Corwin explores the true Amber, and finds the source of the Black Road, in the damaged primal Pattern.

While Corwin and Random discuss whether it would be safe to walk a damaged pattern, Ganelon runs through the stain to the center and retrieves the objects - a dagger, and a pierced Trump card.

Ganelon discusses what it was like to run on the stain, and asks Random to drop a small amount of blood on the pattern.

In his dialogue with Corwin, Roger states that he is "...writing a philosophical romance shot through with elements of horror and morbidity".

Dworkin then realizes that it is Corwin, and explains that there is a way to mend the Pattern using the Jewel of Judgement, though that would be more difficult, and probably fatal to the person who attempted it.

Dworkin then loses control of his madness, transforming into a monstrous beast and pursuing Corwin back into his chambers.

He finds himself in the Courts of Chaos, a great castle which looks out over the Abyss, a swirling black/white hole, under a half-colored-stripy, half-black-swirly sky.

Julian explains that the Eric-Julian-Caine triumvirate arose only to oppose Brand's cabal, taking the throne to prevent Bleys from claiming it.

When Corwin arrived with Bleys, they assumed he had joined the cabal, but when (after his capture) they realized he only wanted the throne, Julian suggested blinding him as an alternative to killing him.

Julian tells Corwin how Brand has acquired strange powers, including becoming a "living Trump", capable of teleporting himself or other objects through shadow.

She explains that she and Bleys had imprisoned Brand because he had decided to destroy the Pattern and re-create, reshaping the multiverse according to his own liking.

He instead gets close enough to ask the Jewel to summon a tornado, of the sort that destroyed Random's horse, but Brand escapes into shadow.

Leaving Fiona to guard the Primal Pattern, Corwin goes to his tomb to meet Random and Martin, who have just arrived.

Reasoning that Brand will attempt to attune himself there, Ganelon asks Benedict to walk the Pattern in Amber, ready to teleport himself directly to Tir-na Nog'th's pattern when the city appears, and tells Corwin to keep permanent contact with Benedict through the Trump to teleport him out in case the city becomes immaterial.

Corwin and Benedict decide that the arm being the right weapon in the right place at the right time is too convenient a happenstance to be some sort of coincidence, and so it must have been arranged by some guiding force — Oberon.