EXCERPTS FROM THE DIARIES OF MALADIN, PART FOUR

(portions of this document may have been edited or extracted)

Fiddlesticks. Shit, shit, and shitty. Lentaro is on a helicopter on his way to who knows how many tests before his ultimate dissection, vivisection, or whatever these shadow folk do for fun on aliens. Oh Len, boy did we let you down. Damn, I knew we should have taken Len and Dalen to Amber. But instead I follow Aaron's lead. I figured he was familiar with this shadow, its tech, its customs, and I blindly followed him to the fricken evil doctors of this gray city of concrete and steel. So here I stand, wind whipping around me on top of this skyscraper of a hospital. My heightened senses spell is still active and I have my sense of smell still jacked up from tracking down Len. Damn this city stinks. I tell Aaron that he is on a helicopter and then Aaron begins his own search for him with the Pattern. While he is about that I head downstairs to check on Rhyss and the room Dalen is supposed to be inand as I go I think back to the events of the last day that brought us to this place

I was in Helmwind earlier in the day. I was busy laying the groundwork and intelligence for Benedict's forthcoming engagement and troop movement there. I had done about all I could when Aaron trumped me.

"What happened to the Pattern?!," he demands as only an Amberite can. Like I fricken keep an eye on their colorful squiggle all day, how should I know. I tell him as much and we decide to meet up so he pulls me through. Fiona it seems, has been knocked completely out. I check her vitals and she seems fine. The shock to her system seemed to put her into a defensive unconscious state. I look Aaron over, but he just seems a bit shaken up.

At that opportune moment Dalen trumps me. Not knowing who the caller was (and not wanting to take a chance on being another victim in this rash of attacks on my new compatriots) I asked Aaron' help with a look and we linked hands. We saw Dalen, and she was in the Pattern room of Amber. She was shocked to see us both, and tried to cut the connection. Lord Aaron had other plans. I felt like a cheap toll bridge as Aaron reached through me and pulled us to her.

And then Aaron lit into her after we saw the blood on the Pattern. I was stunned that she would do such a terribly stupid thing. For a moment I channeled Aaron and gave Dalen a few choice words to drive home the seriousness of the situation. Let's just say she was already upset with herself enough and could take no more of us at that moment. She took off.

I spoke briefly with Aaron. He decided to check on the Pattern (even though I asked him to go back and check on Fiona) while I caught up to Dalen. She was obviously very upset with herself and both Aaron and I were concerned for her.

I used my trump of the courtyard to meet her at the top of the stairs. It did not seem to help things when she found me at the end of her long climb. I could only hope that the long trek and cooled her fiery emotion. It hadn't. I tried to talk to her in a more civil manner to find out what happened. She would have none of it and was brushing me off as she passed by.

"Is this how you treat me after all I have done for you?" I asked.

That stopped her.

Then we had a long talk. She had been tricked by a clever illusion and her feelings for a lost parent were played on. I told her not to be so hard on herself. Being an orphan myself I understood the pain of not having a parent. Any hope of interaction, any hope of a relationship with them is a deep part of an orphan that they carry with them always. And I told her as much. Wanting that to happen is not stupid.

We talked more, mainly about a plan to introduce pattern into the waveriders to make them able to live within the real. We set a time to meet and go forward with our plan. I was to contact Aaron to discuss his role in the plan. I found Aaron back in the Pattern room and caught him up. We decided to meet later.

Much earlier than I expected I was contacted by Aaron. He wanted to see me in one of the libraries NOW. Boy, he was sure animated and very insistent, so I went. He told me a sad tale about how Flora had been intrusted with the Jewel. His mother had taken it to a shadow Earth for safekeepingand it had been stolen from her home! Aaron is convinced that this matter should take precedence over anything else. We decide to recruit for the rescue mission and head off to the White Rose. There we found Dalen, a new amberite Rhyss that I found listening at the door, and eventually Lentaro too. Len and Aaron get all squirrelly, especially Aaron over some strange Pattern Imprint and a strange state of life/death. Len is confident that his Geas is gone, but Aaron has doubts. Geas? Len has a lot to tell me.

I had to vouch for Len to get Aaron to let it drop for a moment. It was that or we would still be sitting there on our thumbs while the Inquisition continued.

And so the fateful decision to take us all to Earth was made.

The moment Aaron made me wear those silky undergarment shorts I knew that this shadow was a strange and wicked place. It seems some religious stricture requires the wearing of the garment because Aaron said to me, "If you don't wear these people will be able to tell if you are Christian or not"

I know from the English language course Aaron shotgunned into my brain that a Christian is part of some world religion.

They seem strange and alien, but when in New York do as the New Yorkers do. I found the rest of some mish mash attire, checked my weapons, and then we were off to the automobile and then to the police station.

Blah blah blah, boring drive, boring lines, nasty snow, and a few hours later we had the list of some pawn shops and the police report on the robbery. We decided to check out these pawn shops for possible leads on the burglar(s).

Bad, bad, bad.

We made a very bad decision. I thought Aaron knew this world? I thought he knew this city? Oh well, it was a costly lesson. To cut to the chase we left Len and Dalen watching the very expensive car of Flora's outside the pawn shop. The neighborhood was very, very, rough. While we were inside it seems that they were jumped by gun totting thugs. The thugs died, the two of them got shot, and the car got stolen. Bad omen, for things only got worse.

Soon they appeared in the shop on the floor bleeding profusely and high as a kite on damn windy day. Aaron worked his mental majick on the shop owner and soon we were in a lowrider heading for the hospital.and you know what happened there.

Damn, damn, damn! None of us were thinking straight, it was like the drugs that Len and Dalen had taken started working on us, because we only made things worse. Now we need to rescue them from our own mistakes.

Meanwhile the Jewel slips farther away...

filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler filler