The reign of Taur Urgas of Cthol Murgos has been marked by the fear and suspicion which are so characteristic of his disease. Though the mad King fears and hates all Alorns (the Algars in particular), as have all members of his family, Taur Urgas carries his suspicions even further. He is fearful of a possible alliance between Tolnedra, Arendia and the Alorn Kingdoms, and he has saturated the west with his agents with instructions to stir up as much discord as possible. The secret fear which haunts the sleep of Taur Urgas, however, is the dread that Mallorea might move to play a greater role in the destiny of the kingdoms of the western continent. It is evident that the discovery in his youth that Mallorea was at least twice the size of Cthol Murgos filled Taur Urgas with an unreasoning fear and hatred. The contempt with which the average Murgo views the Malloreans has in the case of their King crossed the line into open hostility.
Thus, when the young Emperor ’Zakath ascended the throne at Mal Zeth, Taur Urgas immediately instructed his agents to provide him with the details of the new Emperor’s background, education and temperament. Their reply filled the King of the Murgos with alarm. It appeared that ’Zakath was precisely the kind of man Taur Urgas had feared would be the new ruler of the world’s most populous nation. Desperately, the King of the Murgos cast about in search of a way to neutralize the Mallorean’s obvious talents.
The opportunity Taur Urgas had been awaiting came when reports filtered back to Rak Goska that ’Zakath was in love— or at least strongly attracted. The lady in question was a Melcene girl of high degree with a powerful family which had nonetheless fallen upon difficult times. The conditions were perfect for the Murgo King. Calling upon the almost unlimited wealth of blood-red gold which yearly poured from the mines of Cthol Murgos, Taur Urgas bought up all of the outstanding debts of the Melcene girl’s family and began applying pressure upon them for repayment. When the family was sufficiently desperate, Taur Urgas, acting through his agents, presented his proposal. The girl was to encourage ’Zakath’s attentions and to lure him into marriage by whatever means necessary. She was then to exert all her influence upon the young man to prevent his ever considering adventures in the west, and failing that, a Nyissan poison was provided and the girl was to be instructed to kill her husband.
The failure of the plan was largely the result of a basic Murgo inability to understand the complexities of Mallorean intrigue. Murgos appear to automatically assume that everyone they bribe will remain bribed. In Mallorea, however, such integrity is the exception rather than the rule. Thus, a relatively minor participant in Taur Urgas’s scheme soon found an opportunity to sell the information to certain officials in the government of Emperor ’Zakath. When the entire matter was placed before the Emperor, the young man, in a sudden fit of outrage, ordered that all participants in the intrigue be rounded up and immediately be put to death. Certain evidence emerged after the order was carried out which suggested strongly that the Melcene girl (for whom ’Zakath appeared to have a genuine affection) was not only innocent of any participation in the Murgo scheme, but may even have been totally unaware of it. When this tragic information was conveyed to the young Emperor, he very nearly went mad with grief, and when he finally recovered, his personality was so altered that even his own family could not recognize him as the same man. The previously open and gregarious young man is now quite often surreptitiously referred to as ‘the man of ice’.
’Zakath’s first act upon his recovery was to direct the now-famous letter of remonstrance to Taur Urgas. The letter read as follows:
To His Majesty, Taur Urgas of Murgodom,
I was unamused by your recent attempt to influence Mallorean internal affairs, your Majesty. Were it not for current world conditions which require that there be no apparent rupture between the two major Angarak powers, I would bring the entire weight of the Mallorean Empire down upon you and chastise you beyond your imagining for your offense.
To insure that there will be no recurrence of this affair, I have taken all Murgos within my boundaries into custody to serve as hostage to your continued good behavior.I am advised that several of these internees are closely related to you. Should you instigate further adventuresin my realm, I shall return your kinsmen to you—piece by piece.
In the past, your madness has filled your world with imagined enemies. Rejoice, Taur Urgas, and put aside your insanity, for you now have a real foe, far more deadly than any of the phantoms of your lunacy. You may be assured that as soon as world conditions permit, I will descend upon you and the stinking wasteland you call your Kingdom. It is my firm intention to destroy you and the vile race you rule. When I am done, the name ‘Murgo’ will be forgotten.
Keep a watchful eye over your shoulder, Taur Urgas, for as surely as the sun rises tomorrow, one day I will be there.
With My most heartfelt contempt,
’Zakath,
Emperor of Mallorea
When Taur Urgas read this letter, his advisors found it necessary to physically restrain him to prevent his doing himself injury. Though it is possibly an exaggeration, some witnesses maintain that the Murgo King actually began to froth at the mouth, so great was his rage. It must be admitted that the letter of ’Zakath was probably the most strongly-worded which any sovereign has ever directed at another, however, and it signaled the beginning of preparations in the two nations for that war which was now absolutely inevitable.
Occasionally the Murgo King was impelled by his growing insanity to take some kind of action against his implacable enemy. While these actions were usually rather petty, ’Zakath’s response was always the same. Not long after such incidents, Taur Urgas would receive the dismembered body of some cousin or nephew. Since the Murgo obsession with race is exceeded only by their attachment to family, nothing ’Zakath could have done could have injured Taur Urgas more, and as the years passed, the hatred of the two grew stronger until it became in the mind of each man virtually an article of religion.
