Chapter 2 - The Corruption of Kalaran

"Bah! I don't believe it possible YOU would trust anyone Uncle! Even your parents! Mother pull me though, I have had my fill of this family's madness!" Kalaran tries with all his might to make the connection and trump to Fiona.

As Caine watches, Kalaran is enveloped in a rainbow haze, though no hand touches his own, and he vanishes from the room.

And finds himself in a peaceful, sheltered cove. The sea is a rich deep blue, and small white-flecked furrows of waves roll in gently. The narrow strand has a sand that is white gold, almost brilliant beneath the sun that is high overhead in an azure sky. The whole place has a deep peacefulness that is very relaxing.

All around, green woods seem to come almost to the sea itself ... a rich green that suggests some Mediterranean type climate. And beneath is lined with the soft glossy leaves on low-growing laurel.

Suddenly ... a strange harsh "clonking".

Kalaran turns his head, and sees, standing on a small promontory above his head, a white billy goat wearing a heavy metal bell around his neck, and looking down at him with interest.

"Mmmaaa," says the goat, seeming to watch the stranger with interest.

Even more interesting, behind the animal, Kalaran can see a temple of purest white at the very top of the hill that overlooks the bay ... a vast Doric temple of white marble columns - the only sign of human artifice in the entire landscape.

Kalaran turns and looks up at the goat, surprise turning to mirth, he says. "Well Mmmaaa! Not exactly what I was expecting to find, but with you, one never knows what to expect anyway!" He laughs and puts his sword away.

Then he takes off the crazy straw wig Cane hung on him and throws it up to the goat. "Here chew on this, it looks like hay after all."

The goat accepts it with phlegmatic gratitude and starts to chew on it straightaway.

He puts his cards away, and takes out a small bundle of golden colored dragonet, from his cape. He holds the dragonet out as the small creature stretches out its wings. "Well Goldenwing search out the temple and lands above. Fly back to me at the first sign of danger!" Then he releases the dragonet into the air.

The little dragonet rises ... high ... high ... and becomes a speck of gold in the air.

Then Kalaran turns and walks further out on the beach turns around and looks over the area above and around him, as he scouts for the easiest route to the temple above.

There is a clear path ... it winds through the myrtles up the side of the hill towards the temple ... although it twists so much it is hard to see whether it actually reaches the temple or not.

Underfoot, the path is the same white gold sand that forms the beach, although it seems to become more rocky further up.

Even as he stands there gazing upward, he is aware of a returning golden speck ... Swiftly it comes, growing larger - but not so very large ...

And Goldenwing, looking extremely self-satisfied, has landed on his shoulder. The little dragonet drops something into Kalaran's outstretched hand, and then starts to preen contentedly. Clearly, no danger in this land has ruffled Goldenwing's composure.

Looking down, Kalaren sees what the dragonette has brought - a little stem of bay - the sort that is commonly grown in the precincts of certain temples - and wrapped around it, three dark red long curling hairs ... his mother's.

Kalaran smiles with relief and starts walking up the path! As he goes he tries some simple shadow walking to return his normal garb.

But as Kalaren tries to return to his normal garb, he notices something strange - when he returns to this Shadow, he finds himself wearing a short tunic of the style favoured in Ancient Greece on Shadow Earth (and numerous other Shadows too). Over it is swathed a warm cloak of fine wool. On his feet, in place of his normal boots, are sturdy sandals ... actually, far more practical for ascending the sandy path.

He sees no people as he climbs - in fact nothing save a few more goats, who appear vaguely interested in his progress ... all with the same loud clonking bells. Then, as he approaches the rim of the hill, there in a little dell, he finds a pen full of glossy and handsome pigs.

Strangely enough, they all appear to be boars. And they have a distinct air of melancholy.

Passing them, a final short, steep rise brings Kalaren to a flat open plain ... dominated by the vast white temple. Low wide steps lead up to the colonnade of vast Doric columns ... each thirty feet in height.

