Dark is the Moon

by Ian Irvine

  Siftah: A fishing town on the northeastern coast of Meldorin.

  Sith: A free city and trading nation built on an island in the River Garr, in southern lagador.

  Skane: A city that fell the last time the full dark moon was in hythe, 1830 years ago.

  Span: The distance spanned by the stretched arms of a tall man. About six feet, or slightly less than two meters.

  Stassor: A city of the Aachim, in eastern Lauralin.

  Syndics: A ruling Council of the Aachim, sometimes a panel of judges. None can lie to them in formal trial.

  Tale of the Forbidding: Greatest of the Great Tales, it tells of the final destruction of the flute by Shuthdar more than three thousand years ago, and how the Forbidding sealed Santhenar off from the other two worlds.

  Talent: A native skill or gift, usually honed by extensive training.

  Tales of the Aachim: An ancient summary history of the Aachim, the Nazhak tel Mardux, prepared soon after the founding of Shazmak. Llian read and memorized it in Shazmak so he could translate it later.

  Tallallame: One of the Three Worlds, the world of the Faellem. A beautiful, mountainous world covered in forest.

  Tallia bel Soon: Mendark’s chief lieutenant. She is a mancer and a master of combat with and without weapons. Tallia comes from Crandor.

  Tar: A silver coin widely used in Meldorin. Enough to keep a family for several weeks.

  Tar Gaarn: Principal city of the Aachim in the time of the Clysm; it was sacked by Rulke.

  Tell: A gold coin to the value of twenty silver tars.

  Teller: One who has mastered the ritual telling of the tales that form part of the Histories of Santhenar.

  Tensor: The leader of the Aachim. He saw it as his destiny to restore the Aachim and finally take their revenge on Rulke, who betrayed and ruined them. He is proud to the point of folly.

  Tess, Tessariel: A fishing captain working the bamundi schools out of Ganport. She helped Shand and Karan to escape from Ganport, across the Sea of Thurkad.

  Thandiwe: A student at the College in Chanthed and friend of Llian.

  Thel: One of Tensor’s Aachim.

  Three Worlds: Santhenar, Aachan and Tallallame.

  Thripsi: A mountainous coastal region at the northeastern tip of Meldorin, chiefly noted for its fishing.

  Thurkad: An ancient, populous city on the River Saboth and the Sea of Thurkad, known for its wealth and corruption. Seat of the Council and the Magister.

  Thyllan: Warlord of Iagador and member of the Council. He intrigued against Mendark and briefly overthrew him as Magister, but after Yggur captured the city he retreated across the sea to raise an army.

  Tirthrax: The principal city of the Aachim, in the Great Mountains.

  Tolryme: A town in northern Bannador, close to Karan’s family seat, Gothryme.

  Torgsted: One of Mendark’s guard. A cheerful, reliable fellow who agreed to pretend to betray Mendark and take service with Thyllan, so as to spy on him.

  Trazpar: A solar still.

  Triune: A double blending—one with the blood of all Three Worlds, three different human species. They are extremely rare and almost always infertile. They may have remarkable abilities. Karan is one.

  Tullin: A tiny village in the mountains south of Chanthed. Shand lives there.

  Twisted Mirror: The Mirror of Aachan, made in Aachan and given to Tensor, who smuggled it with him to Santhenar. Like all objects taken between the worlds, it changed and became treacherous. So called because it does not always show true.

  Ulice: Proprietor of a cellar bar in Thurkad, and an old friend of Shand’s. She can get anything, for a price.

  Vanhe: Marshal Vanhe, one of Yggur’s mid-ranking officers, forced to take command after all of Yggur’s generals were killed.

  Vartila: The leader of a band of the Whelm. She remained Whelm and served Yggur after most of her people reverted to Ghâshâd.

  Voice: The ability of great tellers to move their audience to any emotion they choose by the sheer power of their words.

  Void, the: The spaces between the Three Worlds. A Darwinian place where life is more brutal and fleeting than anywhere. The void teems with the most exotic life imaginable, for nothing survives there without remaking itself constantly.

  Vuula Fyrn: Karan’s mother, a lyrist. She committed suicide soon after Karan’s father, Galliad, was killed.

