Chapter One

	Sebastian orders Kilroy to investigate a man who approached 
his daughter, Catherine, while she was in shadow.  Apparently the 
man asked whether her loyalties were with Amber, or her mother's 
kingdom of Marda.  Sebastian wants the man "taken care of."

	Breakfast in Amber.  Gerard and Jove's son, Zane, discuss 
nutrition.  Gerard drags Garth's son, Cuel, into the conversation.  Zane 
arranges to wrestle with Gerard.  Cuel is dragged into this as well.

	Isabel is working in the Chicago E/R.  Several patients come in 
with disease symptoms that she's never seen before.  One of the guys 
starts begging for medication.  When one of the nurses tries to 
administer morphine, maggots burst out of his body.  Isabel brings 
up a Pattern lens and discovers that the maggots aren't native to this 
shadow.  Her bird tells her there's a disturbance in New York.  She 
shifts shadow and detects an interference that has crossed several 
shadows.  When she investigates she is attacked by some lizard 
creatures, but is able to defeat them.

	Chang continues investigating an attack where two people were 
tossed into the Abyss.  He's not supposed to be working on the case, 
but he uses a favor to get assigned to it.  He is taken back off the case 
by his supervisor and reassigned to diplomatic duty.  He's given a 
sealed diplomatic pouch to deliver to Amber.

	Having recently taken the Logrus and mostly recovered, Byron 
goes to see Mandor.  He asks for some information on Amber and his 
parentage.  Mandor suggests he go to Amber for that and asks Byron 
to give his regards to Fiona.  Byron asks Mandor to show him how he 
does that food trick.  He decides that the best way to get to Amber is 
to join a diplomatic mission and asks if he can join one.  Mandor tells 
him there will be some information revealed about an incident that 
occurred at Thelbane.  He'll arrange for Byron to join the mission that 
is leaving for Amber as a result of that incident.

	Cuel tries to reach his mysterious contacts in shadow and 
learns that an embarrassing incident occurred in Chaos recently.  He 
fences with Garth for a while, then, not having been humiliated 
enough, he heads over to wrestle with Gerard.  As he approaches the 
area where Gerard said to meet him, he sees a bear come flying out 
of the door.  Gerard yells "Stop that bear!"  Cuel does so, but sustains 
a few scratches in the process.  The bear safely caged, he wrestles 
with Gerard, and decides he preferred the bear.

	Kilroy goes to Catherine's room to question her about the man 
she encountered in Texorami.  Cat is not in the best of moods, having 
gone to sleep only a few hours before.  After she gives him the 
details of her encounter, Kilroy asks what her plans are while she's in 
Amber.  Cat basically tells him to fuck off.

	Kilroy goes to Texorami, but no one has seen the man Cat 
described.  He contacts one of his people in Marda and asks them to 
detain the man if they find him.

	Zane asks Gerard about his father while they wrestle.  Gerard 
tells him of the time Jove brought Werewindle back to Brand, and 
then brought a Chaosite to walk the Pattern.  Zane goes into town 
with a bunch of his friends and gets drunk.

	Byron becomes convinced that Mandor is manipulating him, so 
he goes to the Chaos Police department looking for Chang.  Chang is 
just so pleased to have someone to take along with him.  Not.  They 
go to a bar and talk for a while about the mission.  Byron becomes 
convinced Chang is going to attack him, so he attacks Chang.  Chang 
has the advantage in fighting.  Byron tries to cast a spell on Chang.  
Chang notices this and punches Byron in the mouth.  Ain't Logrus 
madness wonderful, folks?

	Isabel Trumps to Amber.  Since Caine is nowhere to be found, 
she asks who's currently in charge and learns that it's Garth.  She 
finds him fencing.  She joins him and tells him what's been going on 
in shadow.  He asks if she'd be able to lead a group to investigate the 
problem.  She figures she could.  He tells her to recuperate while he 
decides who to send with her.

	Kilroy enters a bar in Amber and encounters Zane, who is quite 
drunk despite the early hour (it's not even noon yet).  They converse 
for a while.  Zane says he misses Random.  Kilroy asks if Zane has 
seen his father.  Zane claims he hasn't.

	Catherine explores the city.  Before she gets too far, she gets a 
Trump call from Garth, who asks her to join Isabel's group.  She 
agrees, on the basis that refusing a request from the Regent is 
generally a bad idea.  Garth also tells her that some Chaos 
functionaries will be arriving in Amber at around noon.