The frieze around the Temple is remarkable ... and strange. If Kalaran takes a moment to look at the metopes, he will see that they depict a strange story. Three godlike figures engaged in some strange and arcane struggle - with each other ... and with something else - one of whom is clearly his mother, another of whom seems to be Bleys ... and the third?

And inside, Kalaren can see, is a vast open space leading to a darkened area at the far end, where there seems to be some sort of inner room or shrine within the temple.

As he approaches the colonnade, he hears a faint, sweet music, and looking up he sees that wind chimes, some vast, some tiny, have been hung high between the Doric columns, and it is from these that the music comes.

Kalaran walks further into the temple and pauses long enough for his eyes to adjust to the dimmer lighting inside.

The temple is deserted. To one side there are scattered garlands of deep red roses ... woven into long strands with vines. They might once have decked a statue ... or revellers. Now they have been thrown aside ... and are already wilting, more than half dead.

Up ahead is the small shrine. There is a closed wooden door - but apart from that it seems to be a sealed marble box ... almost like a mausoleum.

As Kalaran approaches the door, Goldenwing becomes increasingly disturbed. When he lays his hand on the handle to enter, Goldenwing gives an ugly squawk of sheer fright and launches into the air from his shoulder. The little dragonet finds refuge among the lintels of the great building ... and stays there, chittering nervously.

Kalaran moves back from the door, to look up at Goldenwing. "What is the matter boy? What has you so spooked? Tell Kal what the trouble is."

Kal makes no movement to the mausoleum, but instead moves out around to the outside of the temple to explore it from all angles. If Goldenwing returns to him he will reassure the dragonet and ask it where he found the bits of red hair?

Once Kalaran moves away from the inside of the temple, Goldenwing returns, seeming a little comforted. There is a cluster of low growing bay trees (about waist high) with twisting paths between them, planted to one side of the Temple. As Kalaran looks and them - and perhaps tries the paths - he will realise it is a maze ... but one that bears a disturbing similarity to the Pattern.

It isn't a Pattern though - if he assays a few steps, there is no blue fire, no Pattern sensation. All he hears is the murmuring of innumerable bees and the distant call of doves ... he can even see some white doves from where he stands, perched on the pediment of the Temple. And in the further distance, there are the bells and bleatings of the few goats.

In the centre of the maze is an older, taller bay tree. And it is here that Kalaran find two or three more hairs - as though his mother has come very close to the tree, and rested her head against the trunk ... before pulling away (or being pulled away?) impatiently.

Apart from the gentle noises of nature, there is no other sound ... and no-one in sight

Kalaran will take time to examine the ground and tree for and tell tale signs of a struggle, or areas of blood. If he finds none he will once again draw out the two cards with the image of Fiona. He will check both cards for any change in the image. If he finds none he will then hold the red hair in the same hand as the trumps. He will try to call his mother to mind, and use the cards as a sort of divining rod to locate Fiona, if she doesn't answer him.

There is no sign that any struggle took place outside the Temple.

When Kalaran looks at the cards, he is suddenly filled with a feeling of quiet, almost numb despair. So intense is the feeling that it comes across almost as a pang of pain. And yet the image on both cards looks just the same.

At the same time, he feels drawn towards that marble mausoleum type structure within the Temple.

"Well you stay here my little friend, and be safe," says Kalaran. Then he looks beneath the woolen cape to see if his sword is still there. Now he rushes back into the temple once more to see if he can open the mausoleum door!

The door is wooden, the handle a metal circle that needs to be held and twisted. But when Kalaran attempts to do so, the metal feels oddly greasy, and seems to slide away from his grasp.

Goldenwing, who has flown back up to the rafters, chitters anxiously.

Kal slides one of the trumps of Fiona trump into the door jam next to the door handle trying to open the door. But this fails so he then pricks his finger on his sword and puts a drop of his Amber blood on the door and door handle. Which also fails to open the locked door!

Kal thinks for a time frustrated at his vane attempts. He then remembers the red hair and tries bringing the few red hairs of his mother, or so he believes them to be, into contact with the door and door handle willing it to open.

When the hairs come in contact with the handle, it turns quite firmly and easily in his hand, and the wooden door opens with only the faintest of creaks.

