The Thousandfold Thought

by R. Scott Bakker

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  THE FINAL MARCH

  CHAPTER ONE - CARASKAND

  CHAPTER TWO - CARASKAND

  CHAPTER THREE - CARASKAND

  CHAPTER FOUR - ENATHPANEAH

  CHAPTER FIVE - JOKTHA

  CHAPTER SIX - XERASH

  CHAPTER SEVEN - JOKTHA

  CHAPTER EIGHT - XERASH

  CHAPTER NINE - JOKTHA

  CHAPTER TEN - XERASH

  CHAPTER ELEVEN - HOLY AMOTEU

  CHAPTER TWELVE - HOLY AMOTEU

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN - SHIMEH

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN - SHIMEH

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN - SHIMEH

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN - SHIMEH

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN - SHIMEH

  Encyclopedic Glossary

  Acknowledgements

  Acclaim for The Prince of Nothing Series

  “This is fantasy with muscle and brains, rife with intrigue and admirable depth of character, set in a world laden with history and detail.”

  —Steven Erikson, author of Gardens of the Moon

  “Magic and monstrosities aside, one feels one is reading about a place as real (or a real place as convincingly reinvented) as Robert Graves’s Rome. It’s a subtlety, and an intelligence, that informs and challenges at every level … To properly appreciate the scope, sweep, and power of this series, not to mention its complex thematic structure, [The Prince of Nothing] must be read from the beginning. And it should be read. Violent, passionate, darkly poetic, seethingly original, these are books that deserve attention from all true connoisseurs of fantasy.”

  —SF Site, www.sfsite.com

  “The Holy War fomented ... in The Darkness That Comes Before, the critically acclaimed first book in the epic fantasy trilogy by Canadian author Bakker, explodes in [The Warrior-Prophet]. … The all-too-human tale of love, hatred, and justice ... keeps the pages turning. … A daringly unconventional series in the Tolkien mould.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “A class act like George R.R. Martin, or his fellow Canadians Steven Erikson and Guy Gavriel Kay. He gets right away from the ‘downtrodden youth becoming king’ aspect of epic fantasy … But he also reminds us of the out-and-out strangeness that fantasy can engender, in a way no one has since Clark Ashton Smith. No clunky analogy of medieval Europe here. Odd, fascinating characters in a world full of trouble and sorcery.”

  —SFX Magazine, “Ten Authors to Watch”

  “[This] impressive addition to the high-fantasy genre … deftly skirts the many and considerable pitfalls of the genre, gradually revealing itself as a smart, compelling novel that will leave readers frustrated with the wait for the next volume.”

  —Quill & Quire

  Also by R. Scott Bakker

  the prince of nothing series

  The Darkness That Comes Before, Book One

  The Warrior-Prophet, Book Two

  penguin canada

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

  M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, U.S.A.

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia

  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

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  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196,

  South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  First published 2006

  (RRD)

  Copyright © R. Scott Bakker, 2006

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

  Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  S.A.

  eISBN : 978-1-590-20626-3

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication data available upon request

  Visit the Penguin Group (Canada) website at www.penguin.ca

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  To Tina and Keith

  with love

  In pursuing yonder what they have lost, they encounter only the

  nothing they have. In order not to lose touch with the everyday

  dreariness in which, as irremediable realists, they are at home, they

  adapt the meaning they revel in to the meaninglessness they flee.

  The worthless magic is nothing other than the worthless existence

  it lights up.

  —THEODOR ADORNO, MINIMA MORALIA

  All progressions from a higher to a lower order are marked

  by ruins and mystery and a residue of nameless rage.

  So. Here are the dead fathers.

  —CORMAC McCARTHY, BLOOD MERIDIAN

  What has come before ...

  The First Apocalypse destroyed the great Norsirai nations of the North. Only the South, the Ketyai nations of the Three Seas, survived the onslaught of the No-God, Mog-Pharau, and his Consult of generals and magi. The years passed, and the Men of the Three Seas forgot, as Men inevitably do, the horrors endured by their fathers.

  Empires rose and empires fell: Kyraneas, Shir, Cenei. The Latter Prophet, Inri Sejenus, reinterpreted the Tusk, the holiest of artifacts, and within a few centuries, the faith of Inrithism, organized and administered by the Thousand Temples and its spiritual leader, the Shriah, came to dominate the entire Three Seas. The great sorcerous Schools, such as the Scarlet Spires, the Imperial Saik, and the Mysunsai, arose in response to the Inrithi persecution of the Few, those possessing the ability to see and work sorcery. Using Chorae, ancient artifacts that render their bearers immune to sorcery, the Inrithi warred against the Schools, attempting, unsuccessfully, to purify the Three Seas. Then Fane, the Prophet of the Solitary God, united the Kianene, the desert peoples of the southwestern deserts, and declared war against the Tusk and the Thousand Temples. After centuries and several jihads, the Fanim and their eyeless sorcerer-priests, the Cishaurim, conquered nearly all the western Three Seas, including the holy city of Shimeh, the birthplace of Inri Sejenus. Only the moribund remnants of the Nansur Empire continued to resist them.

