rise of Pattern energies within her frame, threatening to rip her apart. She screamed again, in pain and frustration, hesitating, unable to choose between the forces consuming her.

With Ness's second scream, Helena cursed and scrambled over the ledge to get down to her sister. "Do something!" she yelled back at Suhuy as she disappeared over the edge.

Training won out. As in a hundred mental Patternwalks before, when faced with the unendurable, [Ness] took one step forward. The white-hot line extended forward to her left foot, and she felt it likewise begin to burn. Unable to go back and unable to stop, determined to end the ordeal as quickly as possible, Ness began to run.

Her eyes were closed, blocking the purple smoke that seared her lungs. She didn't need her eyes. There was no Pattern to follow but the one in her mind, its lines and contours more familiar than any lover, knit into her blood and flesh and bone.

Clytemnestra ran. Her legs churned, her breath heaved, the effort like sprinting up a mountainside, every foothold a firebrand. She knew she couldn't sustain the pace, but it had to be done, before the Pattern ripped her apart, before her lungs ignited, before her feet burnt to stumps that would not hold her. How long could she last? How much damage had been done already? Involuntarily, she glanced at her feet.

They were whole, unblemished, pink with healthy new skin. She stumbled in surprise, leaving a gap in the white-hot line. A wave of heat flashed over her, so hot she was unable to scream, but there was no air in her lungs anyway. She recovered, running on, and the heat diminished, her breath returned.

The Pattern was sustaining her. As she channeled it into the surface of the lava, it protected her, continually rebuilding what the heat burnt away. But the pain—the pain!—she felt it all. She was burning alive.

The resistance increased as she approached the first veil.

Helena dropped down to the bottom, inhaled sharply, and immediately regretted it. The heat down here was unbearable and it seared her lungs painfully. She covered her face with her hands and breathed in the small space she'd created, squinting through gaps in her fingers out across the remains of the Pattern as she searched for her sister.

Dimly she was aware that what she felt was more than the heat that surrounded her...it was as though some of Ness's burning had passed into her body too...

She found Ness not far away, her image rippling in the heat. A glowing white line extended behind her to where she'd started to walk, the pattern resonating on a deep level within Helena even though it was only a small representation of the whole. How is she doing this without the Jewel? Helena wondered to herself, remembering the stories about the Patternfall War. Regardless, Ness was doing it and there seemed to be nothing Helena could do to help. She cursed again and looked back up at Suhuy.

But he seemed to have vanished—it seemed she would need to take her own measures for protecting herself—and possibly her sister as well.

And for Ness, the first veil seemed to be a wall of living fire that poured down unceasingly before her...

"Damn you!" Helena cried out at Suhuy in anger and frustration. The heat was suffocating and there was no way out—Oh! how she would welcome the promised trump call from Amba!—Ness was burning alive, a living flame, and she could do nothing. She felt through Ness the heat of the First Veil, unquenchable fire, infinite pain pure and bright...and Helena broke.

She felt the change deep inside her chest, in her lungs, like flowing water. Exhausted and powerless to control the wild shapeshifting, Helena succumbed to it.

Her usual forms she could control but this...this was wild and terrifying as though spasms were tearing through he body. A black swan's wing...the power of the panther in her hindquarters...her lips parting for a lizard tongue to flicker out.

There was no centre—she had to find a centre...

Fear rose in Helena as she continued to shift freely. She hated loss of control, disliked it when Torren used the purple moss, despised it when she thought she was being used. This, however, was loss of control on a level she'd never experienced before.

Her body jumped from one shape to another with no self-direction as Helena struggled to keep her personality intact, like a drowning person struggling to stay afloat.

Ness continued doggedly onward, three steps remaining to the first fiery veil.

On the next step, the thought rose that though the Pattern would preserve her body through the ordeal, the pain would likely drive her mad.

On the next step—academically, calmly—the thought entered her head that she could end the pain if she simply stopped.

