Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of The Courts of Chaos by Roger Zelazny, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. You may well have a lot of reading ahead of you.
Corwin was riding from Amber to the Courts of Chaos, to bring the Jewel of Judgment to Benedict's battle there and give them an advantage against the Chaosians. However, he was overtaken by the oncoming Chaos storm of Shadow being torn apart after Oberon's possibly failed attempt to repair the primal Pattern at Amber. To protect himself from the storm, Corwin used the Jewel to create a new Pattern where he was. He was successful, but when he was finished, Brand appeared and stole the Jewel from him.
Corwin then used the new Pattern to transport himself to the battlefield in Chaos. He found Brand at a vantage point overlooking the scene, using his partial attunement with the Jewel to fight the Amberite forces with lightning. As the Amberites reached Brand, he took Dierdre hostage.
With Brand holding Dierdre at knifepoint, he is in a standoff with the rest of the Amberites. Fiona, his former ally, has him under a spell that immobilizes him, but all she can do is hold him in place. As they discuss their options, a giant apparition of Oberon appears in the sky. He announces that he is going to try and repair the Pattern, that Corwin will use the Jewel of Judgment to protect them when the wave of Chaos reaches them, and that the problem of succession to the Amber throne is up to them to decide. The giant face then disappears.
However, Brand still has the Jewel. Unlike Corwin, he is unable to use it to hold back the storm. So the hostage negotiations resume. Meanwhile, Corwin, unseen, reaches out to the Jewel and uses it to distract Brand by setting him on fire. Brand slashes Dierdre's face, but she bites his hand and frees herself. Someone shoots him with an arrow, and he stumbles backward into the abyss—taking Dierdre and the Jewel with him. Random hits Corwin to stops him from throwing himself after them. When he comes to, the battle is essentially over, with the survivors of both sides converging on their vantage point as the Chaos storm advances.
The arrow that killed Brand was shot by the mysterious knight in green, who now reveals himself: it is Caine. He faked his own death to secretly investigate the trouble in Amber, believing either Corwin or Brand to be the one behind it. Corwin was framed for his murder to get him out of the way. He eavesdropped on the other Amberites via the Trumps (as Oberon, as Ganelon, told Corwin he suspected someone was doing). Caine also confessed to stabbing Corwin and attacking Brand the second time.
As he is about to apologize, he is interrupted by a trumpet blast. A rider on a black horse appears on the black road, where it splits the stormfront. He is soon joined by two more trumpeters.
The big revelation in this chapter was that Caine is still alive. As I said last time, I thought he might turn out to be someone who was presumed dead. That said, my money was on Oberon yet again. Of course, Caine's "death" began the action in Sign of the Unicorn, and faking one's death is a classic plot device in murder mysteries. It enables the "victim" to frame someone for his murder, or to investigate the would-be crime in secret. Caine does both.
Brand is now dead, along with Dierdre, and the Jewel is gone forever. Or are they? Brand can teleport without the use of Trumps, and Bleys survived a plunge from Mt. Kolvir even having to use them. Might he (and they) still come back? There are three chapters left.
Deirdre … she had meant more to me than all the rest of the family put together. I cannot help it. That is how it was. How many times had I wished she were not my sister. Yet, I had reconciled myself to the realities of our situation. My feelings would never change, but … now she was gone, and this thought meant more to me than the impending destruction of the world.
That confession sheds some light on something Corwin narrated during his trip to Tir-na Nog'th, where he saw a vision of "two figures, embracing, within. They part as I begin to turn away. None of my affair, but … Deirdre … One of them is Deirdre. I know who the man will be before he turns." Is the man in the vision himself, or someone else? Either way … ew.
The apparition of Oberon was some masterful sardonic humour. In the heat of an intense hostage situation, his giant head appears in the sky. Oberon went to considerable effort to tell his children that since he might be about to die, he was incredibly disappointed in them all, and they could solve their own political problems afterward.
Who are the three riders? Bleys and Fiona know, and I guess the rest of us will find out in the next chapter.
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