Goldenwing is still flatly refusing to come down from the rafters, so Kalaran must enter alone. Through the open door her can see quite a light room. This seem confusing ... until her looked up. There are skylights above the room, cut into the roof of the temple, that make the room light and airy.

Nevertheless ... it is still a sealed marble room ...

All grey marble ... except, in the centres of the floor, a pattern is laid out ... the maze pattern that Kalaran saw in the paths between the bay trees outside ...

As he steps towards it, there is a slight creak behind him ... followed by a SLAM!

If he turns round, he will see that the door has slammed shut behind him ...

And ahead of him , in the plain marble box of a room, is the maze ....

Kal sighs to himself within the small marble room; though his mother is not to be found here, he thinks, perhaps if he walks the strange pattern he'll be able to teleport to her from the middle of it? Though he knows there is no turning back now, he places his foot upon the beginning of the pattern and takes the first step. He hopes this is like the pattern in Amber, though there are many tales, and rumors of distorted copies of such, bringing distortion and even death to those foolish even to walk it! He curses himself for his creeping doubt and clears his mind of any thoughts but moving along the pattern. He steps forward again ... and .... again...

As he steps forward, he becomes aware of an odd sensation ... It feels as though he is moving down .. as well as forward. He looks up and sees that it is not an illusion - the black marble is so cunning laid that although it looks as though it is level, it is in fact a steep incline; it actually leads whoever treads the maze deeper and deeper into the earth.

At first the walls are still smooth cut marble ... but as Kalaran descends, they become rough-hewn rock. And as he moves away from the marble room, so that light too fails.

Ahead of him, he is aware of a dim, flickering glow ...

And oddly, he can also hear something that sounds strangely like a fountain ...

Kalaran walks onward slowly and carefully in the dim light.

As he reaches the final part of the maze ... he realises he is on a whole lower level. More dimly lit (there are two flaming torches fixed into the wall), he realises he is in a small circular cave with rough hewn rock walls. It is an ancient shrine - in such a place did the Sibyls of Shadow Earth light their tripods, inhale the sacred fumes, and then speak wonderful and strange prophecies.

Indeed, looking around, Kalaran will see a sacred tripod ... but it has been kicked over on one side ... its load of incense scattered on the floor. Yet a faint, heavy scent hangs redolent in the confined air of the shrine.

And then he looks towards the source of the sound. A small spring that breaks from the rock walls and splashes its way down into a shallow rock hewn basin at about waist height ...

Kneeling before this is a figure ... red curls unbound and tumbling to her waist, dressed in the simple white dress of a Temple priestess, with a simple circlet of gold around her head. Her arms and feet are bare ... he can see the dusty soles of her feet.

She is kneeling in front of the basin ... her arms are resting on its rim and her head is on one side, pillowed on her left forearm. She appears totally unaware of his presence.

It is his mother.

Kalaran speaks softly as to not startle her. "Mother? Is that truly you? Have I found you at long last?"

There is no reply. Instead she reaches out one hand and trails it musingly in the icy cold spring water that has gathered in the bowl. Her eyes appear fixed on the little underground waterfall of the spring.

Kalaran walks around the fountain and calls out "FIONA!" hoping to break the woman out of her trance!

Her head lifts ... and she half turns away from the water. Now he can see her face is profile, her head tilted back, and the long line of her neck ... the line broken with a chain she is wearing.

"Kalaran?" she says, and she sounds confused. "Is this another trap?"

Then she laughs harshly. "Believe what you will! Suspicion weakens you!"

"Mother!" Kalaran gasps in outrage. "Who has done this to you? Who has dared to place chains on you, a daughter of Amber? And how came you to this place!"

Though still not sure of her identity Kalaran attempts to reassure her and himself with a small test of her memory. "Mother do you remember, the happier times when I was a child, and you still loved father? You sang such a sweet lullaby to me. Do you remember it? It always made me feel such comfort."

She lifts her head a little more ... and he realises that the chain is not a restriction ... but rather that it holds some heavy object, lost in the soft white folds of her garment.

