Hannah receives a reply to her note from Cambina suggesting that they meet in Castle Amber to discuss the challenges of city planning and health. She is at Hannah's disposal, so Hannah can set a time and place for the meeting.
Hannah sends a note right back. "As soon as possible - the library? After supper tonight, hoping my supper time is your supper time. Gerard will send me through whenever I need to go. Let me know if this is bad. ~Hannah."
The return message, verbal this time, passed through Gerard's page, agrees to the timing.
Hannah will settle herself back into Xanadu for the remainder of the day, looking down at the city and making sketches and plans. When she gets ready to go, she leaves a note on the outside of her door that says:
THE DOCTOR IS OUT.
In Amber
Back Soon
Leave Notes
With Gerard's help, Hannah is soon back in Amber. It's actually quite late there, but Cambina is waiting in the library. Nestor is with her and they're speaking in low voices, but as soon as she sees Hannah, Cambina rises, putting an end to the conversation. "Hannah," she says. "It's good to see you."
Nestor turns to see Hannah and nods by way of greeting.
Hannah grins sheepishly and tucks her (now three) notebooks under her left arm. "I'm sorry I'm late. I guess my suppertime isn't your suppertime. I wish we could have an 'Amber' clock. Thanks for waiting." She gives Nestor a smile. "Good to see you sir."
"It's good to see you as well, Lady Hannah," Nestor replies. His smile looks somewhat forced, but relaxes into real pleasantness with Hannah's friendly greeting.
Cambina smiles back at Hannah, bright and sharp. "It's all right, Hannah. Nestor and I were just taking care of some unfinished business. We're finished now, though."
Nestor's smile grows tight again. "As you say, Lady Cambina. I'll be on my way. If you need me, you know where my office is." He bows slightly to Hannah and Cambina, and is on his way.
Hannah watches Nestor go as she sits down and piles her notebooks over to the side. She turns a sympathetic smile back on Cambina, completely at odds with the businesslike suggestion, "So, tell me about sewage drainage on a large scale. My community planning experience involved a small village and we were just working our way out of outhouses when I... left."
"Sewage drainage? That's a hard topic to cover in one evening. I had to learn about it when I took charge of public works after the Sundering, but that was repairing and upgrading existing equipment and infrastructure. We're not completely finished with those repairs, but I doubt they will be finished now. We'll move the men to Xanadu and import new materiel there."
Hannah looks relieved, but it devolves into a scowl.
Cambina starts ticking off points on her fingers. "First, we'll need to get a surveyor and a master mason there. Together, they can find the best location for draining the sewage into the waters near the bay. In an ideal world, we'd also be able to do some reclamation so we can use some of the sewage as fertilizer. I'd like Xanadu not to be as dependent on the shadowpaths for food supplies as Amber was; it was almost our downfall after the Sundering."
Hannah nods in agreement.
"Unfortunately, just because Xanadu is Random's ideal world doesn't mean it's anyone else's ideal world. We might get lucky, though--and we might get really lucky and import some specialized technology for it. They have all kinds of sewage treatment and reclamation technologies in the higher-tech shadows. You need to see some of those, I think."
"I figured as much, and what I was thinking was that we could start with something not electrically dependant, and build on top of that as the city grows with higher technology machines." Hannah motions with her hands, a kind of pushing aside, laying out and stacking motion. "That way if there was an emergency there would be a backup system to go back to, even it was comparitively ineffiecient for the short term - emergencies are emergencies. I'm going to be trying to get myself out to a higher-technology place soon, so I can look into these treatment and reclamation processes then. I'm very curious what the plumbing at the castle is hooked up to," she muses. "Is the work that's been done so far here in Amber enough to support the population, assuming it shrinks some? I'm not keen on taking resources away from here if they're needed, when Xanadu has enough advantages to find other resources, even if that's harder for me."
"The castle plumbing is a very good question. I went there before the castle was there with Paige and Reid. That was a couple of years ago and there's no way that castle could have been built with the technology we have in Amber in the time since my visit." Cambina frowns. "It's as if Random waved his hands and the damn thing just appeared."
Hannah grins. "I think it's growing out of his hindbrain," she offers dryly.
"It's as reasonable as any other explanation," Cambina says, grinning back at Hannah. She adds, "I think Amber will survive without further building. The population has been dwindling since the Sundering and as people ship out to come here, and probably to go to Paris, it'll continue to shrink. Nestor tells me the population was about a million before the war; I don't know what it is now, but we lost about 10,000 at the time, we think, and people have been leaving, or just vanishing, ever since."