On the next step, as she began to ponder these thoughts, she felt a change ripple through her body, and the pain sharply decreased. In sudden relief, no knowing or caring what had changed, she threw herself at the first veil and forced her way through. It was the same terrible fight that she remembered from her previous physical encounters with the Pattern...yet then she had been rested and calm. Now...she was exhausted. And the first Veil was only just passed.

Exhausted. Helena felt so utterly exhausted. It would be so easy to just give up trying to gain control and sink into the abyss. She felt herself slip, just a little, the wild shifting beginning to melt the edges of her rational mind.

"Breathe," she heard a voice say commandingly, and close by. "You're a sword dancer, aren't you? You know how to control your breath? Well then—start controlling it now! Count it—in...out...in...out... Count in, damn you!"

Helena gulped in air, startled. Who? One. Her breathing was a life preserver, the voice the rope reeling her in. She struggled to focus on the metaphor, to control her breath as bid. Out and gulp in again. Two.

"Better," said the voice—an acerbic tone, "But keep it up, keep it up, damn you! What sort of lily-livered weaklings take to the grounds these days? The Wind Shakes the Barley... Can any of you manage as much as a mild tremour in several of the eaves? Breathe, damn you!"

This last came almost as a roar, but even as it did so, Helena felt a sudden relaxation of strain.

"Aaarrrgh!" Helena shouted as she felt her body come back to center. She straightened and turned to swing a blind punch at her savior.

Her fist was caught in a hand spread broad—acting with a speed that was impressive.

"Feisty," said the voice. "Spirited—but governed by heart, not head. A mistake I have much sympathy with. It's Bleys, you young idiot, your Uncle Bleys. Now—calm down, or you'll be precious little help to your sister."

"I am not weak," Helena growled in reply, though she did cover her mouth with her hands and take another deep, calming breath.

Staggering through the seven curving steps past the Veil, flinging out an arm to keep her balance, Ness caught a glimpse of skin like liquid gold, rippling and gleaming in the volcano's light. Diamond-crystal talons gleamed at the end of each finger.

In fatigued confusion, she missed the turn at the end of the curve. Lava burst around her, flinging droplets that burnt holes in her dress before spattering harmlessly against metal beneath. The white-hot line faltered; she recovered her balance, managed to fling herself onto the correct path, and the line followed her past another gap.

Cursing herself, Clytemnestra slogged through the intricate tracery and increasing resistance toward the Second Veil.

Now the heat was quenched a little—the blue flames that were beginning to rise all around her were not giving out heat—indeed, they appeared to be shading her from the worst excesses of the volcano flames.

But she was so, so tired.

Her feet dragged like lead beneath her, drawing the white-hot line: for all she knew they were indeed lead, or gold or platinum. What was happening? How had her body changed? And why was she so exhausted? The Pattern was never easy—not even walking it mentally, as she always had every time after the first—but it had never drained her like this. Was it from the pain? From the release from the pain? Or was her energy being drawn away, to somewhere else... someone else? Someone who was using it to change her, causing her body to shape itself, to survive the heat... A link to...

Panic. Confusion. Heart racing, gasping.

Helena.

And then, without perhaps fully realising it, she was through the Second Veil, as though Helena's name was a charm to give her passage. No, here on the other side of the veil, things seemed easier—even the flames appeared to burn with a cool heat.

As always, the sparks dropped after passage through the Veil, and Ness took advantage to look around wildly and see what was happening to her sister. She wasn't on the ledge...there she was, at the start of the white-hot line... fighting someone! She almost called out, but didn't dare distract her.

The flames started to burn hotter as she paused...she could smell something that seemed horribly like her own flesh...burning...

Helena was no longer fighting the man beside her, and indeed had turned to look out at Ness.

She was conscious that [Bleys] had moved closed, and indeed had laid a steadying arm around her shoulders—protective, but possible to shrug off.

