by Ru Emerson
Brelian set his blades into Grewl's hands. The old man held them aloft, and the people, most of whom had been unable to follow what was happening, understood the gesture and cheered.
“Hear me, people!” Ylia shouted. “Vess, and any who desire to serve him, shall go from Aresada unharmed, with provisioning to aid them in reaching Nar! Those who swore to him but wish to stay may do so, and with my best wishes! There will be no deaths of one Nedaoan by another here!”
A great wordless cry went up; somewhere, distantly, she heard Marhan bellow out: “Hail Ylia, Lady of Nedao!” A roar of sound answered him: “Queen Ylia!” Willing hands tore at the hangings surrounding Vess’ rich seat; willing hands assisted her until she stood before the makeshift throne that had been his. The people knelt as she stood there; joy and love filled her heart until she thought it would burst. And still that cry echoed through the Grand Temple: “Hail Queen Ylia, Lady of Nedao!”
Epilogue
Moonlight glanced from tall windows, shone like a blue-white mirror across the floor. A woman stood hard against them, her robes wrinkled as though she had slept and lived in them for many long nights. Her hair hung unbound in limp hanks down her back. She stared across ragged stone pillars, her gaze holding to the flat, close-turfed arena in their midst. She did not turn as the doors opened.
“What news?” Her voice was slurred with the tiredness that went to her bones.
“None.” The elderly serving woman knelt behind her. “He sinks no lower, but he does not respond. There is nothing else we know to do.” Silence. “Lady, there is nothing we would not do for him—and for you. But we have not the strength.”
“I know your loyalty, it is not your fault. Go. Keep watch on him.” The servant nearly ran from the chamber.
Marrita stared across the sword-field until the door shut, leaving her again alone in the huge chamber. She whirled about, then. “It is here, you are here, I have felt you, even I powerless as I am! You are here, Great One! What thing do you want that my Lord did not have or was too proud to give? Is it in me? Can you find it there? I am here, Great One—and lo!—there is no thing, not one, I would not dare to save him! Is it within my inner being? Or is it all? Take, then!”
She paused, panting a little in the silence. “There is no bargain in me!—I must have what was yours or Lyiadd will die! You cannot wish that, he would serve you!” Silence again. “Take me, and you will never regret what you got of this trade!” She flung her arms wide. A faint sound brought her around to stare, frightened, at the sullen firepit.
The fire had burned low a long time since, was only a few glowing embers. They were suddenly quelled; blackness filled the pit, spilled eagerly over its edges. Above the pit, in the far corners of the chamber, Hell's own night puddled, quivering as it slipped down the walls.
Marrita trembled but held her ground. One hand stole to her breast, the other to her throat. The air was thick, hard to breathe, darkening with every breath. A sudden brilliance: blue-edged, sooty lightning tore across the chamber, shattering the windows. She screamed once, an airless, breathy little cry, and fell as though struck.
The chamber slowly cleared as night breezes drifted through broken windows. Marrita lay flat, eyes open and unseeing. Bits of a darkness beyond night fluttered like ebony moths about the spilled gold of her hair.
Appendix “A"
Historical & Informational Data
Peopled Lands
These encompass the smaller Eastern and Northern continent: its terrain is as varied as the peoples who inhabit it. The name “Peopled Lands” was first applied by Osneran traders in approximately Nedaoan year (new calendar) 100. The Osnerans were astounded (and somewhat amused) by the number and variety of small countries existing in a land area not much larger than their whole country and that so many greatly different folk should live in relative peace so near each other. Besides Yls and Nedao (Nar would not come into being for 200 more years), there were the thick-walled desert City/States of Kerish and Aladar, two days east of the Torth; to the south were the coastal Rangol, Indebris, the warlike mercenary Eddekras. Besides, of course, the later extinct Llhaza and the Tehlatt, the Folk and the Nasath, though these latter two were unknown to the Osnerans save as Ylsan fables, peoples supposed to dwell in the Foessa.
Y
Of the Northern countries in Nedaoan New Year 517 (all future date references are to the Nedaoan new calendar), Yls was the oldest, over a thousand years old. Legend and Ylsan history say the southwest peninsula and forest lands, with fertile valleys nestled between low mountain ranges, had been given the AEldra, along with their unique Powers, in exchange for aid in war. And certainly it is true that the AEldra alone in the Peopled Lands use magic and strange powers, though over the years these abilities have slowly waned, for the AEldra were never ambitious. They had fallen into a somewhat predictable, if comfortable, existence, one generation flowing into the next without any great change. But their pride was what it had always been, and they still saw themselves as foremost among the Northern lands—the Southern and Eastern they dismissed with genial contempt—not realizing they were no longer the fierce sea-people they had been, more than they were still a land of powerful mages. Among the AEldra, only the Five Houses had any of the deep Power remaining true, even though the humblest Ylsan herder-lad might have use of the Baelfyr or be able to bridge.
Though most AEldra were—and are—human, there were, from the first, beasts among them fully aware. Whether the Powers were given also to certain animals among the AEldra, or whether certain of them later took those forms and kept them, is not known. AEldra of cat-kind and a few of dog are known; it is believed, as well, that there are AEldra among the great hunting birds, though this is not known for certain.
