Her eyes were closed as she concentrated.  Then a smile touched her lips. At that moment a horse came racing around a stand of rocks toward them. It wasn't your average horse. It was huge for one thing, And striped. It's mane and tail were cropped. It was golden, with white stripes, its eyes dark and wild looking, its nostrils flared.  Not far behind it came another of its ilk. This one silver and gray striped. Just as big and just as wild looking.
 

The two horses came to Fiona.

 

"Hullo, sweetheart. Thanks for bringing a friend," Fiona murmured as she stroked the golden one. 
 

The silverish one looked at Cayden somewhat uncertainly. "You'll have to make friends, I'm afraid. They're bred for Hell Rides and combat. If he agrees to carry you, he'll be invaluable," Fiona explained to Cayden.

 

Cayden reached out with his senses, touching the animal's mind carefully.  Images from the horse's mind flooded his.  Wildness, racing fast and free, the wind parting and streaming around as he flew over the ground.  Power and courage and spirit.  This was a horse that would tolerate a bridle, but only barely.  He'd carry the bit high and spit it out if his rider didn't please him.  He was as untamed as the wind.

"Well, handsome?" Cayden whispered in his mind, take a step closer to lay his palm against his neck.  He stroked him, almost like he would a lover, using his touch to learn and to convey.  "Interested in an adventure?"

The horse swung his head around, looking Cayden in the eye and then flung his head up, almost rearing, whinnying in response.  Cayden laughed and leaned in towards the horse, letting his scent surround the animal.  The horse stomped the ground, prancing sideways, whinnying again, then ruffled Cayden's hair, blowing air into it.  Cayden laughed again, his hand still stroking down his neck to his chest, feeling the muscles ripple under his hand.  "I take it that's a yes, don't you, angel?"

She laughed. "Sure enough it does seem like one. I'm going to start us off slow and easy so your big guy gets the idea. I'll start shifting shadow a bit at a time. I don't want to just use the spell and jump into a shadow close to chaos and upset either of them. We might have to Hell Ride back, but no sense wearing me or them out now."

He stopped crooning to the animal and gave her a look.  "Hell ride?"

"A journey through shadow where we alter the world too fast and too much. It's exhausting and frightening for those not used to it."  She magicked up a saddle and bridle for her mount then swung up onto the golden. "I'll explain as I begin to move us through shadow."

"She's so nice, isn't she handsome?" Cayden whispered as he mounted.  "Just the thought of it makes me go all tingly inside."  He soothed the horse for a moment, letting him get used to the saddle and the weight.  "Ready whenever you are angel."

"I'm trying to be nice, Cayden," she replied. "It's .. there is so much that is hard to explain. Showing works best."

"I meant the way you promise me treats, like hell rides and don't even tell me I have to be good to get it."

"Uh huh," she replied.  "Come on," she said as she swung her horse and began walking off toward the western horizon.

He laughed and followed her.  "She doesn't believe us, handsome, but she'll learn."  He settled himself more comfortable in the saddle.  "So, angel...other than your delectable backside  anything else I should be focusing on?"

"Well, obviously any thing that shows up to attack us, but short of that, look for some blue flowers by that rock there. That's going to be our first step and my first manipulation of Shadow."

They approached the rock and sure enough there was a clump of beautiful bright blue flowers. 

"Next, I'll work on the sky."  As she said it the sky color began to change from the clear normal blue above them skidding relatively slowly toward purple.

"Nice."

"The trick is to make all the elements the same as the shadow you are aiming for. The color of the sky, the fauna, the flora, the dirt, the weather. When you are trying to get to someplace often you can achieve one element but then have to give it up to hang onto another. It's an art not a science.  I'll try for a more mountainous terrain now."  The trail they were on began to curve and rise a bit and rocks became more prevalent. The trail curved more and rose up over a low hill.  When they crested that hill beyond them rose a landscape of snow covered youngish mountains.  The temperature began to drop.

Fiona eyed Cayden's horse then bit her lip, concentrating. The sun fell behind a mountain and it was nighttime. Snow began to fall. The smell of the sea came to them on the chill breeze.  Cayden could hear the crashing of surf.

The horses plodded on, the silver seeming a bit surprised but not anxious.

"I want to put some more distance between  us and Earth, before I try this spell.  Sometimes effects propagate through Shadow and I'd rather not risk an attack on our friends."

