Before we left Castle Amber, Connie plucked the image of Armonn's mansion right out of my mind. He began sketching it in remarkable detail. It is shocking to see one's own thoughts drawn by another person. It would be good to see Armonn again. He once told me

"A Prince of the Culinary Arts must make a dish that is pleasing to taste, smell, and sight. A clothier only needs to please in sight and feel, but if you ask me the feel is the real trick."

Locke, Connie, Jessica, and I followed Connie to his Shadow. He lived in a cold climate. This place was paved and packed with people. Connie lived in a large estate, but he had to share quarters with, as best as I could tell, innumerable other men. Jessica questioned the inhabitants (who were irritated that we had not brought any lager with us). Locke and I found seperate rooms to shower in. I had some trouble adjusting to the water dispensing controls and to their strage solid cleaning 'liquid', but after a short while I was all cleaned and shaven. I used a heat generating device to dry my hair. What an effect! I'll have to get one of those. It left my hair in quite an amusing configuration. Connie let my borrow a pair of cotton pants and an oversized shirt as well as a Cornell Jacket for warmth.

Jessica wanted to go to her shadow next. She and Connie decided the best method would be to hellride. When Locke saw the small size of the ground car he chose to return to Amber rather than pack himself inside. He borrowed my Trump of Castle Amber and left. He had the right idea. The trip was miserably cramped. I grew irritable. When we arrived in Chicago, an even larger settlement than Cornell, (Jessica says millions of people live in Chicago - a mega-opolis?!? Impossible!) we found that we were still not in the right shadow. A poor family lived in the house Jessica thought was hers. How was anyone suppose to find their houses, all alike, in a city this large? The family's children were suffering from some dreadful ailment. I set about diagnosing and treating the children. They both had the same illness, but were generally healthy otherwise. I cast Purification of the Flesh on them both, and they began to recover immediately. Incredible. The parents were very grateful. Their children must have been very valuable.

There was a bit of trouble then about what to do with the ground vehical. Jessica and Connie assured me it was an expensive item. If it was so expensive, how could everyone afford them? They were literally everywhere. I finally convinced them to just leave it. We followed Connie through his Trump sketch to Essex.