The Amberway Tradition Continues
Years have passed since we departed it
...and more may elapse before I return. The others may already have
trumped home, as Random has done, to take up his duties.
- Roger Zelazny, The Courts of Chaos
All attempts to trump home failed. The Amberites in Chaos could trump each other, but not Random, Gerard, Martin or Amber itself. So began the Retreat.
We are riding now across the blackness on a road that looks like cheesecloth.
Enemy citadel, conquered nation, trap, ancestral home... We shall see.
- ibid
The Courts rang with laughter. "Surrender? You have sealed off the road to Amber. But this is the seat of our power. You could sooner conquer the atoms of the air."
"I am the end of Chaos and of Order, depending on how you
view me. I mark a division. Beyond me other rules apply."
"What rules?"
"Who can say? Not I. I am only a growing tower of sentient lumber."
- Ygg and Corwin, ibid
For whatever reason, the Amberites could not shift shadow to hasten their retreat from Chaos. Relying on Merlin's filament roads to move themselves and their troops, they were subject to constant harrassment by the Courts and the uncertain environment of Chaos.
I must ride to the place where I planted the limb of old Ygg, visit the
tree it has grown to. I must see what has become of the Pattern I drew to the sound of
pigeons on the Champs-Elysees."
- ibid
The great hope was Corwin's Pattern. If they could reach it, perhaps Corwin could teleport back to Shadow, or even Amber itself, and open a trump gate for the surviving Royals and troops. It was nowhere to be found.
Fiona and Bleys departed in the shapes of wolves. Benedict sacrificed the last of Julian's rangers so the rest of what was left of Amber's invasion force could reach Ygg. Julian himself refused to follow. And Shadow, when they returned to it, was utterly changed. No Avalon, no Shadow Earth of Corwin's exile, no Avernus. The storm had destroyed them all. The repaired Pattern cast an infinitude of new shadows.
And it would take a new generation to find Amber itself...