"Ten Thousand?" Hannah chokes. She closes her eyes a moment.
"An earthquake. And fires. Mostly the fires," Cambina explains.
"Okay, so Amber's system is viable for the population and we can move some people. Good." Hannah flips open a notebook. "Surveyor... Master Mason..." she mutters.
"It was also suggested to me you could help me pull a staff together. I don't know anyone, but I need smart people. Experience is nice, but I'm more interested in people who are driven and serious about what they do - whatever that is. Not outcome driven but consensus driven. Of course, I'll mainly take what I can get - teachers, nurses, good sturdy laborers." She raises her eyebrows in query. "Know anyone? Should I just put out a call?"
"I wish Folly were here. She'd be your best connection for labor; she has a lot of friends in the docksides." Cambina sighs. "I can get you masons, surveyors, people who've worked on the aqueduct repairs. The ones who helped us break into the Pattern chamber here after the stairwell collapsed."
Cambina rises from her seat and walks over to a secretary wedged in among the shelves. As she shuffles through the contents, pulling out a quill, some ink, and some paper, she says, "I'll make you a list of people you should speak to. There are two in particular I'd like to recommend to your attention.
"Ever is a friend of Folly's." Cambina lowers her voice. "Some people say they're lovers, but I doubt that." She gives Hannah a knowing smile. "Folly built a little 'army of good works' in the docksides from the poorest of the poor during the Regency. Ever knows everyone who's anyone in that part of town. If you commit to helping them, and especially if your work has something to do with supporting Folly and her foster-father, you could get a lot of help from him.
"Clue--well, he's a long story. He doesn't have much in the way of special connections, although he did work on the aqueduct project. If you can take him to Xanadu and put him to work, it would be a very good thing for him, for Solange, and by extension for Gerard."
"For Solange? How?" Hannah asks simply, setting aside her own writing to let Cambina do it.
"Clue was suborned into crime during the Regency, when there wasn't a lot of work--or money--to be had. He committed arson and Reid convinced him to turn State's Evidence. I took him in on the aqueduct works to keep him out of trouble, but we've all been distracted since the coronation and I think he'd be safer out of the way of the people he's turned against. How all this relates to Solange is that the arson he committed was against a printer."
Cambina stops and considers things for a moment. "There's a lot more to the story than this, but the gist of it is that Solange published a book anonymously during the Regency. The printer whose shop Clue burned down was approached to print several other books purporting to be by the same author. There are some other complications, but the short version is that he's one of our leads toward finding someone who was impersonating a royal."
Hannah nods. "Okay then... Clue. Ever. Army of Good Works. Sounds wonderful. Anyone else - oh, and do you know something about Trumps? I think someone told me to talk to you about that too."
Cambina looks at Hannah hard. "In what sense? I know a number of things about Trump, but I'm by no means the expert in most of their uses."
"Maybe it was Paige, or someone else. There has been so much..." Hannah shrugs, and lowers her voice a little further. "As a weapon? What might happen if you were to trump someone who might not be... I'm not sure - strong enough of mind? - to interact with the call?"
Cambina seems to relax a bit at the first part of the answer, but then she looks confused. "I don't know. In my experience you can either trump someone of the blood or not trump someone who isn't. Do you mean someone who's crazy, or do you mean something else? You can use a trump to fight with your mind--my father fought Corwin that way during the war once, for instance--but I'm not sure if that's what you mean."
She pauses for a moment and then lowers her own voice to match Hannah's, leaning toward the other woman as she speaks. "There is one recorded case of using a Trump to seriously injure someone, but people don't talk about it much. The victim is--sensitive about it."
Hannah nods, and sighs. "I guess I'd have to look at it from two points of view. First, that a trump has been made of someone who isn't 'of the blood' and someone used it. Would that person be injured, or would nothing happen? Second, if it were someone 'of the blood', and someone tried to trump them, and they were hurt, that would mean something was wrong, correct? Either the caller had ill intent or the receiver had something else wrong with them to make them unable to answer a trump call, right? And what if the receiver didn't recognize it as a trump call - same answer? Different?"
Cambina straightens and begins to tick off the options on her fingers.