They rode until the moon rose and the snow flurries ended. It was crisply cold and the horses' hooves chopped through icy puddles on the roadway, which had changed from a narrow dirt track to a wider, far more travelled road. Lights became visible ahead of them. It looked like a small town. Beside the road fences arose and fallow fields awaited spring under a blanket of frozen snow.

"Let's pull off over there," Fiona said, nodding toward a grouping of rocks that would protect them from the cold wind. She frowned. "I'm not happy we haven't seen the Black Road, or that we've seen no one. I mean, generally speaking there are lots of living creatures one sees. We've seen nothing."

He turned Handsome toward where she was pointing.  "Are we resting or camping?" he asked.

"Camp. Let's camp. I want to reach out from here and feel my way forward then try the spell in the morning."

He nodded and then swung himself to the ground.  He looked around, concentrating.  In a flash there was a fire, and a wind break surrounding the rocks.  Behind it, in the most sheltered spot he put a tent.  "What do you want for dinner?" he asked, as he held the golden's bridle while she slid to the ground.

"I'm open to most anything," she replied. "Thanks for doing that. I'm more tired than I thought."

He unsaddled the horses and turned them loose to graze.  He got a stew simmering over the fire and pot of coffee keeping warm while he took her a cup.  "Here.  This will help."

"Thanks." She'd been standing in the cold wind staring at the lights of the town. "I don't sense any life there."

He put his arms around her, drawing her back against his chest and rested his chin on the top of her head.  "We can go check it out if you want."

"Tomorrow. I don't want to bring attention down on us if we can avoid it. I'm hoping your abilities won't be as noticable as my Pattern magic. Maybe we'll have a quiet night."  She shivered then settled back into his arms. "I've got this growing sense of dread. I think it's a spell someone's trying to put on me."

Cayden frowned and looked inward, focusing on the tapestry in his head and the part that was her.  There was a darker color hovering over her and beginning to leech itself into her usual brighter colors.  Not good.  "I'd have to say you might be on to something there, baby."

"Right," she said then, "let's eat and rest. No sense worrying about it before tomorrow."

He served and they ate.  They finished and he did dishes.  Then he banked the fire.  "Come on angel, time for bed.  You can sleep away the foreboding for a while."

The slept curled up together, the horses staying in close to the fire.

-----------------------------------

A soft whinnying awoke Cayden. He knew from the way Fiona held herself she was awake too.

"Something is on the other side of the fire," she whispered into his ear.  He could hear a soft snuffling sort of sound and then a scrabbling barely louder than leaves blown by wind followed.

"You think?" he whispered in her mind, as he traced her ear with the tip of his tongue.  He had his hand on the hilt of his sword.  The horses whinnied louder, stomping their hoofs.  

"Now," she said and in one fluid motion was on her feet her sword in her hand. Creatures, big and dark, humanoid, came at her, seemingly ignoring Cayden.  It was clear they were after Fiona.  She swung her sword at the nearest one, causing it to scream as dark blood poured from a lopped off arm.

Cayden was up behind her, while overhead the clouds began to boil, obscuring the stars and making the night blacker.  Lightening flashed, exploding from cloud to cloud and then leapt to earth, obeying Cayden's will.  He gathered the energy, balling it like a snowball and then flung it at the creature closest to Fiona.  He was already slinging the second as his first target exploded and then dissolved into ash.

Fiona stepped into each swing of her sword, advancing toward them, her mouth and face grim, determination and confidence in every move. She picked one up and flung him 20 or so feet through the air.  The creatures hesitated a moment then, seemed to consult each other or possibly someone else and then arrayed themselves out in a line. Someone flickered into existence just behind them.

"Hello, cousin," he said.

Fiona's eyes narrowed. "I don't know you," she said.

"You wouldn't. We should be on the same side, Fiona. Bastards, treated like shit by our royal parents. Why are you fighting for them?"  The last word was flung at her.

"Look. I'm not interested in Amber," Fiona said flatly. "Or the Courts for that matter. I just want to live my life and be left alone. You started this shit so I'm going to finish it for you."

Cayden decided he was glad his parents had been only children.

Fiona raised a hand and sent a vortex of pure energy at the man standing there grinning at her. He moved his own hand to block her energy and disappeared, along with his army of creatures.

"Dammit," she muttered. "I hate family."

"Then I'm glad I'm not family.  You alright?"

