Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Map of Lathania
Thank You
CHAPTER ONE Taleese
CHAPTER TWO Narubez
CHAPTER THREE Quoroubi Desert
CHAPTER FOUR Drorea
CHAPTER FIVE Carrid
CHAPTER SIX Taleese
CHAPTER SEVEN Widow's Reach
CHAPTER EIGHT Drorea
CHAPTER NINE Taleese
CHAPTER TEN Drorea
CHAPTER ELEVEN Isle of Echovia
CHAPTER TWELVE Taleese
CHAPTER THIRTEEN Sea of Arne
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Drorea
CHAPTER FIFTEEN Taleese
CHAPTER SIXTEEN Isle of Echovia
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Carrid
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN Quoroubi Desert
CHAPTER NINETEEN Narubez
CHAPTER TWENTY Taleese
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE Argot Plateau
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO Carrid
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE Quoroubi Desert
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR Narubez
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Carrid
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Narubez
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN Carrid
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Drorea
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Ja Deist
CHAPTER THIRTY Drorea
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE Taleese
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO Carrid
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE Ja Deist
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR Drorea
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE Ja Deist
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX Quoroubi Desert
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN Drorea
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT Ja Deist
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE Carrid
CHAPTER FORTY Ja Deist
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE Drorea
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO Ja Deist
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE Narubez
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR Ja Deist
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE Ja Deist
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX Ja Deist
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN Ja Deist
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT Carrid
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE Ja Deist
Other Books by David Black
Acknowledgements
The Ravens
Of
Carrid Tower
BOOK ONE OF
Gods of Empire
DAVID C. BLACK
Copyright © 2018. David C. Black
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1724056580
ISBN-13: 9781724056580
Thank You
Thank you so much for purchasing this book and supporting independently published literature.
If you enjoyed this story I would be eternally grateful to you for adding your thoughts to the reviews on Amazon. This will help other readers find and enjoy The Ravens of Carrid Tower and the following novels in the series.
If you have questions about the story, characters or anything else please feel free to get in touch with me. My personal email address is [email protected] and I’d be delighted to hear from you.
CHAPTER ONE
Taleese
The driver watched the young man beside him who was making no attempt to control his excitement as he gazed at the passing unfamiliar landscape. The road had been cut through dense green jungle and sharp hills, exposing the red clay beneath the foliage’s surface. So different from the brown, even black earth of the boy's homeland. Severed tree roots twisted out from the banks flanking the rough dusty road and as the wagon laboured forward, all manner of jungle creatures fled into their holes and burrows.
He had picked up the youth on the Taleese border after what must have been a long journey down the coastal road skirting the Quoroubi. Bo, as he called himself had been approaching the wagons loading up with goods from the trading post to negotiate a fare to the capital. None of the drivers had been that sympathetic to the boy, communicating poorly in his northern tongue to the bemused and impatient caravan guards.
Laxis had taken sympathy on the lad. "We'll be stopping soon Bo." The driver said in his rusty Carridean, not used since he himself was a young man working on the ships that sailed to Port Varn and on occasion, Carrid city itself.
"I thought it seemed to be getting busier on the road." Bo said observing a line of canvas tents constructed with bamboo to the left side of the road becoming visible around the bend. Bo smelled the cooking meat before he saw the lines of small grills and was instantly reminded how hungry he was. Approaching closer he could make out other sellers, cutting the husks off what Bo presumed were giant nuts or weaving different colours of textiles into giant ombre fabrics.
"You haven't seen anything yet. We’ll reach a cross roads later where traffic from the Quoroubi and Ficanto merge." Bo seemed to be making a mental image of the continents geography in his head. "Any more of an idea where you want me to drop you off when we get there."
"None at all, maybe the place you mentioned with the other foreigners, probably wise to make some Carridean friends until I pick up some of your language."
The driver laughed heartily, "It will be a long while before you start speak Taleese Bo, it's very different from your own tongue."
"I can feel that already, those other wagon drivers didn't seem to understand my maps either."
"You mean those lines you made in the dirt?" The driver joked. He was very much enjoying having the company for the final leg of his own long journey home.
"Yes well, got there in the end." Bo stated with almost no introspection.
"Yes Bo, we did. Anyway lad, it's getting dark, we should make camp soon."
"Camp? I thought you meant we would get to Talon today?"
"Not today, tomorrow at the earliest. It's another day from here and that's only if we don't run into any trouble."
"I don’t have any water left."
"Do you have food either?"
"No" Bo said looking a little panicked. "I finished everything when I reached the border. Thought I was here."
"Big country Bo."
"Oh... can we go back to that market?"
"Don't worry I saw as much before I picked you up. You have travelled... lightly. Get one of the sacks in the back there and a small cask. Not the dark one."
"What's in the dark one?"
