Boom. Boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom.
Have a nice day.

"You really want to know what's going on down there?"
"Yes."
"Boom. Boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom. Have a nice day."
Ivanova and Londo, A Voice in the Wilderness

We pick up with our heroes scattered to the four winds. Dalamar is in Chaos, attempting to at least understand, if not actually influence the situation. Nikrowd is in Rebma. Mikele & Martin are in Amber, most of the time. Keverian, who has not been seen since he and Felicia were ambushed by Sand and Corwin, is presumed a prisoner in Avalon. Everyone else is somewhere in shadow.

Amber is gearing up for war, as (presumably) is Chaos. Elaine has recently regained consciousness from her injury at the coronation several days earlier. Benedict is out in shadow, somewhere near to Chaos. Dalamar spends a lot of time talking to people seeing if there is any way he can forestall or prevent a war. Katarina looks for Keverian. Mikele attempts to keep an eye on things in Chaos.

There are some periodic attempts by Mikele, Felicia, and Torquil to locate and rescue a kidnapped shadow friend of Mikele's, named Emma. The loud, but fast approach fails to produce the hoped for results and it rapidly aborted. The slow subtle approach, however, yields her up mostly intact a few days later.

Benedict's forces launch a preemptive strike into Minobeeways. The war has begun.

Elaine comes by to visit Mikele and asks her to come join the fighting. Mikele declines and Elaine leaves, not pleased.

Katarina eventually makes her way into Avalon (along with a millimeter tall beaver which Torquil has conjured and named Reksark) and looks for Keverian. Torquil, Felicia, and Dalamar join her for a brief period, but have to leave in order to be around for the climatic battle (TM). Nikrowd would have come too, but his amazing trick of being in three places at once proves incompatible with the barrier and he is left behind. (Torquil's remote Torquil has a a few moments of difficulty, but gets back on its feet pretty fast.)

After about a week of fighting, the fighting has moved from Minobeeways to someplace in shadow, perhaps a little closer to Amber than to Chaos. Elaine pays a second visit to Mikele. The conversation is brief and not exactly cordial, though no actual fighting breaks out: Mikele still will not fight; Elaine is wrong. No says Elaine, she's right and Mikele is just confused. Mikele, not feeling very diplomatic, tells Elaine she is acting like a spoiled child. Elaine starts to make noises about sending Mikele out of Chaos and Mikele points out that Elaine is in Mikele's house and that perhaps it is time she leave, which she does.

The week of figting culminates in a massive battle between the bulk of the (participating) forces of Amber and Chaos. Fighting for Amber are Random, Benedict, Julian, Gerard, Caine and their forces, as well, as Llewella, Derrista, Felicia, Torquil, Martin, and Nikrowd. Chaos's forces include Elaine, Dalamar, and Chinaway Hendrake, plus a variety of demons, hellmaids, and forces from Hendrake, Minobee, Swayhill, and other pro-war houses. Mikele watches from nearby.

The battle starts slowly, with most of the excitement early on coming from the sorcerous combat between Nikrowd and the Chaos sorcerors, particularly Dalamar. Elaine is near the front lines and engages Caine briefly, but he pulls back. Benedict and Chinaway are both engaged nearby, but do not actually come close enough to engage each other (or Elaine and Caine). Martin is being pressed heavily by the forces of Chaos near him. Felicia attempts to come within line of sight of Elaine, while avoiding unfriendly demons.

Dalamar tires of diddling with Nikrowd and unleashes his head, which files around the battlefield spitting fire and strafing Nikrowd, who retreats back to the Amber side of the field, unconscious. (Later revived by Torquil.) A great many birds appear and divebomb some of the forces of Chaos, to little effect. Dalamar moves towards the front lines. He makes a sorcerous attack on Bendict which has little effect.

Three news groups of, ah, forces appear: cavalry (with Bleys), a great many birds (Dalamar's this time, so they're heinous), and a bunch of blimps, which proceed to dump buckets of giant darts on the the forces of Chaos. Bley's cavalry engage Chaos's flank. The birds attack the blimps, while some other begin to harry Felicia, who is now getting close enough to open trump gates near Elaine. Nikrowd, conscious again, attempts to provide assistance to Martin, still beset by a great many demons.

Felicia, tired of the slow pace of the battle, decides to do something dramatic and opens trump gates on either side of Elaine, one to the Amber pattern and one to Corwin's pattern. While she is setting up, Dalamar's birds charge full speed at Felicia, but she gets them open before the birds get her. There is an earth shattering ka-boom. Everyone nearby with pattern or logrus up loses it and is temporarily blinded. Felicia's body falls to the ground and disappears. Elaine (and all those troops unfortunate enough to have been too near to her) are simply gone. There is a swatch of stunned or unconscious people nearby, including Benedict, Chinaway, and Caine.

Dalamar and a substantial portion of his birds launch an all out assault on Torquil, while the remaining birds shred the blimps. A quick but vicious combat between Torquil and Dalamar ensues. Dalamar ultimately knocks Torquil out (after managing to get him to appear in person, instead in clone), but is netted and knocked out by Llewella almost immediately. Mikele has Dalamar sent back to Chaos, with Nikrowd managing to sorcerously revive Dalamar before he vanishes. Nikrowd's work here being done, he departs. Torquil is revived and, after destroying the Torquil clone and zerans, leaves as well. The tide of the battle has turned and the forces of Chaos are in retreat. Mikele approaches Random to to express her opinion that the fighting can stop now and the two are still, ah, debating the matter as the run ends. The battle continues on.