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The staff at the Naval is efficient and effective, despite the apparent predilection on the part of the hiring manager for hiring the asymmetrically maimed. Caine greets several by name and nods to others. He sweeps into the club as if he owns the place and it's all Lucas can do to follow in his wake. Shortly, Lucas and Caine are in a private room with a nice fire and a snifter of brandy for each of them, just reaching drinkable temperature.
While it's possible that the club had advance notice of Caine's plans (there are, after all, a large number of young naval officers in the castle lately), it may just be that they are always prepared for the arrival of notables.
"So, what did you think of Martin's news, Lucas?"
"Brief and to the point," said Lucas. "Succinct. There are times when my Uncle Benedict's hand in his training shows in more than his swordplay."
He raises the balloon glass, swirls the amber liquid around slowly, the lowers his nose to the glass and inhales. Finding it good, he sips.
"Doubtless we shall learn more when the King returns. The news that he is alive, well and planning to do so is perhaps sufficient unto the day."
He sips again. If he has a burning desire to learn what his uncle has discovered, he is not so vulgar as to display it if Caine wishes to lead to it via social niceties.
"Yes, though I cannot decide if I will sleep better or worse knowing Random is returning tomorrow with whatever news he has. And I'm hopeful that the news won't spread too far outside of the family before the King is visible."
He sips his brandy.
"How is your wife recovering from her spell?"
Lucas glances at him. "You believe it was a spell? You're not inclined to set it at the feet of my gullibility when confronted by 'women's problems'?" He takes a delicate sip of his brandy. "Or are you holding the case 'Not Proven' until something else happens?
Caine nods his head, acknowledging Lucas's point.
"In actual fact," he adds, "she is making a good recovery. Still delicate, of course - she has not been strong since Phillippe was born. Which perhaps does lend some credence to the idea that it was simply a fainting fit.
"But ... you said you had undertaken investigations?"
"We're very weak in the magical defenses department, Lucas, dependant on allies that are not necessarily reliable. However, I can investigate better if I have a handle on one thing I cannot grasp."
He drinks the last of his brandy, and pulls a bell pull.
"Why Solace? If it was to get at you, why you? Who are your enemies?"
"Well," Lucas says, with a faint smile, "I very much doubt that I am universally beloved. But I agree - I wouldn't have thought I had enemies that powerful. While as for Solace ... I find it hard to conceive of her as possessing enemies at all."
His face grows more serious, brooding. "I've wondered if it might have been a trial attack on our defences. A prod at the soft underbelly, if you like. It doesn't come much softer than Solace and my children ... "
He reaches into his jacket and abstracts his gold cigarette case marked with the Saint Cyr crest. Flipping it open, he offers the black cigarettes with their gold tips to Caine.
"Not a patch on Begman blacks," he says with a shrug. "But ... one tries."
Lucas cannot help but reflect this is appropriate treatment for the cigarette; at some point he will have to get out into a Shadow with decent tobacco and stock up ...
Caine takes one as well, and lights it, although he seems mostly indifferent to it after a few puffs.
He lights one for himself and blows a slow, meditative smoke ring.
"It has occurred to me that this could be connected to the rumours about Solace's origins," he says at last.
"Hmm. What's your take on those rumors, Lucas?"
A servant enters with fresh glasses and a recently opened bottle of brandy.
"The most popular of them place Eric as her father. It does not pass the realms of possibility that it was someone else in the family, of course."
Another smoke ring circles above his head lazily, for just an instant giving Lucas the appearance of a halo.
"I'm impressed by his fortitude, Uncle. Whoever he was - and that does not preclude Lord Vesper ... "
He waits for Caine to pour some brandy for him, and then swirls it around in his glass, watching the way the amber liquid shifts, and clings.
"There's always the possibility that she was attacked by someone who knew the truth. Perhaps it's time that I established it myself. Tell me, how would you recommend we test the proposition - without risking her upon a Pattern - which, co-incidentally, we singularly do not have?"