"Whiskey. You won't like it."
"I like whiskey."
"Quench your thirst, does it?"
"No, that's true."
Bo stood up on the bench he was sitting on and climbed into the wagon behind them.
"Which sack? The wagon's full of them."
"Any will do."
"What's in them?"
"Fruit, Dalurian fruit to be exact. Very popular in Talon. Be gentle with them mind, they bruise easy and I need the silver."
Bo carefully lowered the sack and then reached over with the cask placing it on the bench, then scampered back out of the wagon's bed.
"Take one of them out and cut some pieces."
"How? These things look pretty tough" examining the large yellow fruits covered in sharp nodules.
"With your knife Bo."
Bo looked a little taken aback, "I don't have a knife."
"No knife, can't speak the tongue, run out of food and water." Rolling his eyes dramatically. "How did you even make it here?!" When Bo said nothing, Laxis asked again more softly "How long you been on the road Bo?"
"A moon, give or take a bit of glow."
"Go okay?"
"Not that bad, mostly. I had gold and there were inns along the way."
The driver reached into his pocket and handed the boy a knife folded in on itself. "Use this, cut the top and bottom off and then split it into eight or so pieces. While you're doing that pass me the ale."
"This stuff stinks."
"Aye it does lad. 'Like shit', as you foreigners are so keen of saying in town."
After thoroughly destroying the fruit with the blade, the boy handed it back. Laxis shook his head and said, “keep it lad, you’ll need one.”
“Thank you.” Bo nodded sincerely, examining the object more closely before putting it safely in his pocket.
The two ate, drank and continued their conversation for another bell before the driver signalled to a small track forking out from the highway into the jungle. "Here's a good spot. I suppose you can't make a fire either, right?" Laxis joked again as they reached a small clearing.
"Actually" Bo said suddenly more confident "I'm good at that."
"The city boy might not be totally out of his depth after all then."
While the driver started constructing the frame of their shelter for the night, Bo walked through the tree line at the edge of the clearing, picking up dry sticks and piling them next to the area he had selected to build his fire. Bo had made many fires before, though admittedly mostly to burn the political pamphlets he'd been paid to distribute in the districts outside the Tower of Carrid during the last election four cycles ago.
"The sun drops quicker here." Bo said, as the two sat watching the flames flicker in the approaching gloom.
"It does indeed, the further south you go, the earlier night falls. We don't have seasons like you do in the North. Dusk is pretty much the same time every day of the year."
Bo seemed interested in this. "No seasons?"
"Well, yes actually. It flips between hot and dry and hot and wet."
"What is it now?"
"Hot."
"It is that. What about in Narubez?"
"Ahh now that's too far south, it starts getting colder there, not unlike Carrid. The days are very short in winter."
"Really? The world is... different than I thought."
"Bigger?"
"A lot"
"Why are you here Bo?"
"What do you mean? There's not many other ways to Talon."
"I mean, why have you travelled to Taleese? Why leave home at all?"
"Oh, I see. I… I want to make my fortune." Bo said proudly.
"Not enough gold in the tower for you? The richest city on the continent."
"There's money, but scarce opportunity."
"I've seen industrious people in every corner of the world collect more gold than they could ever spend.”
"Really?"
"Yes. Go to the desert or the mountains, the city or the forest and you will find a self-made king somewhere. Rich in amber, hide, wood or gems, all manage to gather enough and convert it to coin somehow."
"I suppose you're right."
"I am lad, seen it. The smart and ambitious always seem to find a way to rise above their kin. Sometimes honestly, often not. So why Talon and not say, Lodus in Riam or somewhere in Drorea?"
“It’s cheap here I heard.”
“Aye, but wages are low.”
“Another benefit.”
“True enough for some. You business types thrive in different waters. Riam is cheap too though. Maybe more so ‘cepting for their damned ale taxes. Why here and not there?”
Bo flushed "I, er... quite like the look of your people."
The driver laughed again, the sound seeming to boom through the still night. He smacked Bo on the back softly and said, "I see now Bo, come here to find yourself a beautiful Taleese maiden, eh?"
"That would be nice." Bo replied before quickly adding. "but business first. I think I was just tired of tower life, that's all."
"You haven't lived long enough to earn a rest boy. How many summers?"
"Twenty-two."
"I envy you that."
"Why? I always thought it was better to be older, seem to have more respect, easier to secure credit, people... well people listen to you more don't they."
"Aye that's often the case. Age brings a certain amount of authority, true enough. But look lad, it's only on the surface. Show them but once, that you don't deserve the respect and they will cast you away quicker than they would do with younger folk like you. With age comes regret too Bo. That's the main thing. When you get to my cycles it's not what we have done that keeps us up at night, but what we haven't. Regret lad, that's the curse of the old everywhere. I don't have much to my name but find me a warlock or one of your mages who could make me twenty-two again and I’d trade it all. I'd need to keep my memories though granted."