Helena left Bleys's arm where it was. It felt...nice.

With a terrible effort, Ness turned and flung herself at the last few steps toward the Third Veil, leaving one more gap where she had paused.

And she paused again. For the elementals, frantically concentrating their efforts below her even as she sealed them in, had raised a barrier across her path. The Third Veil was no longer metaphysical: it was a wall of lava.

Calling on the last reserves of her will, even as she calmly assessed that they would not be enough, Ness stepped forward. Tears evaporated from her eyes before they could fall.

And she was through—a still, calm place where the heat no longer seemed to penetrate.

"Now..." said the voice of the old man called Suhuy, seemingly very close. "Reach out...and draw her to you. Use the Pattern here...and in your mind."

And looking down, Clytemnestra saw the cracked and broken path she had traversed overlaid with a clear strong path—the Pattern of Tir, the Pattern of Rebma, the Pattern of Amber...

"Oh, Freya's tits, she stopped," Helena muttered, not realizing Ness was at the center, her shoulders tensing under Bleys's arm. "She's not going to make it. Uncle, you've got to help her! Please!"

"She's there," said Bleys, his voice strangely calm. "She's through the lava...in the centre. Wait..."

Ness wasn't quite sure how she'd made it to the center, but there she was. She had closed her eyes to the lava wall and kept going. It hadn't stopped her, though it had entirely burned her tattered faerie dress away. Somehow she stood, naked, at the center of the universe, her exhausted body held up entirely by her triumphant will, exhilarated by what she had done.

She drew upon the Pattern, upon the power here at its core, the power that could send her anywhere. Instead of leaving, she reversed that power, sending it along the connection to her sister—her beloved—and tugged, ever so gently.

"Come" she said, in the voice of a goddess.

And Helena was conscious of a powerful tug...stronger...like a force that would strip the flesh from her bones, the soul from her body if she resisted...Bleys' hands were on her shoulders...and she heard his oath...but the call to follow was overwhelming...

Too overwhelming. She was too exhausted to even consider resisting. "Ness, I sure hope this is you..." Helena mumbled as she succumbed to the pull.

And suddenly she was drawn into the centre of the Pattern. And as she stood there, the flames died down, and they saw the path, steady and fixed leading back. The light (and the temperature) grew pale and cool...they were standing at the heart of an extinct volanco, with a Pattern, unbroken, inscribed on its flat floor.

Helena blinked blearily, not really understanding what just happened.

Ness wrapped her arms around her sister and embraced her for a moment, holding her and relaxing as the power of the Pattern enfolded them both.

"You're not going to kiss me on the mouth again, are you?" Helena mumbled as she rested her cheek on Ness's shoulder. "Also, you're naked."

"Shhh. Not now, dear," Ness whispered, lightly kissing her cheek. For the first time since she was four years old, she experienced the unparalleled ecstasy of being—even as the Pattern beneath them was—whole.

Finally, [Ness] took a deep breath, and without releasing Helena, said "Okay, Lord Suhuy. Now what?"

Helena stiffened in Ness's embrace, listening.

There was no answer, but from the side, a tall figure waved—Bleys.

"Come to me!" he shouted. "I'd rather not have to come to you two!"

"Slacker!" Ness called back. "It's easy now. After the day we've had, what I really want is to have it send us home to a nice hot jacuzzi. Where's Suhuy?"

"He stayed?" Helena asked, raising her cheek from her sister's shoulder and looking around numbly. "Can we go now?"

"Suhuy's gone!" Bleys yelled back. "Let's get the pair of you to a decent hotel—I suspect that there's one right outside now.... There are things you need to know about what the pair of you have done!"

"I want to go home," Helena whispered petulantly to her sister. "We need to go home. Mother needs us."