  Wahn Barre: The Crow Mountains. Yalkara, the Mistress of Deceits, had a stronghold there, Havissard. A place of illomen.

  Waif, The: Pender’s third boat, formerly a blacklisted smuggler’s vessel, Black Opal.

  Way between the Worlds: The secret, forever-changing and ethereal paths that permit the difficult passage between the Three Worlds. They were closed off by the Forbidding.

  Whelm: Servants of Yggur, his terror-guard. See also Ghâshâd.

  Wistan: The seventy-fourth Master of the College of the Histories and of Chanthed.

  Xarah: A young Aachim woman, twin to Shalah.

  Yalkara: The Demon Queen, the Mistress of Deceits. The last of the three Charon who came to Santhenar to find the flute and return it to Aachan. She took the Mirror and used it to find a warp in the Forbidding, then fled Santh, leaving the Mirror behind.

  Yetchah: A young Whelm woman who hunted Llian from Chanthed to Tullin.

  Yggur: A great and powerful mancer and sworn enemy of Mendark. Formerly a member of the Council, he dwells in Fiz Gorgo. After Karan stole the Mirror his armies overran most of southern Meldorin, capturing Thurkad. He and Maigraith became lovers. Yggur hates and fears Rulke from the time Rulke possessed him before he was imprisoned in the Nightland.

  Zain: A scholarly race who once dwelt in Zile and founded the Great Library. They made a pact with Rulke and after his fall most were slaughtered and the remnant exiled. They dwell in Jepperand and no longer make alliances.

  Zareth the Hlune: One of Yggur’s lieutenants, whom Shand poisoned with octopus venom to prevent Karan from being discovered on Tess’s fishing boat.

  Zile: A city in the north-west of the island of Meldorin. Once capital of the Empire of Zur, now chiefly famous for the Great Library.

  Zurean Empire: An ancient empire in the north of Meldorin. Its capital was Zile.

  * * *

  GUIDE TO

  PRONUNCIATION

  There are many languages and dialects used on Santhenar by the four human species. While it is impossible to be definitive in such a brief note, the following generalizations normally apply.

  There are no silent letters, and double consonants are generally pronounced as two separate letters; for example, Yggur is pronounced Ig-ger, and Faellem as Fael-lem. The letter c is usually pronounced as k, except in mancer and Al-cifer, where it is pronounced as s. The combination ch is generally pronounced as in church, except in Aachim and Charon, where it is pronounced as k.

  Aachim Ar’-kim

  Charon Kar’-on

  Fyrn Firn

  Iagador Eye-aga’-dor

  Lasee Lar’-say

  Maigraith May’-gray-ith

  Rael Ray’-il

  Whelm H’-welm

  Xarah Zha’-rah

  Chanthed Chan-thed’

  Faelamor Fay-el’-amor

  Ghâshâd G-harsh’-ard

  Karan Ka-ran’

  Llian Lee’-an

  Neid Nee’-id

  Shuthdar Shoo’-th-dar’

  Yggur Ig’-ger

  Meet the Author

  Ian Irvine, a marine scientist who has developed some of Australia’s national guidelines for protection of the marine environment, has also written twenty-seven novels. These include the internationally bestselling Three Worlds fantasy sequence (The View from the Mirror, The Well of Echoes, and Song of the Tears), which has sold over a million copies, a trilogy of thrillers set in a world undergoing catastrophic climate change, Human Rites, and twelve books for younger readers, the latest being the humorous fantasy quartet, Grim and Grimmer.

  Mike Benveniste
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  Also by Ian Irvine

  THE THREE WORLD SERIES

  THE VIEW FROM THE MIRROR QUARTET

  A Shadow on the Glass

  The Tower on the Rift

  Dark is the Moon

  The Way Between the Worlds

  THE WELL OF ECHOES QUARTET

  Geomancer

  Tetrarch

  Scrutator

  Chimaera

  SONG OF THE TEARS TRILOGY

  Torments of the Traitor

  The Curse on the Chosen

  The Destiny of the Dead

  THE TAINTED REALM

  Vengeance

  Rebellion

  Justice

  If you enjoyed

  DARK IS THE MOON,

  look out for

  THE WAY BETWEEN THE WORLDS

  The View from the Mirror: Book 4

  by Ian Irvine

  In the conclusion to this series, Karan, the young Sensitive who holds the Mirror of Aachen, which has the power to heal or permanently destroy the rift between Worlds, is held captive. Her lover, Llian, is in chains, falsely accused of betraying her. With the dark moon rising, the Charon Rulke is unstoppable as he prepares to open the Way between the Worlds.

