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In the hall, Lucas encounters Cambina, who has Merlin in tow. "Lucas. How fortunate it is that I found you. Martin asked me to start trumping family members who aren't in Amber or Xanadu to let everyone know what's happened. If you're not doing anything right now, I could use your help. Corwin, Llewella, Jerod, Ossian, Reid, and Marius need to be told, and maybe some others. Vere is with Jovian, so he should find out when Jovian does. Martin said you'd taken his trump of your mother, so I guess you've talked to her?"
Merlin merely nods in greeting while Cambina is talking.
"Yes, I have," agrees Lucas. "She's out of Paris at the moment, so Corwin still needs to be informed. She'll probably alert him, but I'm sure he'll want more details." He nods back in greeting at Corwin's son. "Who would you like me to start with?"
Lucas, after all, has a good telephone manner. Long ago, in other Shadows, a couple of times he worked the phone lines at disaster telethons and found himself to be highly expeditious at raising money. He also found it a pretty much unparalleled way of getting dates.
"I'm going to try my brother, and I'm sure Merlin will want to talk to his father. Why don't you try Ossian or Reid?" Cambina suggests. "Unless you'd rather talk to Llewella?"
Merlin cuts that line of discussion off. "We know where Llewella is, do we not? I would think Ossian and Reid, who are in Shadow, would be at greater risk if there is danger. We should inform them first."
"Certainly," says Lucas obligingly. "Do you have either of their trumps to hand?"
"They should be in the trump booth," Cambina says. "Merlin was making a card for my brother for it."
"But if you would rather not trouble yourself to go there, I have both Ossian's and Reid's trumps in my case." Merlin pulls out the box in which he carries his trumps for emphasis.
"Thank you," says Lucas. "But let's repair ro somewhere where we can do this in comfort. My own rooms are somewhat in dis-order ... "
He'll be happy to go to the library or whatever sitting room the others suggest.
Merlin takes them back to his quarters, where the trump sketch of Jerod is.
Once settled, he accepts the trump cards offered by Merlin and attempts to make contact - Ossian first.
He is able to contact neither Ossian nor Reid.
Merlin is still speaking softly to Corwin when Lucas finishes his attempts to contact his cousins.
He sets the trumps down carefully, then reclines back in his chair, and glances at Cambina - at least partly on the grounds that Lucas would never do anything so déclassé as to listen in on someone else's conversation.
Cambina is prowling restlessly. When Lucas looks up, she says, "Jerod isn't answering either. I know he's probably just asleep, but a girl does worry." She shrugs, and changes the subject. "What are your plans now? You're moving the children, I imagine."
"Yes," says Lucas. "For the time being, until things crystallise, my mother will be taking them into her charge. To be in the happy position of having an Amberite of her generation doting on one is a rare occurrence. My children should exploit it before the charm of grandmotherly coo-ing wears off, I feel. In my own relationship with my mother, I am uncertain whether her unalloyed joy in my existence wore off with her first bout of morning sickness, or when she first saw the bathroom scales record those extra pounds that represented the nascent spark that was one day to shine so brightly as moi. At all events, I never recovered the unconditional adoration that was lost at that early stage. Hope and Phillippe should savour it while they can."
"I wouldn't know about cooing grandparents," Cambina says, and smiles, a bit acidly. "Will you be sending Solace with them? That would seem to militate against your mother cooing at the children."
"That will be be for Solace to decide," says Lucas. His tone is relaxed, and perfectly courteous, but there is also a finality in it.
Cambina nods, as if the disposition of her putative sister is of no moment.
"Has anyone gone down to the city yet? I imagine tocsins wildly sounding in the castle might have caused some disturbance down below."
Cambina shakes her head. "I don't think so. I know Martin meant to have someone talk to the servants. Someone will have to go down to speak to Sir Archer, I suppose. Probably me."
He reaches out towards Ossian's card again. "One last try, perhaps. I never take calls when I'm pointing Percy at the porcelain myself, and I've always found it a nuisance that trumps don't give you the option of checking to see who was your last contact."
Lucas takes up the trump and tries it, still to no effect. When he looks back up at Cambina, she shrugs. "I don't know what the time differential where they are is. Maybe we'll have better luck in an hour or two." She conspicuously does not look at the sketch of her brother.
"Are you planning to head back to Xanadu next? If you stay, Martin will put you to work, or Caine will."
"If someone offers me a ride. I'll go to Xanadu," says Lucas, spreading his hands wide. "I don't know whether anyone in Xanadu has thought to notify Solace that the children were in danger or, more happily, that they are in fact safe. Then ... well. She'll want to come here to be with them. And as there is presumably going to be some sort of Memorial Service in Amber, we may as well stay here and make ourselves useful. After that ... the children will be leaving. And Solace if she chooses." He shrugs.
Cambina nods. "I don't think there are any trumps of Xanadu yet. I have cards of our uncles. Do you know who's left there? Random, I suppose. Maybe Gerard? I can contact one of them and send you through." She draws out her deck and begins shuffling out cards.
"Gerard was certainly there and, I suspect, will be for some time," says Lucas. "He would probably be a better contact than the King who will probably believe - with some justice - that he has more pressing affairs on his plate than assisting me with my domestic arrangements."
"I'll contact him, then," Cambina says. She selects his trump and concentrates on it. "It's Cambina, Uncle. Lucas is with me. May I send him through?" After a moment, she reaches out to Lucas and hands him through.
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XLVII: Making Arrangements for the Family | Index | XLIX: Dealing with Business in Xanadu