Ness swayed as exhaustion caught up to her exhilaration. "Nell," she whispered, "we can't even stand up, let alone help anyone. We need a bath and food and rest. And we can't leave this Pattern undefended, or someone from your home is going to bring one of our cousins here and slit her throat, like they planned on doing with you over Tir." Ness shuddered. Her legs shivered, then buckled, and the sisters slowly collapsed into a heap on the hard glowing stone.

"I just got you back, Nell," Ness whispered in a daze. "I don't want to go anywhere. Can't we just stay here, together?" Even having fallen, her arms were still wrapped tightly around her sister.

Helena sighed, relenting. She could barely keep her eyes open anyway. "All right. You'll need to send us to Uncle Bleys. I can't manage it."

"Sure thing," Ness murmured. "In just a minute... or two...."

And she dozed off, a dreamy smile on her face.

"Ness? Oh, crap." Helena looked despairingly over at Bleys, a naked Clytemnestra in her arms.

A shiver and a card flew through the air, over the Pattern. If Helena stretched up her arm, she could catch it easily.

"Use that!" said Bleys. "It's a place trump—I'll meet you there!"

There was urgency in his voice.

There was a brief moment when Helena considered trying to use the Pattern to take them back to Chaos anyway, but Ness was right: neither of them were currently in any condition to be of any help.

Later. It would have to be later. And then they'd both go. And they'd be a family again.

But...later.

Helena reached up and snagged the trump as it breezed past her. She brought it down in front of her face and blinked at it, trying to focus.

Clytemnestra shifted a bit in response to the movement, but didn't wake up.

"I'm not sure... That is..."

[Helena] wasn't sure she even had enough strength to activate the trump.

"Oh, screw it."

She focused the very last of her reserves on the trump and with supreme effort willed it to life.

And found herself in what looked like a slightly over-grown and decadent Spanish monastery garden. It was warm and sunny—and there was a variety of rather nice garden furniture about—including two hammocks, and a few lounging chairs, as well as several large sunshades. Bleys, impeccably dressed in white linen with panama hat and smoking a small cigar, was sitting on an upright chair beside a cane table that held a jugful of some golden liquid that seemed to also contain a lot of ice and also various types of chopped fruit and even mint leaves.

"At last," he said. "I was beginning to think you'd tipped me the double. Now—drink, sleep, conversation. In what order?"

"I thought about it, but curiosity won out," Helena admitted. She gently placed Ness in one of the hammocks and collapsed onto a lounging chair. "Sleep. Bath. Then drink and food and conversation. That order...I think..."

Helena drifted off, unable to keep her eyes open any longer.

Ness started awake and looked around blearily until she saw Helena asleep in the nearby chair. She smiled then, closed her eyes again, stretched her nude body quite immodestly in the hammock and the warm sunshine, and curled back up in sleep again like an extremely contented cat.

When they awoke, it was evening and they found themselves no longer in hammocks but lying on loungers beside a series of deep blue bathing pools which steamed gently and smelled of lavender and lilac.

Two young girls, both with violet skins and dark grey eyes, dressed in short white tunics, were sitting by the loungers, clearly ready to help, and speaking together quietly in a tongue that was intelligible to Thari speakers but unlikely to be able to understand High Thari.

There was no sign of Bleys, who was presumably allowing them to sleep and bathe undisturbed.

Helena yawned and stretched and opened her eyes. She noted the presence of the two girls and her sister, the conspicuous absence of her uncle, and lastly the inviting warm water.

"Bath," she whispered longingly. "Oh, my, yes."

Not used to being helped with her bath since she was five, Helena ignored the girls as she stood and and started methodically divesting herself of her clothes.

Ness had already been awake for a little while, continuing to rest while watching her sister sleep. Upon watching Helenda undress, however, her smile transformed from one of beatific contentment to that of a lazy predator. Her half-lidded eyes smoldered.

"Food," she growled softly. And then, in a more polite tone, she amended, "We need food, ladies. Please bring some while we bathe."