The tragically altered Emperor of Mallorea has become obsessed with the concept of power, and the idea of becoming Over-King of all of Angarak has dominated his thinking for the past two decades. Only time will determine if ’Zakath of Mallorea will be successful in his bid to assert his dominance over the western Angarak kingdoms, but if he succeeds, the history of the entire world may well be profoundly altered.
V
THE MALLOREAN GOSPELS
BOOK 1
THE BOOK OF AGES
Now These are the Ages of Man:
IN THE FIRST AGE was man created, and he awoke in puzzlement and wonder as he beheld the world about him. And those that had made him considered him and selected from his number those that pleased them, and the rest were cast out and driven away. And some went in search of the spirit known as UL, and they left us and passed into the west, and we saw them no more. And some denied the Gods, and they went into the far north to wrestle with demons. And some turned to worldly matters, and they went away into the east and built mighty cities there.
But we despaired, and we sat us down upon the earth in the shadow of the mountains of Korim, which are no more, and in bitterness we bewailed our fate that we had been made and then cast out.
And it came to pass that in the midst of our grief a woman of our people was seized by a rapture, and it was as if she were shaken by a mighty hand. And she arose from the earth upon which she had sat and she bound her eyes with cloth, signifying that she had seen that which no mortal being had seen
before, for lo! She was the first Seeress in all the world. And with the touch of vision still upon her she spake unto us in a great voice, saying:
‘Behold! A feast hath been set before those who made us, and this feast shall ye call the Feast of Life. And those who made us have chosen that which pleased them, and that which pleased them not was not chosen.
‘Now we are the Feast of Life, and ye sorrow that no guest at the feast hath chosen ye. Despair not, however, for one guest hath not yet arrived at the feast. The other guests have
taken their fill, but this great Feast of Life awaiteth still the beloved guest who cometh late, and I say unto all the people that it is he who will choose us.
‘Abide therefore against his coming, for it is certain. The signs of it are in the heavens, and there are whispers which speak of it within the rocks. If earth and sky alike confirm it, how can it not come to pass? Prepare then for his coming. Put aside thy grief and turn thy face to the sky and to the earth that thou mayest read the signs written there, for this I say unto all the people, it is upon ye that his coming rests. For Behold, he may not choose ye unless ye choose him. And this is the fate for which we were made.
‘Rise up, oh my people. Sit no more upon the earth in vain and foolish lamentation. Take up the task which lies before ye and prepare the way for him who will surely come.’
Much we marveled at the words which had been spoken to us, and we considered them most carefully. And we questioned the Seeress, but her answers were dark and obscure. And we perceived that a danger lurked within the promise. And we turned our faces to the sky and bent our ears to the whispers which came from the earth that we might see and hear and learn. And as we learned to read the book of the skies and to hear the whispers within the rocks, we found the myriad warnings that two spirits would come to us, and that the one was good and the other evil. And we redoubled our efforts so that we might recognize the true spirit and the false in order to choose between them. And as we read the Book of the Heavens we found two signs; and as we listened to the earth we heard two voices; and we were sorely troubled, for we could not determine which sign was the true sign nor which voice the true voice. Truly, evil is disguised as good in the Book of the Heavens and in the speech of the earth, and no man is wise enough to choose between them unaided.
evil is disguised as good in the Book of the Heavens
Pondering this, we went out from beneath the shadow of the mountains of Korim and into the lands beyond, where we abode. And we put aside the concerns of man and bent all our efforts to the task which lay before us. And we sought out all manner of wisdom to aid us in distinguishing the true God from the false when the two should come to us, each saying, ‘I am the way.’ Our witches and our seers sought the aid of the spirit world, and our necromancers took counsel with the dead, and our diviners sought advice from the earth. But lo, the spirits knew no more than we, and we found that they were as confused and troubled as we.
Then gathered we at last upon a fertile plain to bring together all that we had learned from the world of men, the world of the spirits, the Book of the Heavens and the voices of the earth. And Behold, these are the truths that we have learned from the stars, from the rocks, from the hearts of men and from the minds of the spirits:
Know ye, oh my people, that all a’down the endless avenues of time hath division marred all that is—for there is division at the very heart of creation. And some have said that this is natural and will persist until the end of days, but it is not so. Were the division destined to be eternal, then the purpose of creation would be to contain it. But the stars and the spirits and the voices within the rocks speak of the day when the division will end and all will be made one again, for creation itself knows that the day will come.