"If you make a trump of someone who doesn't have family blood--there's no such thing. I've never heard of a trump being made of anyone not of the blood. I can't say for sure, but I don't think you can. Ask Paige or Reid or Ossian. Maybe Merlin. They're the experts on making cards."
Hannah nods.
Another finger: "If one of us was injured by a call, it would mean something was wrong or that they were attacked through the trump, either physically or mentally. Probably mentally attacked."
Hannah scowls something fierce and bites down on her bottom lip.
A third finger: "If the receiver hadn't been trained with trumps, she, or he, might not have known what was happening. It's not something you can describe well or easily, but once you've experienced it, all the strange things people say begin to make sense. But normally, you should know that there are trumps of you out there, and whoever made the trumps of you should have seen to your training, or your father or mother should have."
A fourth finger: "If someone is making secret trumps of members of our family and attacking them--the King needs to know about that. He's not going to like that. I don't like it myself."
Hannah's eyebrows go up. "Well, I'd like to think he knows already but yes, I was thinking I did need to speak to him about it, further. So - do you know if Paige or Reid or Ossian or Merlin might know a way to do a magic that would protect someone from getting a call?"
Cambina frowns. "You can block a trump call. We've all been told how to, even those of us who've never had trumps made, or who hadn't had trumps made before the war. You need to talk to one of our uncles or aunts about that. They have more experience than we do."
She looks at Hannah and squints. "For a spell? Ask Merlin; he's a sorcerer. Or ask Uncle Bleys. He's certainly friendly and helpful right now. I probably do him an injustice when I wonder what he's gathering favors for." The slightest bitterness has crept into her tone.
"It does this entire family an injustice that any of you have to save up favors," Hannah points out, quite calmly. "Maybe you should tell him he can trust you to help him when he needs it. Unless he can't or you won't." Hannah just quietly watches to see if this advice creates a reaction.
Cambina laughs, but it's not funny. Her grip on the arm of the couch is white-knuckled. "I don't trust Bleys because he's not trustworthy. He was on the wrong side of the last war while my father was trying to hold things together here in Amber. He tried to kill my father and damn well near got Corwin killed. And his work with our dear departed Uncle Brand led to the Black Road and my father's death. He's never so much as suggested to me that he might have been wrong, or that he would have done things differently had he known the outcome. If I'm unreasonable for not getting over that, I'll have to live with being unreasonable."
"I don't think any of you are unreasonable, but I do think centuries of circumstances piled on top of each other creates all kinds of difficulties in interacting. I wasn't suggesting you had to trust him - I was suggesting he could trust you to do the right thing without it being a favor. Would you stand by and watch him bleed to death?" Hannah asks.
"Funny you should mention that. His brother stabbed Martin like that, and he knew it or should've known it, and he didn't stop it or warn him. Martin almost died, no thanks to the redheads that he survived. He's got a scar-" She shifts in her seat. "Anyway, he thinks he's going to die soon, but he'll outlive me, so I won't have to make that choice."
Hannah tilts her head and eyes Cambina. "That explains why Martin holds his body like he's defending his chest. I'm not suggesting Bleys is a good person. You see the future, or only part of it? How do you know your choosing to help him isn't what keeps him alive after you're gone - I assume you're still talking about Bleys?" she asks.
She shrugs. "I see what I see. I don't have a lot of control." She looks out the window, as a shadow moves to reveal the moon. "I do better when I can go there."
Hannah follows Cambina's gaze to the moon. "Ah, the Tir place? My tongue doesn't want to ever say it right, and Folly called it just 'Tir' at first. So you have an affinity to moon visions? And the place helps you focus?"
Cambina's head moves back and forth, not quite a nod or a shake. Eventually she shrugs. "It means 'the land of ever-youth', and it's a reflection of this city, where we can see might-have-beens. I'm ... drawn there. It's like I belong to that city more than this one. It's also very beautiful, and quiet. I find it wonderfully restful to go through a city not being seen, hearing nothing. I'm at home there."
Hannah looks sympathetic. "Folly said that the way there has been gone since the Pattern here was broken. You must be going insane. I'm insane to get into the woods, which is where I'm at home, and it hasn't been long at all, not really. Does it still come, without the stairs? Or is it gone altogether?"
"We haven't been able to get to it." She pauses. "There are stairs in Xanadu, but there hasn't been a full moon. I'm going to go back."