Helena kicked off her pants and they landed next to her shirt. She stretched, hard muscle rolling under the skin of her back and shoulders, and then stepped into the nearest pool.

One of the girls scurried away (and will return shortly with a selection of fruits, meats, fish and cheeses, as well as various breads—Bleys would recommend the olive bread—and steaming jugs of black tea, coffee and hot fruit teas as well as fruit juices...actually, the girl will return with two others who will help her carry this largesse and then run away again).

The other girl remained to attend to their bathing needs.

"That feels heavenly," Helena whispered as she sank into the warm, scented water. "Ness? So now what? I need to go back home and I'd like you to come with me."

Ness stood, stretched, and, ignoring the pool next to her own chair, slid into the pool behind Helena. As the serving girl approached with a sponge, Ness plucked it from her grasp and started washing Helena's shoulders. "Just like when we were little, isn't it?" she said with a little smile, apparently ignoring her sister's question.

"Not exactly like...when we were little..." Helena replied. She had more to say, but she couldn't remember what it was just then—the bath and the hypnotic scrubbing were making her drowsy again.

Helena drew her knees up and rested her chin on them, her eyes half-closed. "Ness? What happened back there?"

Clytemnestra laughed. "You'll have to be more specific, dear. When you almost fell from the sky? When Pan turned me into a deer so I could come to you? When you fought the shapeshifter in the the grove? When we restored a broken Pattern to better-than-new?"

The serving girl reached over to help, but Ness swatted her hand away, continuing very gently to wash Helena's back.

"You got turned into a deer? How? And who is Pan?"

"Somewhat painfully. Involved a lot of stretching of muscles and bones I didn't previously have. Pan's a god, of course, like me. He changed me and Petra into deer so we could sneak through the veil. Lean back, dear, I'll wash your hair. Oh, and we saw Benedict."

Ness laughed: a relaxed, happy sound. She kissed Helena on her upside-down forehead. "Yes, dear. Everyone thought he was dead." She worked shampoo into Helena's hair, concentrating occasionally on massaging her temples. "Goodness, you've got twigs in here."

"I blame Thomas," Helena replied with a smile twin to the one on her sister's face. She dunked her head and rinsed out the soap.

With her head under the water, Helena missed the frown that suddenly crossed her sister's face. When she emerged, Ness was facing the other way, hugging her knees. "My turn. So, about Thomas. He's the man you saved from the Fae, right? Is he your man, then? You and Amba seemed so close, how will she feel about that?"

Helena hugged her knees as well and pressed her back up against Ness's.

"My man?" she snorted. "We don't have that sort of relationship. He rescued me when Tir disappeared so I vowed to rescue him from the Fae. Not that he didn't try for more...and he isn't difficult to look at and I admit I was tempted, but that's as far as things went.

"I was on the steps when Thomas reached out and grabbed me as I started to fall. He saved my life. Ness, where were you? You said you'd watch me." The hurt in Helena's voice was apparent.

Ness stiffened. "I was pulled away. Flora came to get me to go look at Tir, and I couldn't keep the lens up. And then I saw you on the stairs, and I went up to Tir to meet you, but you didn't make it all the way up, and the cloud came. And I went back to the battlements to catch you from there, but I collided with Morgan and dropped the lens, and I told Merlin to catch you but he kept grabbing the wrong things, and by the time I got the lens back up...you were gone.

She took a ragged breath and clenched her knees tightly. "I'm so sorry Nell. I failed you. It was the most miserable moment of my life."

Helena reached behind her to find Clytemnestra's hand and she clasped it. "Of course you were watching. I'm sorry."

Ness held her hand silently for a while, then took a deep breath. "All right, you've quite successfully derailed my mood. Let's finish cleaning up and go see what Uncle Bleys has to say. While we eat. And before we go save Mom and Dad."

"Save Dad? What did he get himself into?" Helena asked, feeling somewhat annoyed. She wasn't sure she wanted to risk her neck rescuing Mandor from anything.