Know ye further, oh my people, that two spirits contend with each other at the very center of time, and these spirits are the two sides of that which hath divided creation. And in a certain time shall those spirits meet upon this world, and then will come the time of the choice. And if THE CHOICE be not made, the spirits will pass on to another world and confront each other there, and this world will be abandoned, and the beloved guest of whom the Seeress spoke will never come. For it is this which was meant when she said unto us: ‘Behold, he may not choose ye unless ye choose him.’ And the choice which we must make is between good and evil—for there is an absolute good and an absolute evil, and the division at the heart of creation is the division between good and evil, and the reality which will exist after we have made THE CHOICE will be a reality of good or a reality of evil, and it will prevail so until the end of days.
now the Second Age of man began in thunder and earthquake
Behold also this truth; the rocks of the world and of all other worlds murmur continually of the two stones which lie at the center of the division.76 Once these stones were one, and they stood at the very center of all of creation, but, like all else, they were divided, and in the instant of division were they rent apart with a force that destroyed whole suns. And where these stones are found, there surely will be the next confrontation between the two spirits. Now the day will come when all division will end and all will be made one again—except that the division between the two stones is so great that they can never be rejoined. And in the day when the division ends shall one of the stones cease forever to exist, and in that day also shall one of the spirits forever vanish.
These then were the truths which we gathered from the stars and from the rocks and from the hearts of men and from the minds of the spirits. And it was our discovery of these truths which marked the end of the First Age.
Now the Second Age of man began in thunder and earthquake, for lo, the earth herself split apart, and the sea rushed in to divide up the lands of men even as creation itself is divided. And the mountains of Korim shuddered and groaned and heaved as the sea swallowed them. And we knew that this would come to pass, for our seers had warned us that it would be so. We went our way, therefore, and found safety before the world was cracked and the sea first rushed away and then rushed back and never departed more.
And it was in the Second Age that we saw the coming of the chosen ones who had been selected by the Seven Gods. And we studied them to determine if there were yet some mark upon them to distinguish them from the rest of mankind, but we found no such mark or sign. And our seers communed with the minds of the seers of our brothers who had gone into the west before the seas came in to divide the lands of men. And our brothers in the west also studied the chosen ones of other Gods, and their seers spake unto the minds of our seers, and they said that they—even as we—could find no mark or sign. And our brothers in the west looked at the chosen of the Bear God and the Lion God and the Bull God and the Bat God and the Serpent God and found no mark or sign, and we looked at the children of the Dragon God, and it was the same, even though the Dragon God’s people warred with the people of the other Gods.
Yet was there another God, and some men thought that this God dwelling in solitude might indeed be the God who would in time take up all of the unchosen people. And our brethren in the west went up to the Vale in which he dwelt with his disciples and prostrated themselves before him and besought him that he disclose to them the secrets locked in the future. And the God Aldur spake kindly unto them and counseled them, saying: ‘Abide against the coming of the Beloved One, and know that my brothers and I, and our people as well, strive to insure his coming—and our striving and our sacrifice is for ye, who are destined to become the Chosen of Him who is yet to come.’
And one of our brethren spake, asking the God thus: ‘And what of the Dragon God, Lord, that is Thine enemy? Doth he also strive for the coming of the Beloved One?’ And the face of Aldur grew troubled, and he spake, saying: ‘My brother Torak doth indeed strive, though he knoweth not the end toward which he moves. I counsel ye to dwell in peace with the children of the Dragon God, for ye dwell in lands which shall be theirs, and they will be Lords over ye. Should ye resist them, they will cause ye great suffering. Endure that which they lay upon ye and abide in patience as ye continue the tasks which have been given ye.’
And the Seers of the West disclosed what Aldur had told them unto the minds of the seers who dwelt among us, and we took counsel with the seers and considered how we might least offend the children of the Dragon God so that they would not interrupt our studies. In the end we concluded that the warlike children of Angarak would be least apprehensive about simple tillers of the soil living in rude communities on the land, and we so ordered our lives.
We pulled down our cities and carried away the stones, and we betook ourselves back to the land so that we might not alarm our neighbors nor arouse their envy.
And the years passed and became centuries, and the centuries passed and became eons. And as we had known they would, the children of Angarak came down amongst us and established their overlordship. And they called the lands in which we dwelt ‘Dalasia’, and we did what they wished us to do and continued in our studies.
Now at about this time it came to pass in the far north that a Disciple of the God Aldur came with others to reclaim a certain thing which the Dragon God had stolen from Aldur. And that act was so important that when it was done the Second Age had ended and the Third Age had begun.
for the pupil may corrupt the intent of the master
Now it was in the Third Age that the priests of Angarak, which men call Grolims, came to speak to us of the Dragon God and of his hunger for our love, and we considered what they said even as we considered all things men told us. And we consulted the Book of the Heavens and confirmed that Torak was the incarnate God-Aspect of one of the spirits which contended at the center of time. But where was the other? How might men choose when but one of the spirits came to them? How might man select the Good and abjure the Evil when he could in no wise compare them? The spirit infusing the Dragon God could not help us in our choice, for that spirit perceived its goal as good and could not comprehend the possibility that it might be evil. Then it was that we understood our dreadful responsibility. The spirits would come to us, each in its own time, and each would proclaim that it was good and the other was evil. It was man, however, who would choose. And some there are who believe that it is man’s choice which will determine the outcome. And we took counsel among ourselves and we concluded that we might accept the forms of the worship which the Grolims so urgently pressed upon us. This would give us the opportunity to examine the nature of the Dragon God and make us better prepared to choose when the other God appeared.
The Rivan Codex Page 31