"Of course," Hannah says, understanding completely. "I'm going to go into the woods too, even if the men think it's dangerous. I'll be a good girl and go into the woods in Xanadu instead of here. That's my compromise."
Hannah pauses to think. "I wonder how similar our visions are. I don't really see... well, I don't usually 'see' anything. I have to go do something. Or some spirit informs me of something. It's very rare for me to just be an observer. I'll have to try your land of ever-youth one day."
"You will. Someday, but not soon. After me." Her voice sounds oddly hollow.
Hannah just listens, growing very intent. "After you pass on?" she asks quietly and evenly.
Cambina doesn't seem to notice Hannah's question. Or Hannah.
Hannah glances around the library to make sure they aren't going to be disturbed or head off any unwanted disruptions. Her intent is to make a safe space for Cambina to be on her journey without interruptions.
After some time, Cambina rises. "Hannah," she says. "It's good to see you."
"Welcome back. Have a seat," Hannah says, and gestures. "Do you remember any of our prior conversation here, at this table?"
Cambina looks at Hannah like she's a strange, young girl. Possibly one who is teasing her elders. "You just got here, and we haven't had a conversation yet. Are you confusing me with Celina?"
Hannah shakes her head. "You made notes for me, you gave me names." Hannah opens the notebook back up and turns it to show Cambina the papers. "We talked about Tir. You seemed entirely present until the end, when it appeared to me you prophesied before you fell silent for some time. Have you had other periods of blackouts?"
Cambina stares at Hannah unhappily as the younger woman describes the events of the last little while. Her shoulders set and she frowns. After a moment, she comes to a decision and speaks. "Sometimes I say things and I don't remember. Normally it isn't an entire conversation."
Hannah nods, mulling that over. "Usually only when you have visions? Can you tell me now who will live longer, you or Bleys?"
"Hmm? Him, most likely. I live a terribly risky life and he has quite a head start on me."
Hannah nods. "I wonder if we could find a way to connect you to your visions. Would you like that, or should I mind my own business?"
She pauses for a moment and waves her hand around for a moment, then lets it drop. "I don't know. They've been a part of what I am for a long time, and I don't like that I have no control over them, so I can't decide if I want proper visions and all the heartache of being an oracle or none and all the heartache of being 'normal'. And every now and then, it's been lifesaving."
She smiles. "Besides, it's mostly a problem for other people, and maybe I like being disconcerting."
"That's really the question - does it interrupt your life in a bad way? If it doesn't, it'd probably be safer for us not to go messing around in things we don't understand," Hannah says, with all the force of someone who has done just that more times than she can count. "See, I'm an interfering woman. An interfering doctor, no, an interfering agent... well, and an interfering goody-two-shoes. No one here has told me that to my face just yet, but I'm giving them some time. I hope no one is too upset when stating the obvious doesn't stop me from interfering. I want to go up to Tir with you. You said, before, I'd go, but not yet. I can't go right away, but I want to try to go with you. Can we do that?"
"'Messing around in things we don't understand' is the family business, or at least the favorite hobby after gossiping, whoring, drinking, making asses of ourselves, and annoying each other. But we'll hold off on that.
"I'm going up to Tir the next time it rises. From Xanadu."
"I may still be there at this rate," Hannah says in frustration. "And if I am, we'll see. I've got my own seeking I have to do before I get out into shadow, and getting out into shadow has to be a priority right now.
"Xanadu, Xanadu, Xanadu. Hm," Hannah thinks. And then shrugs. And then nods. "Okay. Oh!" Hannah leans in and whispers. "I don't know if you remember talking to Nestor, since you didn't remember me coming in, but he wasn't happy, whatever it was. Thought you might want to know that.
"Oh!" Hannah adds, before Cambina can even respond to the last lightbulb. "People have mentioned you're the historian. I'm going to want to pick your brain about ancestry, but later, if that's okay?"
"Nestor doesn't like my personal arrangements. Tough for him. I can help with the assorted bastardry proceedings known collectively as royal genealogy, but it's maddeningly incomplete, as if someone wanted it to be muddy. That would be Grandfather, apparently. Let me know when you want a rundown."
"You don't have pictures here, do you? Are there... portraits?" Hannah asks. "My problem is, I've seen faces I don't have names for."