"I'm good. You?" she asked, turning to run her eyes over him. "Nice job with the energy ball."

He pulled her up against him.  "Thanks."  He nuzzled her neck.  "Playing with energy always has this after effect I should warn you about."

"What's that," she asked a bit breathlessly.

He nibbled his way down her throat.  "I turn into the Energizer Bunny.  I just keep going, and going and going."

She groaned. "Save it for when I can enjoy it. Which will hopefully be very soon.  Let's get out of here. I don't wanna find out if these guys reanimate themselves."

He laughed.  I'm ready whenever you are, angel."

They got their stuff and packed up, put out the last of the fire and mounted up, heading toward the village. Still there was no sign of life. In fact, as the sky lightened as dawn approached they began to see signs of mayhem. A body slung into a ditch. A farmhouse burned out. The town was even grimmer, bodies bloated and decaying in the streets. Beyond the town was something that was black and seething. It was like a river of darkness and they could almost make out creatures walking it.

Fiona went pale as she regarded it. "Well, I guess here is as good a place to use the spell as any. I don't want to cross it if I don't have to. Corwin said it was doable but took all the energy he had to cut it in two."

Cayden eyed it.  He'd never been a fan of horror movies.  And he hated it when life imitated art.  "You're the expert."

"Right. Unfortunately my cousin who we just met is likely far more an expert than I.  That red hair marks him as to what branch of the family he comes from. The Redheads are the most magical, my Aunt Fiona being the strongest, since we think her brother Brand is dead. But who knows. When last seen he was a living Trump and I'm not certain an arrow could have actually killed him."

Fiona said this as she climbed off Sweetheart and then handed Cayden his reins. "Hold them tight, both of them might bolt if this spell does what I think it will."  She smiled a tiny smile at Cayden. "Wish us luck."

"Tight," he said, shifting his grip on both sets of reins and then planting himself firmly in the minds of both animals.  "Got it."

Fiona turned and regarded the black road. She squared her shoulders, planted her feet wide and raised her sword toward the rising sun. She didn't say any words aloud, she just stood there, as the magic built around her. The horses tried to shy away as the black road began to swirl in eddies and the grassy spot they stood on seemed to roil under them.  Still Fiona stood there unmoving.

The sky began to change. Clouds, as if powered by a tornado or a hurricane, skidded past them at dizzying speed. When Cayden looked ahead it was as if the patch of earth they stood on was racing forward down along the black road, against its flow, toward its source. As they moved in this way the landscape became more and more surreal, with colors all wrong, swirling suns and moons and a sort of milky substance instead of good solid earth under them. Light and darkness seemed to eddy, with no rational motion of either of them, and there were multiples of them, the sky currently half dark and half light.

The apparent movement ended so abruptly both Fiona and Cayden were almost thrown to the ground from their feet. The horses, their eyes wide with fear, pulled at the reins Cayden was holding with a death grip.

"We appear to have arrived," Fiona said, regarding the scene before them. A gormenghast type castle stood on a plain far below them. The earth around it swirled in eddies and waves of it broke against the high stone walls of the keep.  Lines of light, of all colors, swirled past them like ribbons, snapping in the stiff wind that buffeted them.

"Well, it isn't the Keep of the Four Worlds, anyway," Fiona muttered. "On the other hand, I know something about that place. This I know nothing of."

"It's learning new things that keeps the mind young."

"Right. Let's hope we live to pass on the wonderful new things we learn. We're being watched," she added, as her gaze went back to the castle. "I guess we're invited in, on the belief that once we're in there, we won't ever make it back out."

Cayden raised an eyebrow.  "Just kiss me once before we die, then."

"Delighted," she replied throwing her arms around his shoulders and going tippy toe to do so.

He growled, cupping her ass and pulling her tight against his groin.  When he finally lifted his head she looked dazed.  He rubbed his thumb along her bottom lip, dragging his heart beat back under control.  "There's no way either of us is dying before I get more of that."

"I'm with you there. Let's get this over with so we can find a bed."

"Lead on, babe.  I'm so right behind you."  He looked at her backside.  "And boy am I glad."

"Idiot," she said fondly as she swung up onto Sweetheart. She didn't wait for Cayden, instead digging her heels into Sweetheart's sides and racing down the slope toward the castle with the weird moat.