"Kalaran," she says, a little wearily, "I don't have time for games ... "

This tone is convincingly like his mother's at her most impatient.

"I know! I know!" she suddenly adds jeeringly ... and she begins to sing the lines of the lullaby she sang him as a child and that delighted the young boy so. Not sweet (perhaps that was his test too) but teasing and comically. There is a oddly harsh note to her voice ... and she sings a little swiftly ...

And then halfway through her voice changes and slows ...

She finishes with a little sigh.

"There," she finishes, her head sinking down again. "Enough of this. Let me ..."

Her voice changes again, mockingly. "Rest? I think not."

"Well I recognise the sarcasm if not the tune, mother." Kalaran moves to support her.

"But, by the Unicorn, what are you doing here? Are you trapped somehow in this shadow? Have you really given into the Darke? I find that very hard to believe of you, yet you seem so listless and depressed. What, if anything, can I do to help you? Speak to me mother what has happened?" Kalaran continues.

She raises her head, in a strange listening posture ...

Then she shakes it.

"You should not have come, Kalaran," she says. Her voice is weary, even a little sad. "No one has trapped me here. I came here for ... "

A sudden giggle escapes her lips. "For peace and quiet ... that was it, wasn't it? Peace and quiet ... to reflect ... No!"

With a last sudden cry, she rises to her feet, turning round to face him for the first time. Her hands are clenched at her sides, and her pale - apart from her lips, which are swollen and bloody where she appears to have chewed on them. And her eyes, ringed with sleepless red, blink rapidly.

"Kalaran," she says urgently. "You must tell me ... did you come alone? Or have you betrayed me?"

"I have betrayed no one mother! Not even my untrusting relatives! Yet I'll not answer till you tell me more. Now! Will you try to get a grip on whatever has hold of you and tell me what is really going on here? Why are you REALLY here in this place in this pitiful condition!" He says try to keep his temper and his worry over her poor state out of his voice!

She sighs.

"I feared they tricked you," she says softly. "You alone ... can help me ... But if they had come ... I cannot strive against them ... and against ... "

Her eyes are suddenly full of a wicked, malicious triumph.

"Against me!" she cried exultantly, and laughs wildly, throwing her head back ...

Suddenly she tenses and then, very slowly, almost panting with the effort, she lowers her head and looks at him. Slowly, she reaches out a hand towards him.

"This is hard," she says sorrowfully. "So very hard ... I had not realised, did not know ... If I had ... perhaps I would have chosen differently. But then ... I desired knowledge ... I thirsted so very ... "

Suddenly she whirls and takes three strides back towards the basin, filled almost to overflowing by the spring ... She dashes a hand along the surface of the waterm catching up droplets that glitter like myriad crystals in the cave, and then scatters them wildly.

"You thirst!" she cries mockingly. "Then drink ... drink!"

A gasp, then a cry, aching with loss, and Fiona is staggering backwards towards Kalaran, as urgently as if the basin was filled with burning flames.

"Nooo!"

She feels him behind her and turns, her face pale with a palpable terror.

"Kalaran ... help me," she begs.

Holding back his tears Kalaran moves to embrace his mother. "Come mother you must rest, it is all right, now. It is me, Kal mother. And I could never harm you. Come rest in my arms. I was trained in the Shattered Realms, as a dreamweaver. Let me weave a better dream for you."

Her expression changes, a strange feral look.

"Yes ... " she says thickly. "Dreams ... that might do ... "

And then her eyes widen and she clutches at the cloth of his toga.

"Kal ... no," she says urgently. "Listen to me ... before it breaks through .. I =must= not sleep. If I do ... I cannot ... "

She twists away suddenly and raises both hands to the side of her head, squeezing, as though pressing something down ...

"I hope I am safe here," she says, in the same urgent voice. "But it is hard, so hard, to hold it at bay. Even talking to you ... grows ... harder … "

"Mother how can I help sustain you in your fight with the Darke? Kalaran says as he holds his mother tightly, tears now visible in his eyes. "Tell me how I can help you!"