She stood and accepted a towel from one of the girls.

Ness finished washing in an efficient, businesslike manner as she replied. "He got poisoned with an overdose of Pattern energy, which was sort of indirectly my fault."

Helena stopped drying herself off to look at her sister curiously.

"Well, mostly Larissa's fault. Anyway, Petra sent him to Cornaro to be taken care of, but when she checked later he was missing. Merlin sent his spider to investigate, and I think that's the last I heard about it." [Clytemnestra] plunged completely under the water to rinse, then emerged again.

"Well...that implies that either he was kidnapped—in which case whoever it is will strive to keep him healthy in order to ransom him—or he got better and disappeared on his own."

Helena donned a thick white robe and tossed a towel to Ness.

"I guess that makes sense," Ness agreed, getting out and drying off.

"Either way, I think Mother is more of a priority, " Helena continued carefully, "so we should attend to her first. Did you hear what happened between her and Lord Sawall?"

"No. I caught an impression of something, but never had any details."

Helena walked over to the spread of food. She talked as she loaded a plate. "I don't have all the details either. All I know is that there was an altercation between Mother and Lord Sawall concerning Mandor's brother, Despil. Apparently Depsil was injured in some way or something like that and Lord Sawall blamed Mother. Blood was spilled. I don't know what condition Mother is in—neither Mother nor Lord Ishtar answered their trumps last I tried to contact them—but I'm very worried. I heard that Houses Sawall and Ishtar are now at war with each other."

Ness stood with her arms slightly out to either side, her face expressionless, as one serving girl dried her and another filled her plate. Both parties were apparently so experienced in the routine that no commands were necessary. Once the belt of her robe was tied, she replied in a neutral voice, "That would seem to bode poorly for Ishtar."

Helena paused in loading food on her plate and looked at Ness, fear in her eyes.

"Don't underestimate your esteemed stepfather," said a fresh voice, and Bleys, apparently as freshly washed as themselves but a little more formally attired in breeches and a white ruffled shirt, strolled into the room. "Gimble is a mad old bat, sometimes literally, I'm told. But Ishtar was Mandor's study partner when they were young. Add proximity to my sister and you have a potentially dangerous force there. Is the food to your liking? And d'you mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," Helena replied. She studied her uncle for a moment, finally getting a good look at him for the first time when there weren't other pressing distractions. "Mother told me you'd help us in extremis. Apparently she was correct—but then again she always is."

Helena bowed with a flourish. "Thank you, Uncle Bleys, for saving our collective asses," she said, and stuffed a piece of cheese into her mouth.

"My pleasure," said Bleys nobly.

"Yes, thank you," Ness agreed. She sat back in one of the lounge chairs and accepted her plate gratefully. "So. What was it we did, and how were we able to do it?" She began eating delicately, as her aunt had taught her, but a bit more quickly than was strictly proper.

"You restored a broken Pattern," said Bleys. "And in doing so, I hope, re-sealed it. The seal was still holding till it was walked—in rather bizarre circumstances. Several somewhat unexpected kinds of forging were created as a result and the seal became ... well, I suppose the kindest way of putting it would be 'dangerously unstable'. Suhuy became aware of it—and also saw the solution—you two. A forging that was already so strong, so powerful that you represented the best chance of reversing the damage."

Helena stopped eating and turned a bemused gaze to Bleys. "That was great as the abstract. Now can you elaborate?"

"Especially on your choice of the word 'forging,'" Ness added between bites. "It implies that my sister and I are artifacts."

"I suspect that it is true of us all to an extent," said Bleys, amused. "Father certainly saw us as expendable - less than half of us survived his machinations ... and those are just the ones I know of."

He sipped his drink.

"How much do you two know about your cousin Johann's escape?"

Helena looked expectantly at Ness.

