Lords of Earth and Lords of Fire

The Princes of Amber


Caine

Son of Oberon and Isabella

 

Then came the swarthy, dark-eyed countenance of Caine, dressed all in satin that was black and green, wearing a dark three-cornered hat set at a rakish angle, a green plume of feathers trailing down the back. He was standing in profile, one arm akimbo, and the toes of his boots curled upward, and he wore an emerald-studded dagger at his belt.

 

Caine is the bastard son of Oberon and Isabella. Of their first relationship, that is; Oberon did not wed Isabella for many, many years, until well after Clarissa's tenure as Queen. Caine has never sought formal recognition, nor appeared particularly perturbed about the lack of it. He does perfectly well for himself supporting his more ambitious siblings. After all, becoming King might interfere with his wenching and drinking.

There is a more serious side to the roving scoundrel-Prince. He has served Amber willingly and well as Admiral of the Northern Fleet. Too, he feigned his own death, even to the extent of producing a shadow-corpse, in order to pursue the treachery that lay at the base of the Black Road and the Patternfall War. And, in the end, it was he who loosed the arrows that buried themselves in Brand's throat and heart.

Treachery and lies and deception, commitment and insight, coexisting side-by-side with debauchery and dissolution, gluttony and lust and sloth: add in a repertoire of knife tricks, a liberal dash of style, and a deep-rooted love of the open sea: this is Caine.

In the mythology surrounding the royals' Trumps and the Tarot in Amber, Caine is frequently depicted as the Devil: his rakish, faintly unwholesome smile can be seen portrayed in a slaver-ship's hold or outside a dungeon cell. Unflattering, but he's never taken open offense.

 


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The quote above is from Nine Princes in Amber, by Roger Zelazny.