Visiting BleysIndex | Time Under Chaos | Game Logs | Visiting Bleys
As Larissa walked along the corridor to Bleys's room, the door opened, and coming out she saw Goran, holding a washleather coin pouch and Bleys, who was wearing a faint smile. "Ah," he said. "The lovely Larissa. Do you know young Goran? As he's from the Queen, I suspect not." Goran nodded politely to her. "En passant, actually," Larissa said. "I trust I'm not interrupting?" "Indeed not," said Bleys. "This young man and I had transacted our ... business." "I shall deliver this promptly, Your Highness. By your leave?" he bowed formally to Bleys. [Bleys] nodded dismissal to the Queen's junior security officer, and then turned his attention fully to Larissa. Goran departed, striding purposefully down the corridor without a backward glance.
"And what, sweet niece, brings you hootfoot to my chambers?" "Familial solicitude. It has been a bad morning for cousins," Larissa said. "I was hoping to bend your ear and pick your brain...and possibly cry on your shoulder." "Ah," said Bleys. "Time was when young women would come seeking other portions of my anatomy, but let it pass, let it pass." "This is hardly the time," Larissa said amicably. "And fishing for compliments? You're slipping, dear uncle." He ushered her into his own rooms - which were furnished without noticeable mirrors - and fastened the door with a slightly strange lock, before turning to her. "Now," he said. "Which do you want first? The ear, the brain or the shoulder?" "I'm certain you're...flexible enough to provide all three at once," she said, settling into an armchair and arranging her borrowed skirts. "How is Merlin, and what do you make of his sensitivity to the Pattern?" "Merlin will recover," said Bleys almost dismissively. "Although, if I were you, I'd avoid flashing the Pattern too obviously in his presence. Otherwise he might decide that the way to remove all the pains in his head that your give him would be toi removes yours. Sensibility ... well, yes. Many Chaosians become uneasy in the presence of Pattern. You were using a lot of Pattern, I presume, if you were putting out a fire. Nothing more than that." He turned away as he spoke and was adjusting the wicks in the lights. "I had assumed that Merlin's attunement to Corwin's Pattern would have protected him, but it seems to be more complicated than that." Larissa stopped to watch Bleys fiddle with the lamps, staring at the flame. "Johann may well have succeeded in sparking a revolution," she said at last, partly because she had just forged a chain of uneasy logic and wanted to test its strength, and partly to prod at Bleys. Bleys turned round at this and looked at Larissa. His gaze was almost hard ... and suddenly, from being the slightly seedy, louche courtier that he was usually portrayed as - Larissa saw someone else; a man who had thrust an army into Amber against the odds and who had, single handedly, slain a considerable proportion of an army as he fought his way up Kolvir's steps. Larissa smiled. "If you value Amber as she once was, and as she could be again," he said deliberately, "you will defend Merlin's life and health with your own." "You mistake me, Uncle. I am not the variable of interest in this equation." Her blue eyes sought and held his for a long moment before she lightened the mood. "Merlin is as safe with me as he is with anyone--metaphysical irregularities, tab-dodging, and maliciously-placed amphibians in my bedsheets notwithstanding. "So. On to today's other problem. I am not going to let Johann die at Mandor's hands. Help me." Larissa said this as calmly as though they were discussing lunch plans. "Oh good grief," said Bleys. "Why should I lift a finger to help that dunderhead? I warned him once - and he didn't have the good sense to leave well alone. Why should I help him now?" "Do you want an exhaustive list of reasons, or do you just want me to prove my sincerity by pressing the point?" Larissa kept her tone mild. "Reasons that benefit me might be in order," said Bleys. "Granted it would be hard to render myself more generally unpopular, but reswcuing Johann Payne after he burned down a good proportion of the docks might just do it. The rewards, sweet niece, had better be pretty bloody impressive." Larissa gazed at him fixedly for a few moments, hands quite still, and only a hint of hardness creeping up to the corners of her eyes. "Do it because Corwin threw you the cards," she said, eyes fixed on his. "Brotherly solidarity?" he said mockingly. "You fseem to forget - your father was trying to kill us both at the time." For her part, Larissa sniffed scornfully, but let him continue. He smiled faintly ... mockingly. Then he gave a sudden decisive nod. "Very well. You spring him - and deliver him to me at the docks before ten o'clock tonight - in a suitably subdued and chastened frame of mind - and, if it's all the same to you, preferably unconscious - and I will undertake to see him safe in Shadow." "Unconscious I can manage. He deserves a good hard smack." She rose, smiling, to give her uncle a kiss. "Don't worry," she said while her lips were close to his ear. "I won't tell anyone you have a better nature." "You won't say that when I exact payment," he murmured. "'Better nature,'" she repeated firmly. As she moved away, he said, "I would suggest your first step should be to attend the family meeting and learn as much as you can about their plans. I'm going to pass on it - you can tell everyone that I have a hangover, and the exertions the family expected of me with Merlin at some ungodly hour ... " He shrugged. "I leave you to supply the details." "Poor Uncle. It must have been such a taxing morning for you." Only an Amerbite would have detected the sarcasm. Larissa paused at the door to unlock it. "Fortune walk with you--though not until I'm done with her." She left, closing the door behind her.
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