"There's a portrait hall for those still in favor. There are some who weren't in favor. A couple got themselves mostly expunged from the record." Cambina smiles thinly, but her irritation seems to be directed at someone other than Hannah. "For instance, I wouldn't look for any portraits of Grandfather's bastard Huon. Then again, Brand's portraits will probably be few and far between here after half a millennium too."
Hannah nods. "Can I pester you to show it to me? I can't imagine a better introduction than the one that includes a historian."
She nods, and rises. "It's down the hall."
Hannah follows her.
Cambina reaches an otherwise nondescript section of the hall and pulls a door open. The back of the door has a large portrait of an older man on it. "Grandfather", Cambina says. She steps onto a short balcony, which would be a niche for this portrait when the door was closed.
"Across that way we have the King of Almost Everywhere and his wife, surrounded by his favored older brothers and sisters and some of their mothers. There are some of our generation, as well. Who do you want to know more about?"
[May need to gloss/summarize here, see GMDP...]
[nods.]
Hannah looks around for anyone she recognizes at all from either her past or her patternwalk. It's them she asks about.
Hannah recognizes the man Cambina called "grandfather" and Gerard, but not anyone else.
Hannah nods at him, and then shakes her head. One last thing before she departs from Cambina; "Is there one of Ysabeau here?"
"No," says Cambina. "I'd look to Gerard or Julian for one of those. As near as I can tell, she wasn't here very much. To be honest, I get the impression that she was a lot like Robin, but had the misfortune to have Oberon for a father instead of Julian."
Hannah smiles, and nods. "I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Robin yet, but I'm sure it will come with time. Thank you so much, for everything."
After saying goodnight to Ossian, Meg makes her way back to the room she had last night. She finds more paper and ink (such richness! such decadence!) and writes.
To Lord Marius
Marius,
It is Meg Carper writing. I have been looking into this Huon today, but I don't know if I've found anything useful yet. I met Britta this evening, and she has offered her help, and perhaps that of Ambrose. Ossian is working on the card. We are planning to meet tomorrow to discuss plans. When can you come?
From what Ossian says, the card won't be ready for another day, so we've tomorrow to prepare.
Margrathea Carper
She seals it up and starts on another. After writing the direction she stops and considers how best to catch his interests, without suggesting he's bloody incompetant. They all seem very interested in how they are related to each other. Perhaps that will do?
To Prince Bleys
Your Highness,
My name is Margrathea Carper, and I have recently discovered I am related to your family by as yet unknown lineage. Potentially, I share the same father as Ossian, for he arrived in my homeland looking for clues to his parentage (which he has subsequently found). However, my more immediate concern is that Ossian's arrival, with Marius, Cloudius and Reid, coincided with an army lead by Huon attacking my home. I have been told that you have the most knowledge of this man, and I seek any advice you may have on how to defeat him. Marius, Ossian, Britta, and possibly Ambrose are going to rescue the family I have there.
Can we meet so I can explain further? I am in Amber until Ossian has finished a Card to get back to Abford, so I am at your disposal.
Margrathea Carper
She seals it up as well, and stars on the next while she's on a roll.
Lord Brennan,
Sir,
I know we were not introduced last night, but I thought I should write to you. I am told by those who understand this family much better than I, that it is possible that Ossian and have different parents, but unlikely. Should we meet and talk?
Margrathea Carper
She takes another sheet and writes a final letter.
Lady Cambina,
My lady,
I have recently discovered that I am related to your family, though not how. I'm afraid I write to ask for help. When speaking to people today a refrain emerged of 'Oh, you should talk to Cambina about that' and even if I hadn't wished to follow their advice, I found I had a growing desire to meet a woman who is regarded as expert in so many areas.
If you are willing to meet me, there are two things I should like to ask you about. Firstly, Huon, a disgraced member of this family who is currently attacking my homeland. And the second is dreams. I gather you know something about odd ones.
I'm sorry to be so vague, but explaining in writing would take many pages. Thank-you for your indulgence in reading this.
Margrathea Carper
Meg seals up the remaining letters and pokes her head out of her room to find a sleepy page. She asks him to deliver all four letters.
The page returns, and he tells Meg that he's delivered three of the notes, but that Captain Marius is nowhere to be found. The steward thinks he was last seen speaking to Meg's companions.
Meg clarifies that he means the Sisters, or finds out who else he might mean.
He does, indeed, mean the sisters. He just doesn't have a word for them.
Last modified: 3 March 2006