"Why?"
"Otherwise I’d make the same mistakes wouldn't I! Forty odd cycles later it would all be the same."
"I suppose you’re right."
"So, what was it then, what really made you decide to leave then Bo? Can’t just be cheap bread and skinny maidens." The driver asked with genuine interest.
"No, I guess not.” Bo sighed slightly. “I was just bored Laxis. I’d been in the leather trade, tried a couple of times to make a proper shop, you know, turn it into stuff people wanted. That's where the real money is, not just selling rolls of treated hide."
"What happened?"
"Money. Never had enough. The city administrators kept coming and asking for licenses and such, could never afford them. No one lent me any capital. The guilds pushed me about a bit too, even though I set it up from the start not to tread on any toes. Which I learned means stepping on many. Tried a few times, made some profit, lost it all somehow. Back to the beginning."
"It takes time Bo, many cycles you know."
"I know."
"But you don't know that really lad.”
“How do you mean?”
“All of those are excuses Bo. If you had the skill to meet the task, you would not be checked by any of these problems. Councils can be dodged, and guilds bribed. Ever thought about getting a partner or a patron?"
"I did, twice. But as soon as I took the money they started treating me like the help."
"Ahh yes, another lesson then. Ideas mean little Bo in this world. Coin is control."
"I learned that. So, I thought I'd come here, where the little coin I had was worth something."
"Have any idea what you're going to start?"
"Not yet, but I will find something."
"I'm sure you will lad." He said sincerely. The boy was young and naive, but he'd come this far.
There's tenacity in this one. Laxis considered to himself.
The two ate and drank and drank some more, long into the night. At one point, after a slight lull in the conversation, the driver told Bo to get the darker cask.
"What about you?" Bo asked.
"Me?"
"Yes, been in this business long?"
"Many cycles. Up and down this road, picking up all manner of things and trading them back in Talon."
"Always alone?"
"There's not enough profit to share Bo. It's enough to get by and mostly I like the peace." He said stretching his legs out.
"No family?"
The driver twitched slightly, before responding "A long time ago, yes." He glanced away, "not any more though." Bo sensed he had touched upon a sore point for his new friend and the two silently stared back into the flickering flames.
After a time, the driver broke the silence. "I had a son, not much older than you Bo."
The boy waited for him to continue at his own pace, not wanting to inadvertently open up old wounds.
"He... he died."
"I'm sorry."
"Me too Bo, me too. He fell into a bad crowd and... Well I wasn't there, never there really."
"Working?"
"Aye working. And when not working, drinking. Drinking while working, the truth be told."
Bo recalled their earlier conversation about regrets and hesitantly asked, "What happened?"
The driver paused for a long time before answering.
"A boy needs a f
ather Bo, to teach him how to be a man. When the father isn't around he looks for others to develop and direct his energy. Often gangs. My boy, it turns out joined a bad one. Older boys, they used him to do the dangerous work. He was caught one night doing something he shouldn't have, and the city guards killed him when he tried to escape."
"I'm sorry." Bo said again.
"Me too Bo, me too" he repeated. The man's face had lost his amicable features. Bo could almost feel the sadness emanating in the air around him.
"Is that always true?"
"Which bit?"
"About fathers? I never met mine."
The driver stared at Bo for some time, considering something. "Stayed away from trouble, did you?"
"Mostly, never joined a gang or anything like that. Just alone really."
"I see. Funny though."
"What is?"
"You. Here. Most boys your age are finishing their apprenticeships and building a career. Yet here you are, leagues from home, talking to strangers in the jungle about making a fortune."
"Everyone wants to be rich, don't they?"
"Aye they do, but how many cross the world to do it? Most people talk Bo. That's all they do."
"They always said I couldn't do it."
"And it was your father's job to tell you not to listen. Show you the way."
"I never met him."
"Yes Bo, you said. That's my point. Perhaps if you had, you wouldn't be here."
"Why? I don't understand."
"Because Bo, you wouldn't have as much to prove."
"I don't have anything to prove." The boy said defensively.
"I bet your mother never approved of this adventure of yours."
"No, she just wanted me to work, marry the girl down the street and give her some little ones to fawn over."
"Why didn't you do that?"
"I... er..."
The driver waited for Bo to finish the sentence he was clearly struggling with.
"Alright fine, I wanted to show them." The cocktail of ale and spirit was beginning to overcome Bo's usual reservation to talk seriously about anything personal. Anything that really mattered.
"Show them what?"
"That I could do it on my own. Not have to work for proud idiots. Be something, someone. Show them that I didn’t need... Anyone."
The Ravens of Carrid Tower Page 1