Throughout this, Kalaran attempts to grab hold of the chain to see what she is bound to, or perhaps by! If it is the true gem of judgment she wears, Kal thinks that he may be able to help Fiona, after all!

A sudden crafty look comes into her eyes and she smiles.

"Take it, Kalaran. Take the Jewel from me. It is yours by right, you know. You can walk the Pattern and attune with it ... and then you alone will save Amber ... "

And then she is backing away from him, shaking her head.

"No, Kal! If you take it now ... I am lost!"

"Mother, how can you know so little of me? I am not here to take the jewel from you! If I was the others would be here with me.

"Together mother, you and I must find a way to help you! The others, I do not trust! They are too ready to use force against you." Kal slowly embraces his mother, and touches the gem.

"Mother can you link your mind with mine, using this gem?" He asks and awaits her answer.

He feels her trembling within his arms. Her face is averted; she doesn't look up at him.

When she speaks her voice is low, and subdued.

"Are you willing to share your mind with me? Are you willing to link our minds, so that I may become a part of you? Is this what you truly desire?"

Her voice fades ... and she gives a little whimper, almost of pain.

"No ... " she breathes, so faint it is nearly a sigh.

"YES mother, it is my wish! Let me take this Darkness from you! At the moment that you feel you are free of it, you MUST then strike at me with your all your skill, using your strongest mind powers or, failing that, strike me down, with my own sword. DO NOT hesitate!" With his free hand, Kal places his sword into her hand, and waits what is certain to follow.

"Kal ... even now ... you don't realise ,... " she begins sorrowfully. And then her voice changes - a triumphant hiss and snarl.

"Yes! Yes! Hold out your hand to me! Let us claim you for our own!"

Her hand takes the blade from him and grasps it firmly.

Kalaran looks into her eyes and holds out his arm to her. "Mother I have always been your son, come let me free you!"

She looks deep into his eyes ... and he feels the pain as the blade makes a long sweeping cut across the palm.

And then ... nothing ...

He is aware of his own breathing, the pain in his hand, the blood that drips onto the floor.

And his mother, smiling at him.

"Kal," she says, "my son. Truly my son now ... "

He is conscious of a feeling of overwhelming happiness ... of triumph even. For at last he understands, truly understand the power his Mother has sought for so long. And it is his!

There is no need for sacrifice, or for killing! At least ... not for his mother or for him! It is others who must die, those who refuse to accept the power that is within them both, the power that must shake the Universe free of the loathsome abomination that is the Pattern ... the evil that Oberon introduced to the world so long ago.

Then he looks at his mother and understands.

She is not whole. Within her, two natures fight and contend. There is the pure flame of truth - which only now he sees and loves ... but there is also the old corrupt self that tied her to the Pattern, which she is endeavouring to fight off and subdue ... the self that tried to prevent him from accepting the Power that now fills him.

And he sees and knows how sometimes this baser self is in control, at war with her better part. But it is a struggle that she alone can win.

Then, from far away, he hears an alarmed squawk. Goldenwing!

He draws a deep breath ... and it is as though his lungs have expanded, breathing in more air, more life-giving, strength-giving air. He feels the power of his arms ... and his .... claws. He steps forward, conscious of the new strength, speed and agility he possesses ... Some would call his movements bestial - after all, claws are different from feet to walk and stand on.

But the power ... the strength! He glories in it.

Kal steps beside his mother and says. "I'll have my sword back now, mother! I've have something I'd like to accomplish!"

Smiling, she hands him the sword.

"Let it drink deep, my Kalaran," she says softly.

Smiling back, Kalaran takes the sword, then very suddenly snatches the chain off from around his mother's neck with his other hand!

She gasps ... and then he suddenly sees that weakling Mother ... the one who has fought against the glorious power of the dark so long.

And within his ears he hears a voice ... the voice of another woman, so cold it burns him like a flame.

"Yes ... oh yes! Yes!" The sibilant hisses of the words send shivers along his spine ...

And then he hears a sound that makes him turn ...

Coming down the steps, attired in tunics much like his own, are Caine, Vincent, Joshua and Isadora, their blades drawn and their faces grim ...

 

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