"Larissa did it," Ness said. "And left a Pattern trap in Johann's cell for Father to stumble into afterward. Larissa then brought Johann to the broken Pattern that used to be here. They walked it together, presumably in an attempt to restore Johann from his insane drooling state to his normal maniacal state. The broken Pattern collapsed from the strain."

"So the broken fire Pattern was a seal," Ness continued. "To keep the fire elementals away, much like the Tracerie used to keep the Fae away, somehow placed intentionally by Grandfather rather than a naturally occurring shadow of the Pattern. I do wonder how many of these things there are. But what I really want to know is how the fragments of a broken Pattern came together to form a complete Pattern."

"It seems obvious that the Tracerie was a shadow of the Pattern in Tir na Nog'th. I conjecture that the broken fire Pattern was a shadow of the Castle Amber pattern, because it certainly wasn't a shadow of Rebma. Carrying things further, I can only guess that in the absence of the Castle Amber Pattern, when this Pattern was restored it got a sort of field promotion, filling the gap. Is that it?"

Bleys nodded. "You're your Mother's daughter, right enough," he said. "And you're almost right. There were lesser Patterns, guarding the extremes. More vulnerable than the main elemental Patterns. When the Ur Pattern was damaged, and then destroyed by Oberon in his attempt to save it, these Patterns fractured. I brought Larissa and Johann here—I believed that walking a Pattern was the only way to undo the damage that Mandor had done to his mind. What I hadn't anticipated was the extent to which Larissa needed to support him to get him round the Pattern at all. The result was...damaging. For them, and for the Pattern. Enough to attract Suhuy's attention to the latter. I imagine he brought you here? I was...ah...watching from a distance."

"He contacted Helena, apparently to show her the damaged fire Pattern. He explained to us how it kept—keeps—the fire elementals at bay. We'd already seen how the Tracerie keeps—um, kept—the Fae away. Oh, yeah, about that. The Tracerie has been destroyed, and the Lady of the Fae is gathering forces to attack Amber."

Helena developed a sudden interest in something on her plate.

Bleys gave a bleak smile. "Julian must be having a lovely time," he said. "Another chance to find his great lost love—and this time, no Fiona around to mess everything up for him."

"His lost love? The mother of Jack, the Dark Man, I take it? And why would Mom have messed it up? From what Flora told me, I'd think Mom would be rather glad to have Julian mooning after someone else." Ness shuddered just a bit.

Helena continued to eat, content to let this part of the conversation pass by her without her involvement.

"Then she should have made more certain that when the carrier came down, Julian was the far side of it—like Deirdre's son," said Bleys. "Instead...he was able to steal the boy away, out of faerie, and bring him up in Arden. Until, I believe, he took exception to his father's amours."

Bleys smiled, and smoothed down his moustache.

"Of course, we were rather otherwise engaged at that point, so the finer details passed me by. So you've been enjoying meeting the cousins, then?"

Ness looked at her sister. "Oh, they're old hat to me. Nell?"

Helena shrugged. "I've only been in Amber part of a day and haven't really interacted a lot with any of them. Upon first impression Morgan is an ass. So is Merlin. Vikund seems pleasant. Petra seems distant." She paused briefly. "Thomas is...charming."

She smiled, lost in a memory, then attended again to her plate.

Clytemnestra snorted in a most unladylike manner, and helped herself from her own plate.

Bleys glanced at her, one eyebrow quirked. He looked amused.

"Have you heard what happened to Mother?" Helena asked Bleys, " 'cause I only have bits and pieces."

"No," said Bleys. "I left the party early—what have you heard?"

Helena frowned. She was hoping Bleys would give her information. Her desire to know what was happening back in Chaos was approaching critical mass.

"The morning I was to come to Amber, I was eating breakfast with Father, Mother, Amba, Jurt, and Despil. While we ate, Father became aware of some disturbance at the Logrus. When we all arrived at that place, Father told Amba and me to go ahead and keep little Solitaire Helgram from coming into contact with it—the Logrus. Father and Despil followed us, while Mother and Jurt stayed outside.

