Random of Amber,

Be a man so fallen and perhaps with not so much honour to his birth as he was tutored to believe; it is still, I say, my right to testify for myself and speak my piece and let all judgements fall upon me only fairly if these words have been digested and understood, if not agreed with.

Have I been party to some great deception? For it seems my vision's clouded much as any other in this. I may be so much a pawn in my father's movements and yes, poorly rewarded, I feel, for service unto service. But still; there is none so low as those that repent only after capture and lament deeds only when the flesh is in peril. Therefore I say this; be Eric King or Devil, a trialled hero or a vanquished villain; I have known him only as my father. None so wretched; so reviled and so unworthy as the son that turns against the father; that spurns the hand that raised and educated in all things however harshly. Be I created in the manner of men, or the manner of science, I know the Pattern burns within my blood as much as any Amberite and my pride and honour likewise as great as any of the children of Oberon and his children's children.

With this I declare to you two things. Firstly, I stand by my father and I stand by his deeds and words. It is all there is to do else throw away a lifetime and all the ideals within. Therefore I shall expect to be treated as any man in the hands of his enemies and thus have resigned myself to it at this late date with something approaching the calm and clarity of thought that has been absent in me in these latter days. I have been in worse places and death, torture or imprisonment do not cause fear when one feels one has discharged all duties to the utmost ability. Flawed ability or nay.

Secondly, if I be brethren to the children brought by Cadfael, the children born of science, then it is proof enough that they hold the blood within them to bear the Pattern and the pride and the folly of Amber. But as yet I see them markless, blameless - unspotted by deeds of dubious legality and the movements of the royal. Let them be treated then, with all the regard that they deserve and not be brought to pay in flesh, servitude or otherwise bound away from precious freedom for the sins of their creators. If they are my kin, brothers and sisters even, I feel I owe them more than any other relative and they, at least, have no mind to use me for their own ends. Cut the chains of the clearly innocent with the same hand that binds those out of your favour and I may yet be moved to call you King not only in title, but in heart and mind. And may all subject to your dominion see wisdom in your acts and not tyranny, else it be your folly, not mine, that rings out defiant in the hearts of those that view the history of this unhappy time.

Edward Barimen, subject of and to Eric Barimen.

BACK to front page!

BACK to Amber page!

BACK to Edward's page!