The Nasath and the Folk
AEldra tradition and history have it that their magic came from the Nasath, the fabled Guardians of the lands. The Nasath, if they do exist, have not been seen for many hundreds of years, nor have the Folk, those to whom the Nasath supposedly first gave their protection. They are seen, on the rare occasion humankind comes upon them, as the ancient river and mountain deities of children's tales and minstrel's lays, the Naiads and Dryads of Nedaoan and Ylsan legend, though their forms are as varied and fabulous as they themselves choose.
Nar
In the late second century, New Nedaoan, there was civil war in Osnera and one entire folk, dominantly traders, won the right to leave the mother country and sail east. They took to themselves the great islands and shorelands at the mouth of the River Aresada, and so founded Nar. Quick-witted and ambitious, the Narrans soon reopened trade with Osnera, and, before long, they had control of most of the shipping between the old and new lands.
Their ships were ever the target of the Sea-Raiders, who extracted a tithe of the cargo of any ship they captured. The Narrans, loathe to part with any of their profit, learned swordwork of the Nedaoans and the Eddekras, and became the only merchants of any kind to even attempt to gainsay the fierce Raiders.
It is said a Narran can squeeze gold until it cries out, but they also know the value of a well-placed gift, and were ever swift to be of aid in need.
Sea-Raiders
A full day's journey south of Nedao lay the Great Isles of the Sea-Raiders. These folk were never properly counted among the Peopled Lands, though they preyed almost exclusively on the ships of those folk, attacking any who sailed the coasts but holding greatest preference for the triangular-sailed Narran vessels. The black-hulled, black-sailed Raider ships were faster than any merchant cog and struck terror into the hearts of any who saw them. Though the Raiders killed only when provoked and, for many long years, took only a large “tithe” from the holds of those they captured.
The Raiders are believed to be distant kin of the AEldra: both folk are pale of hair and skin, taller than others among the Peopled Lands or Oversea. Both were originally Seafolk before the call went forth from the Nasath for aid against the Lammior. It is also believed, by some,
that the Raiders were those AEldra who did not answer the summons, for there was great dissention among the Seafolk, whether to aid in a war that could not touch them.
Nedao
Nestled comfortably in the fertile Plain between the Foessa Mountains to the west and the deserts to the east, Nedao had belonged to that dark, farming and herding folk for only 500 years. They had come, the Nedaoans, as exiles of a long war and siege by the Sea-Raiders; their Queen Lossana, and her two young sons, all that was left of the House of Lossor; the King and his council, dead by treachery, the Great Isles taken from them with horrifying loss of life. But they were determined and strong-minded, and they wrested the Plain from the savage nomads who dwelt there before them.
Even more conservative and complacent by nature than their AEldra neighbors, they settled into their own ways, slowly forgetting the constant threat to their northern and eastern borders, believing—because it was more comfortable to believe that way—that the Tehlatta had forgiven them the conquest of the Plain, and that they would never unite their many warring tribes sufficiently to constitute a threat.
But early in the 6th century, the great Tehlatt chief Kanatan, with the aid of the shaman Urgetz, bound all the clans together, and in the year 507, they retook Anasela. Ten years later, they launched a lightning raid against the Plain itself. Nedao was taken completely by surprise. Teshmor and Koderra, the two major cities, were razed; well over two-thirds of the population was slain, the rest of the people scattered.
Appendix “B"
Chronology
Year (New Calendar)
1 First refugees from Great Isles reach the mouth of the Torth; two years later the last of them, including the Queen and her sons, arrive.
4 Koderra is founded.
7 Teshmor founded; Llhaza driven from the south; Tehlatta forced from the River and east-ward.
27 Killdes of Koderra, Lord Prince and eldest son of Queen Leffna, and a group of his friends are slain by Cavefolk when they attempt to discover what is killing the herds west of the Torth.
28 Merreven, brother of Killdes, tracks down and slays the Mathkkra.
177 House of Lossor fails; House of Benald inherits the ruling. Anasela made a part of Nedao. Tehlatta driven further north and east.
207 AEldra cross the mountains and establish land trade with Nedao through the ancient Yls Pass.
220 First repulsion of the Tehlatt.
290 Nar is founded by Osneran traders.
291 Barbarians from the eastern deserts are defeated in a battle at the mouth of the Torth.
299 Trade is established between Nedao and lands to the east. Beginning of the Long Peace. A border guard is formed to take the place of the King's army; Baronry and other landed Holders keep household armed upon which the King can call at need.
305 House of Ettel gains the ruling.
370 Nedaoan Navy is disbanded.
388 Nar and Nedao sign trading pacts.
400 Oaths of peace are exchanged with the Tehlatta.
445 Births of Nisana and Malaeth in Yls.
460 Birth of Brandt, son of King Bergony.
462 Birth of Scythia, of the Second House of Yls.
467 Bergony deals with the Chosen and grants them the Northern Citadel.
485 Marriage of Brandt and Scythia.
486 Birth of Beredan.
491 Birth of Ylia.
507 Tehlatta invade and retake Anasela.
517 Invasion of Nedao. Deaths of Brandt and Scythia.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1987 by Ru Emerson
Cover design by Open Road Integrated Media
ISBN 978-1-4976-0963-1
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Table of Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Epilogue
Appendix A
Appendix B
