I am shocked at how easily we defeated Brandon. Granted, that when we finally arrived at his stronghold we had gathered an extremely impressive array of talent and power to throw at him, but it was figuratively and literally overkill. Surely the combined might of Locke, Connie, myself, Ghost, Deirdre, and Brand is something to be reckoned with, but Brandon appeared to be totally unprepared to handle even a small fraction of this threat. How could he have competent enough to totally defeat Corwin, capture Amber, and return the Jewel of Judgment to the Serpent, but be too foolish to protect himself from four Amberites without the ability to move through shadow?

It all began with our escape from Castle Amber via the Trump drawings in the dungeon. I don't think Brandon have ever considered that we might escape. Once we did he made no effort to locate us. He might have not even known we had left the castle. What an outrageous oversight!

For there the situation quickly turned to favor us. Connie unleashed Ghost. This gave us a way contact other shadows. When ghost found Brand we gained a sorcerer more powerful that Brandon and a we were able to locate a creature that allowed us to travel freely through shadow. At this point the picture was bleak for Brandon. He had still not taken notice of us. His errors mounted. He had made no effort to defend himself or his domain from attack. He didn't even use the hostages he held to his advantage.

We marched right into his domain with no resistance and hid in ambush in his bedroom. There were no alarms or defensive spells anywhere. Incredible.

The ambush itself was a lopsided massacre. Locke drew first blood against the totally unsuspecting Brandon. Deirdre made a futile physical attack against Brandon's only defense, a magical barrier, while I made an equally futile magical attack. This would have been an opprotune time to make his escape, but he chose to stand and fight, zapping Deirdre with some minor energy spell. It was his final error in a long string. Brand used the distraction to crack Brandon's skull open with some sort of nasty spell. Locke attacked again, slamming Brandon to the wall. As quick as that the fight was over.

I should have just frozen his body right then.

Instead I checked his vital signs. As it turned out Brandon wasn't dead or even unconscious. Startled, leapt away alerting Locke that Brandon was still conscious. Locke dealt a fatal blow to Brandon's head.

In our moment of victory, when I should've felt triumph, I felt only the helpless feeling that I'd failed Fiona.