  Now war and strife rule the South. The two great faiths of Inrithism and Fanimry continually skirmish, though trade and pilgrimage are tolerated when commercially convenient. The great families and nations vie for military and mercantile dominance. The minor and major Schools squabble and plot, particularly against the upstart Cishaurim, whose sorcery, the Psûkhe, the Schoolmen cannot distinguish from the God’s own world. And the Thousand Temples pursue earthly ambitions under the leadership of corrupt and ineffectual Shriahs.

  The First Apocalypse
has become little more than legend. The Consult, which had survived the death of the Mog-Pharau, has dwindled into myth, something old wives tell small children. After two thousand years, only the Schoolmen of the Mandate, who relive the Apocalypse each night through the eyes of their ancient founder, Seswatha, recall the horror and the prophecies of the No-God’s return. Though the mighty and the learned consider them fools, their possession of the Gnosis, the sorcery of the Ancient North, commands respect and mortal envy. Driven by nightmares, they wander the labyrinths of power, scouring the Three Seas for signs of their ancient and implacable foe—for the Consult.

  And as always, they find nothing.

  Book One: The Darkness That Comes Before

  The Holy War is the name of the great host called by Maithanet, the Shriah of the Thousand Temples, to liberate Shimeh from the heathen Fanim of Kian. Word of Maithanet’s call spreads across the Three Seas, and faithful from all the great Inrithi nations—Galeoth, Thunyerus, Ce Tydonn, Conriya, High Ainon, and their tributaries—travel to the city of Momemn, the capital of the Nansur Empire, to become Men of the Tusk.

  Almost from the outset, the gathering host is mired in politics and controversy. First, Maithanet somehow convinces the Scarlet Spires, the most powerful of the sorcerous Schools, to join his Holy War. Despite the outrage this provokes—sorcery is anathema to the Inrithi—the Men of the Tusk realize they need the Scarlet Spires to counter the heathen Cishaurim, the sorcerer-priests of the Fanim. The Holy War would be doomed without one of the Major Schools. The question is one of why the Scarlet Schoolmen would agree to such a perilous arrangement. Unknown to most, Eleäzaras, the Grandmaster of the Scarlet Spires, has waged a long and secret war against the Cishaurim, who for no apparent reason assassinated his predecessor, Sasheoka, some ten years previously.

  Second, Ikurei Xerius III, the Emperor of Nansur, hatches an intricate plot to usurp the Holy War for his own ends. Much of what is now heathen Kian once belonged to the Nansur, and Xerius has made recovering the Empire’s lost provinces his heart’s most fervent desire. Since the Holy War gathers in the Nansur Empire, it can only march if provisioned by the Emperor, something he refuses to do until every leader of the Holy War signs his Indenture, a written oath to cede all lands conquered to him.

  Of course, the first caste-nobles to arrive repudiate the Indenture, and a stalemate ensues. As the Holy War’s numbers swell into the hundreds of thousands, however, the titular leaders of the host begin to grow restless. Since they war in the God’s name, they think themselves invincible, and as a result see little reason to share the glory with those yet to arrive. A Conriyan noble named Nersei Calmemunis comes to an accommodation with the Emperor, and convinces his fellows to sign the Imperial Indenture. Once provisioned, most of those gathered march, even though their lords and a greater part of the Holy War have yet to arrive. Because the host consists primarily of lordless rabble, it comes to be called the Vulgar Holy War.

  Despite Maithanet’s attempts to bring the makeshift host to heel, it continues marching southward, and passes into heathen lands, where—precisely as the Emperor has planned—the Fanim destroy it utterly.

  Xerius knows that in military terms, the loss of the Vulgar Holy War is insignificant, since the rabble that largely constituted it would have proven more a liability than an advantage in battle. In political terms, however, the Vulgar Holy War’s destruction is invaluable, since it has shown Maithanet and the Men of the Tusk the true mettle of their adversary. The Fanim, as the Nansur well know, are not to be trifled with, even with the God’s favour. Only an outstanding general, Xerius claims, can assure the Holy War’s victory—a man like his nephew, Ikurei Conphas, who, after his recent victory over the dread Scylvendi at the Battle of Kiyuth, has been hailed as the greatest tactician of his age. The leaders of the Holy War need only sign the Imperial Indenture, and Conphas’s preternatural skill and insight will be theirs.

  Maithanet, it seems, now finds himself in a dilemma. As Shriah, he can compel the Emperor to provision the Holy War, but he cannot compel him to send Ikurei Conphas, his only living heir. The first truly great Inrithi potentates of the Holy War—Prince Nersei Proyas of Conriya, Prince Coithus Saubon of Galeoth, Earl Hoga Gothyelk of Ce Tydonn, King-Regent Chepheramunni of High Ainon—arrive in the midst of this controversy, and the Holy War amasses new strength, though it remains a hostage in effect, bound by the scarcity of food to the walls of Momemn and the Emperor’s granaries. To a man, the caste-nobles repudiate Xerius’s Indenture and demand that he provision them. The Men of the Tusk begin raiding the surrounding countryside. In retaliation, the Emperor calls in elements of the Imperial Army. Pitched battles are fought.