"There was an altercation between Solitaire, Amba, and me... Tasha Minobee was there, too, in Solitaire's company. Lord Suhuy arrived in time to stop everything before it escalated too far, along with Father and Despil. Suhuy invited us back to his Ways to discuss things. We accepted. Suhuy told Despil then he wasn't invited and sent him back outside. That was the last I saw of Despil.

"I know this is about Mother, but the points regarding Despil will become apparent in a moment.

"We went to Suhuyways. We talked. We came back home and I finished packing. Father stayed.

"Later that day Lord Suhuy arrived at Ishtarways. He told me Father had asked him to see me safely to Amber, and then he made noises about Mother and to let the ring she wore 'upset the other end of the universe for a change.'

"Then Jurt arrived to escort Amba and me to Minobeeways where we planned to trump to Amber. When I asked about Mother, he told me that Mother had instigated something, Lord Sawall had responded, blood had been drawn, and our Houses were shortly to go to war. He wouldn't give me more details, no matter how I pressed."

Helena looked at Clytemnestra. "This lack of detail-giving is what our argument at dinner was about.

"Merlin told me later that Mother attacked his half-brother out of 'sheer malice'. Since I'd seen Mandor and Jurt that evening in Amber, Despil was the only one left that it could apply to. Merlin said that Sawall took Mother's hand in retaliation. I assume he meant cut off and not in marriage.

"And that's all I know. When I had my trumps I tried to contact Father, but he wouldn't answer. Mother wasn't answering either. Now Amba has my trumps so I have no way of contacting anyone and Suhuy left before Ness finished fixing the pattern and Uncle Bleys here convinced me to teleport from the center of the pattern to this place instead of home."

Ness reached for her bodice to check her own trumps, then sighed a mild curse. They'd been tucked in her faerie dress when the Fire Pattern had burnt it away.

Helena gave Bleys a mildly accusing look. Her earlier buoyant mood had dissolved into grumpiness and she fell back to picking at her food.

"Okay," Ness said calmly, "That's better than I'd feared. It sounds like she's still alive, and she can grow a hand back." She watched Bleys for his reaction.

"I think she'd want to utilise some other way," said Bleys, with a wince. "That sort of thing is not to be done like Corwin's eyes, you know. Look at Ben. Or rather, what we've told you of Ben ... "

"Wh—" Helena started.

"We've seen—" Ness started.

At this point Helena felt the tingle of a trump contact.

Her eyes widened and became unfocused as she stared off into the distance. "Trump contact," she explained for the benefit of Ness and Bleys.

"Yes?" she continued eagerly. "Who?"

"You are NOT to leave without me," Ness hissed at her. She beckoned to the serving girls. "Bring us some clothes, please. Something suitable for traveling. And quickly!"

"Amba!" Helena stood up from the chair and grinned, her plate dropping to the ground unnoticed. "Pull me through! No, pull us through! No, wait!"

She forced herself to calm down and turned to look at her uncle. "Uncle Bleys, I cannot fully express my gratitude to you for saving my life, along with my sister's. Thank you.

"I am going back to Chaos now. Ness, it seems, is coming with me. Do you wish to come as well? I am not aware of all of the politics involved, but if you want to come, you're welcome to."

Bleys smiled grimly. "Having me riding shotgun would not be conducive to either your safety or mine in Chaos. If you see your mother soon, tell her to look for me. And if I reach her first, I'll say you're on your way."

Helena held out her hand to her sister. "I know you want to dress first, Ness, but I can't wait. I'm going through anyway."

"Avenging the family honor in our bathrobes, are we? Oh well, I've done much with less," she sighed, tucking her eating utensils into her bathrobe pocket, "And maybe these are silver."

Helena smiled fondly at her sister and pulled them both through the trump to Amba.