Facebook Blurbs
1: Random at castle Amber
Sitting on a high parapet of the castle Amber, Random looks down to the harbor of Amber.. From the King's Perch, he sees out to the light on the tip of of the Lighthouse of Cabra. For a moment, it flashes green and gold, and the thought of a stalking puma enters his mind... he mutters..."Oh damn... that can't be good..."
2: Tonacat and the Puma
In shades of gray and green the swirls of chaos rise and fall. The winds of stale herbs and old letters wafts from the stone behind which an old man sits, writing..
The stone that bears him floats in the stuff of chaos and he is not distracted.
A sleek beast flows like water on four fleet feet up grains of sand few would know as a trail, save he and the old man. Its tawny fur speckled with lights in yellows and oranges, shifts from fur to strings like a woven basket, to flecks like graven stone. It arrives behind the man, in flesh and teeth, and sits beside him.
"The Serpent has given me the Key, old man. You need but cross to Zilla, give tribute at the Fane, and we are free."
The man looks from the page he writes. Folding the cover of the book, he ties it with a cord woven of heartstrings. "You are free. I will have to make tribute. The others?"
"A bird has landed at Cabra. My brother has taken his post by the Mark. The High Lord has told me when you make your tribute, you may use the Key. Have you chosen a realm? "
The old man stands, sliding the book in a satchel of human skin. Reaching below the rock he draws out a long thin blade of carved of volcanic glass, carved with intricate runes. Buckling it to his belt, he draws a thick black dagger of volcanic glass, a twin to the killing blade. Examining it with care.
"Yes.. tribute.. It is time to make a sacrifice. Peasant's blood to appease the High Lord, and a King's blood to avenge my father's faults"
The beast and the man walk down the trail together. If other ears were near them, they would have heard them chortling.
3: Random, Benedict, Bleys, & Vance at the Oracle of Night
Four men walk to the base of the towering spires around the field of broken pillars. War has broken some pillars but spires are too close to Chaos and can never be fully broken. The first ascends the stairs. Thin, gaunt, but muscled, Benedict moves with the grace of the warrior born. He sits on the icy stone seat and gazes into the mist. In time he descends. Dour, even for a grim man, he looks to the fourth man with the look of death. The second man, in reds and golds, walks up to take the seat, taking a chug of the whiskey of Amber for fortification. His continence is that of a man walking to the gallows. He has been here before an only a dagger from his king could drag him here again. In time Bleys comes down from the high seat. Riffling cards as he comes, he opens a trump and steps though before he can confront the fourth man. The third man, seeing the second depart, looks to the fourth, his face an appeal to let him pass on the trip up the stairs. The fourth shakes his head. Turning, the third man ascends as though he would meet the axe at the top. In time he returns. Vance’s eyes cannot meet the fourth man’s gaze.
The fourth man starts up the stairs but is stopped by the first. “Don’t. Nothing you will see up there matters now. We know enough. “ The fourth man says, “Mayhap. But I am willing to bet it will answer me clearer.” The man strides up the stairs. As he walks he pulls a heavy chain from beneath his doublet. On it hangs a heavy red stone. He dons the Eye of the Serpent and takes a seat on the throne of the Oracle of Night. The stone glows brightly red, as if it objects. It tugs on the chain around his neck. Casting his mind into the stone to calm it, he sees the red fire within. “That can’t be good”