  In an effort to forestall disaster, Maithanet calls a Council of Great and Lesser Names, and all the leaders of the Holy War gather in the Emperor’s palace, the Andiamine Heights, to make their arguments. Here Nersei Proyas shocks the assembly by offering a many-scarred Scylvendi Chieftain, a veteran of past wars against the Fanim, as a surrogate for the famed Ikurei Conphas. The Scylvendi, Cnaiür urs Skiötha, shares hard words with both the Emperor and his nephew, and the leaders of the Holy War are impressed. The Shriah’s Envoy, however, remains undecided: the Scylvendi are as apostate as the Fanim, after all. Only the wise words of the Prince Anasûrimbor Kellhus of Atrithau settle the matter. The Envoy reads the decree demanding that the Emperor, under pain of Shrial Censure, provision the Men of the Tusk.

  The Holy War will march.

  Drusas Achamian is a sorcerer sent by the School of Mandate to investigate Maithanet and his Holy War. Though he no longer believes in his School’s ancient mission, he travels to Sumna, where the Thousand Temples is based, in the hope of learning more about the mysterious Shriah, whom the Mandate fears could be an agent of the Consult. In the course of his probe, he resumes an old love affair with a harlot named Esmenet, and despite his misgivings he recruits a former student of his, a Shrial Priest named Inrau, to report on Maithanet’s activities. During this time, his nightmares of the Apocalypse intensify, particularly those involving the so-called “Celmomian Prophecy,” which foretells the return of a descendant of Anasûrimbor Celmomas before the Second Apocalypse.

  Then Inrau dies under mysterious circumstances. Overcome by guilt, and heartbroken by Esmenet’s refusal to cease taking custom, Achamian flees Sumna and travels to Momemn, where the Holy War gathers under the Emperor’s covetous and uneasy eyes. A powerful rival of the Mandate, a School called the Scarlet Spires, has joined the Holy War to prosecute its long contest with the sorcerer-priests of the Cishaurim, who reside in Shimeh. Nautzera, Achamian’s Mandate handler, has ordered him to observe them and the Holy War. When he reaches the encampment, Achamian joins the fire of Xinemus, an old friend of his from Conriya.

  Pursuing his investigation of Inrau’s death, Achamian convinces Xinemus to take him to see another old student of his, Prince Nersei Proyas of Conriya, who’s become a confidant of the enigmatic Shriah. When Proyas scoffs at his suspicions and repudiates him as a blasphemer, Achamian implores him to write Maithanet regarding the circumstances of Inrau’s death. Embittered, Achamian leaves his old student’s pavilion certain his meagre request will go unfulfilled.

  Then a man hailing from the distant north arrives—a man calling himself Anasûrimbor Kellhus. Battered by his recurrent dreams of the Apocalypse, Achamian finds himself fearing the worst: the Second Apocalypse. Is Kellhus’s arrival a mere coincidence, or is he the Harbinger foretold in the Celmomian Prophecy? Achamian questions the man, only to find himself utterly disarmed by his humour, honesty, and intellect. They talk history and philosophy long into the night, and before retiring, Kellhus asks Achamian to be his teacher. Inexplicably awed and affected by the stranger, Achamian agrees …

  But he finds himself in a dilemma. The reappearance of an Anasûrimbor is something the School of Mandate simply has to know—few discoveries could be more significant. But he fears what his brother Schoolmen will do: a lifetime of dreaming horr
ors, he knows, has made them cruel and pitiless. And he blames them, moreover, for the death of Inrau.

  Before he can resolve this dilemma, Achamian is summoned by the Emperor’s nephew, Ikurei Conphas, to the Imperial Palace in Momemn, where the Emperor wants him to assess a highly placed adviser of his—an old man called Skeaös—for the Mark of sorcery. The Emperor himself, Ikurei Xerius III, brings Achamian to Skeaös, demanding to know whether the old man bears the blasphemous taint of sorcery. Achamian sees nothing amiss.

  Skeaös, however, sees something in Achamian. He begins writhing against his chains, speaking a tongue from Achamian’s ancient dreams. Impossibly, the old man breaks free, killing several before being burned by the Emperor’s sorcerers. Dumbfounded, Achamian confronts the howling Skeaös, only to watch horrified as his face peels apart and opens into scorched limbs …

  The abomination before him, he realizes, is a Consult spy, one who can mimic and replace others without bearing sorcery’s telltale Mark. A skin-spy. Achamian flees the palace without warning the Emperor and his court, knowing they would think his conviction nonsense. For them, Skeaös can only be an artifact of the heathen Cishaurim, whose art also bears no Mark. Senseless to his surroundings, Achamian wanders back to Xinemus’s camp, so absorbed by his horror that he fails to see or hear Esmenet, who has come to rejoin him at long last.