"That's a nontrivial question, and one I wish I had the answer to, Lucas. I personally favor Eric for the honor of Solace's paternity, if only because it fits with his known predilections. You don't remember Cambina's mother, do you? No, never mind. The only brother I can rule out is, of course, Corwin. And myself, if only because I was never that drunk." Caine shakes his head and takes a sip of the brandy.
Lucas smiles faintly, but then his face grows more serious.
"And you know of no non-lethal way to establish Solace's identity? Eric is in no position to tell us, and Lady Vesper will lie through her teeth if it suits her purposes."
"Of course, although it might be amusing to determine which answer would suit her purposes."
Caine rises from his chair to stand at the window and look out at Amber's denuded harbor, taking his drink with him. He turns back to Lucas and adds: "We might have to use a sorcerer to find out. If there's one we can trust."
"The two terms hardly seems synonymous," sighs Lucas. "I suppose ... Merlin, perhaps. Fiona. To be honest, I think Solace would be unhappy with either."
"Then we may have no way of telling."
He remains in his seat, but he is watching Caine under his heavy-lidded eyes.
"What do you make of our King's return like this, Uncle?" he asks.
"I think he's staying out of Martin's way, so the Prince can thrash one of Random's knights without the King having to notice it. "
Caine watches the harbor and Lucas notices the faint sound of rain on the window.
"That's what happens when you act on stale intelligence."
Lucas winces. "Indeed.
"And our intelligence on what happened to Aisling? Has that ... freshened at all?"
He rises and moves to join his Uncle at the window.
"A rough night ahead, do you think?"
"It will be interesting to see how this news travels and who acts on it. I don't like having all my brothers out of Amber. It gives the wrong impression to the people about who is in control and to what degree."
Lucas tactfully decides not to remind his uncle that the population of Amber have recently had five years to get used to the reality of all the brothers being out of Amber (apart from the crippled Gerard).
"At first the news will percolate slowly," says Lucas. "Unless given assistance. Martin didn't say whether Random wanted this to be a secret return, did he? From the point of view of public order, an open and public return will be best. It reassures a people inclined to be panicky. I suppose that we are not altogether all that easy to live with at the best of times ...
"And this is not those times."
He casts a sidelong glance at his uncle.
Caine is nodding at the last bit.
"You have heard of the dreams, and the omens?"
"Bits and pieces. There were also dreams preying on the army as we returned. Do you think that Solace was attacked like that, except that she was awake at the time?"
"I don't know," says Lucas. "It's possible. At the moment, I'm discounting nothing ... but I'm beginning to think that I'd like to get her away from here. A voyage in Shadow ... another trade mission, perhaps. The children are old enough to come with us ... and we would travel with all due state. There'd be dangers, of course - but there may be greater dangers here in Amber.
"What do you think?"
"Most of us spend most of our time away from Amber, of course. I can't see us huddling together for security against unknown assailants in any case.
He pauses and then shrugs. "If you think it's safest to go, then by all means you should look out for yourself, but I'd make sure you have an escape route in case you're wrong about the attacker's motives and abilities."
Lucas nods. "It's at times like this that trumps would be useful," he says gloomily. "With Paige away, perhaps I should speak to Ossian."
"It's often useful to have a set. I wish I had a set of the younger generation. Perhaps I should speak to Ossian, myself." Caine returns to his chair and places his glass back in the warmer.
"Perhaps," agrees Lucas easily. "Although I believe the process is held to be somewhat lengthy. The days could be long before you hold a complete set of us all. And, of course, a request from the King would have priority ...
"Do you have any other advice for me, Uncle?"
"None that won't sound avuncular," Caine says blandly. "You will, of course, let me know if further events jog your memory concerning potential or actual attackers?"
Lucas bows over his brandy. "Of course," he says. "And thank you for your advice."
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XVIII: Another Dinner in Amber | Index | XX: An Encounter in the Library