As they closed the distance to the castle, Fiona held out her hand, the one with the ring on and began reciting something in a language Cayden didn't know. Before them sprang up an energy screen and beneath their feet the otherwise soft as ocean dirt hardened giving the horses a solid purchase. The horses ran flat out, their riders down along their backs urging them on. Fiona and Sweetheart were some 10 yards ahead of Cayden so he had a clear view of the moment Sweetheart's hooves left the dirt as he leapt upwards to soar over impossibly high castle walls. She disappeared as the arc of the leap took her down into the castle's front court.

He laughed at the sheer beauty of it and bent low over Handsome's neck.  "You gonna let them get away?" he murmured to the horse.  In response he felt the animal's muscles bunching as he gathered himself to follow and then they were soaring and it was the most exhileratingly free feeling he'd had in ages. 

Handsome hit the dirt of the castle's court sending up a cloud of dust. Sweetheart stood nearby, her sides heaving. Fiona was no where in sight but the sound of metal on metal ringing from down a hallway was as good as a trail of breadcrumbs for Cayden to follow.  He slid off Handsome and pelted down the hallway after her. He skidded to a stop seeing her suspended in the air above a fountain full of lava.  She and the guy who'd said hello earlier that morning were still fighting, despite the aerial distraction.

A man with red hair stood nearby, leaning against a doorjamb watching the battle. A sword was strapped to his hip. "Ah there you are," he said to Cayden.  "Turn and leave now. This is none of your concern."

"You think so?" Cayden asked, wandering over to lean against the door with him.  "Who are you?"

"Dalt, mercenary. Yet another one of their bastards. We tend to be a tad bit bitter."

"Ah.  I'm Cayden."  He held out his hand to shake the man's hand and Dalt, to his surprise, met him half way.  "Whose side are you on?"  In front of him, Fiona and her cousin were striking sparks off of each other's swords.  In a minute or two, he might need to intervene, but for now she was winning, driving him back into the corner.

"That's a very good question," Dalt replied. "Personally, I think my man there is pretty stupid. Having led armies against Amber already, I've definitely moved over to the nice clean assassination camp rather than the stain the Pattern and bring everybody home and have them all go after you camp.

"Although if you try to interfere there, then I'd have to stop you," Dalt added.  He was big. And he looked remarkably competent.

"Well, see, I have this problem with that.  I want that woman to have my babies.  So, if you tried to get in the way of me protecting her, I'd have to hurt you."

Dalt gaped at Cayden. "Really?"

Cayden was offended.  "What?  You don't think I can father children?"  So much for male bonding.

"Not at all. I'm just... Considering her family, aren't you worried about tainted genes?"

He thought about Dinah and Marc.  "Tainted genes?"

"Well, the whole family is dysfunctional as hell. They've been trying to kill one another since Amber began. And her great grandfather is a dwarf,  and her great-grandmother a unicorn. I mean, you could find better."

"Oh man," Cayden said, laughing so hard he had tears in his eyes.  "If all that's true, she's definitely way above me on the social ladder.  Besides, how cool would it be to have a dwarf unicorn in the family who does magic to wow the other kids on the playground?"

"You laugh.  I'm tellin' you they're all crazy as coots. Which is why I want to murder them all. We'd all be better off."

Fiona stuck a sword through her cousin and sank down into the energies below her.

"That's probably not good for the old genetics either," Dalt opined.

Cayden nodded.  "No probably not.  But, on the bright side, at least I don't have to interfere, forcing you to try to stop me."

"Hmmm. I still might have to kill her. She's too powerful to be floating around pretending to be neutral."

Cayden sighed.  "I know I'm hardly an unbiased advocate, but trust me on this one.  She really, really is neutral."

"Hey, no one's paying me now that old Freddy there is dead. But you can bet someone will want her knocked off again, especially if she succeeds at this. You might want to head to the basement and see if she makes it through the Pattern.  Tell her Dalt said, 'hey'."

Cayden saluted him and headed for the basement.

------------------------

When Cayden arrived, Fiona was standing in front of something that looked like an intricate labyrinth. It glowed bluely in the dim basement. Sparks rose off it snapping at Cayden when he entered the room with it.

"Hmm. I don't think it likes you," Fiona said eyeing it. There was a portion of it that was dark. Dead. Broken. Whatever.

"Naw.  That's its way of laying out the welcome mat I'm sure," he said, propping his shoulders against the wall.  "Me being the sometime stand in for the energizer bunny, we got an affinity."  And that was an understatement, he realized, considering the power of it and the way it was lighting up his head.

