CAINE

You come in late, wiping your lips...

Smilingly, blue lightning
Assumes, like a meathook, the burden of his parts.

The police love you, you confess everything.
Bright hair, shoe-black, old plastic,

Is my life so intriguing?
Is it for this you widen your eye-rings?...

I have your head on my wall.
Navel cords, blue-red and lucent,

Shriek from my belly like arrows, and these I ride...
Where are you going
That you suck breath like mileage?

Sulfurous adulteries grieve in a dream.
Cold glass, how you insert yourself

Between myself and myself.
I scratch like a cat.

The blood that runs is dark fruit---
An effect, a cosmetic.

Key 15. He is dark. Double-drawn in this picture, the principle feature of the card is his face: enormous, olive-complexioned, black hair, eyes so black it is impossible to say which is iris and which is pupil, dark, sultry smile. Below and to the left of the face is a figure of the man in his entirety, posing with arrogant abandon, his clothing rakish, stylish, all of black and green, the hat set at a clever angle, silver-topped black stick held jauntily against his cheek, ever-present smile on his lips. Silver chains extend from his black-gloved right fist, but they traverse the width of the card and then are gone, leaving the viewer only guesses of where they finally end.

Having neither an interest in the New Amber nor a place there, Caine retreated to the Courts of Chaos. He learned to shapeshift and through the careful use of his many talents attained great power and prestige. While he does not belong to any particular House, Caine has alliances and supporters all over Chaos enough that it is whispered House Barimen may very well be reinstated soon with Caine at its head. Currently Caine is on good terms with King Gramble and the Puppetmaster, but one receives the impression that two manipulators on the scale of Caine and Mandor could not long remain on the same team.

These suppositions seem more sinister, now that both Caine and Mandor have dropped out of the public eye. All Chaos is abuzz with the possibilities of what might have happened to them.