"Well, don't push your luck. The only folks who can walk this thing are folks of my blood. And once I start on it there is no turning back. I have to go to the end. And it's hard and exhausting and don't be moved to be brave or rescuing. Don't interfere. Okay?"

"Have you started yet?"

"No, not yet. I wanted to... to say... Thanks for everything."

"Don't even fucking go there, Fiona," he said, coming off the wall to stand in front of her.   He gripped her shoulders, his fingers digging into her arms.  "You're going to do this and then we're going to go home and practice making babies until I convince you to really have a few.  There is no other outcome possible here.  Otherwise I blow this whole thing sky high and believe me when I tell you I can do it."

She met his eyes. "Don't do that. I don't want to destroy Amber or the Courts and if you did that, they would be destroyed. Let me do this."

He didn't flinch.  "Then you better forget any notion you might have of not coming through this whole and alive, angel."

She nodded. "I have every intention of doing this and getting the hell out of here.  With you."

He pulled her close and kissed her hard, putting everything he had into it.  Then he let her go and stepped back.  "I'm thinking champagne and strawberries, jacuzzi and bubbles.  The bunny loves bubbles."

She grinned. "Hold that thought." She waited until he stepped back, then she took the first step. She drew her sword, and activated her ring. Then the Pattern, and her fixing the parts that had been burnt out, was all she thought of.

It was different from the primal Pattern, or at least what they all thought of as the primal Pattern. It was different from Corwin's too. Just how many of the bloody things where there, she wondered, as the sparks reached the top of her boots as she took the first curve and approached what she knew to be the First Veil.  She pushed on through it, the sparks reaching up to her knees now. She was approaching the first of the broken parts.

She didn't dare stop, you could never get your momentum going again then, and you died, but she did slow down. So long as her intent was to push on she'd be fine, she knew.

She slowed down to regard a picture in her mind, a picture of the Pattern as it should be. She had to step just right.... She took her blade and put it down so the point was just before her boot and stepped forward into the blackened area.

She nearly screamed from the pain and the intensity scorching her mind. After what felt like an eternity, she moved her back foot and set it down in front of her other foot. She was moving. She was alive, even if the sparks were now up to her waist and rising.

By the time she'd reached the Final Veil the sparks were up to her head and her hair was writhing with the energies the Pattern was putting off. How long it had taken, she'd no idea. It took every bit of her concentration, her determination, her sheer force of will, to put one foot in front of the other, to force the point of her blade to touch the blackened portion of the Pattern and to redraw it.

As she took the final curve she could see the Pattern behind her. It was whole now, all of it glowing blue, brilliantly, lighting up the cavern with its brilliance, and highlighting a figure she could almost make out through the sparks that rose between her and him.

Then, when her will was near to breaking, and her energies were at an end, she took the last step.  He caught her as she fell, absorbing the energy like a sponge.  Or a pink bunny.

"We'd better get out of here," she said, unnecessarily, as Cayden could feel the energies massing and knew something was going to blow. "Let's get the horses."  She tried to stand but was still weak.

"Well, we can use the horses if you really want to, but wouldn't it be easier if I just zapped us back home?"

"Yeah. Can you get them away too?'

"Define them," he said.

"The horses."

He had known she was going to say that.  But, he supposed, it was good practice for carpooling. "Come on, we can drop them on the way."

She let him help her and they hurried off toward the stairs and up to the main castle courtyard. Rumblings under their feet were getting louder and they were thrown to the ground several times, as the ground roiled under them. The horses were looking panicky when they reached them.

He grasped both sets of reins and pulled Fiona in under the protection of his shoulder.  And just like that they were back where they'd found the horses.  "Well guys, back at the ranch..."

"Thanks, Sweetheart," Fiona said, not to Cayden. She rubbed horse's nose. Sweetheart whinnied and the moment Fiona had magicked off the saddle and bridle Sweetheart turned and took off, kicking up her heels with relief.  Handsome didn't linger either.

Cayden watched them disappear and then turned to Fiona.  She looked exhausted.   So much for bubbles.  He didn't say a word, just picked her up, cradling her against his chest.  He bent his head to her, kissing her as he zapped them back to her loft. 

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back. "I think maybe the bubbles might have to wait awhile. I'm .. Can you stay?"

"That's the plan, angel.  By the way, Dalt says hello."