  1

  The Arrow

  The construct, a menace that warped even the light around it, slowly revolved above the decapitated tower of Carcharon. Rulke stood tall on top, holding his levers in one negligent hand. The other was thrust out at the rising moon, whose dark face, mottled red and purple-black, had just heaved its swollen mass over the horizon. That was a hideous omen. The moon had not been full on hythe, mid-winter’s day, for 1,830 years. Rulke’s foretelling was already coming to pass.

  When the dark moon is full on mid-winter’s day, I will be back. I will crack the Forbidding and open the Way between the Worlds. No one has the power to stay me. The Three Worlds will be Charon evermore.

  Karan, chest-high beside Rulke, was a stark white, staring shadow surrounded by a corona of flaming hair. Llian wept for her, but even if he could step the air between them there was no way to wrest her free. No one would help him now. He was a pariah, accused of betraying Karan to Rulke, accused of being Rulke’s spy. Nothing would convince the company otherwise. Wherever he looked he received dark looks in return, especially from Basitor the Aachim, who blamed him for the destruction of Shazmak. Basitor would kill him given the least opportunity.

  Llian had only one friend left, little Lilis, but what could she do? The most powerful people of Santhenar were here but not one of them—not Mendark, not Yggur or the crippled Tensor, not Tallia or Shand or Malien—had the courage to strike at Rulke.

  The construct rumbled. The tower wobbled. Wavering discharges rose up from the spiny protrusions embedded in the walls. The Ghâshâd guards, stick-men and stick-women, resumed their posts, pacing with stiff-limbed gait. The red glare from inside faded and flared, faded and flared.

  Llian eyed the construct. It was an impossible thing, made of metal so black that it stood out against the night sky. There was nothing on Santhenar to compare it with. It required no beast to pull it; it had no wheels; and yet it slipped through the sky like silk. It hung in the air like a balloon, though Llian knew it was heavier than a boulder. Its sides bulged in complex shapes that were alien, then curved away into corrugations underneath. The long front soared up to a flaring binnacle crammed with knobs and wheels, behind which was a thicket of levers, a place to stand and a high seat of carven serpentine.

  Llian knew that the inside was just as strange, equally packed with controls and glowing plates, for he had seen it in the Nightland. Evidently Rulke preferred to ride on top where he could display, and dominate.

  “Karan!” Llian sang out in anguish. His voice echoed back across the amphitheater to mock him.

  Karan must have seen him standing there on the rim, for she went quite rigid. At the same instant the construct lurched beneath her. Her arms thrashed. Llian thought she was going to go over, but Rulke jerked her back. She looked up at him, looming head and shoulders above her, and spoke. Her words were not even a sigh on the wind.

  Yggur adjusted glasses as thick as bottle ends. When Rulke first appeared Yggur had resolved to face his fears and die, rather than be overcome by them yet again. Already that resolve was weakening. “Look at them together,” he said, grinding his teeth. “He has possessed her mind. I can feel it, the way he possessed me for so long.”

  “I hope so,” replied Mendark in an even more chilly voice. “Otherwise Karan has betrayed us and must suffer for it.” He looked more haggard, wasted and bitter than ever.

  The way they talked was horrible. Llian was stabbed all over by pain pricks, as if his blood had crystallized to needles. He sucked at the air but could not fill his lungs. Everything wavered; he felt faint.

  Yggur’s cheek began to twitch, then locked rigid in a spasm that twisted up one side of his face. Remembering that Yggur had once been mad, Llian wondered if he was cracking again.

  Yggur clutched at Malien’s arm. “Who is your best archer?” he gasped.

  “Basitor has the strongest pull by far. But I should say Xarah is the most accurate at this distance. Xarah!”

  Xarah came forward. She was small for an Aachim, not much bigger than Karan, with limp hair the color of mustard and a scatter of freckles on her cheeks. She looked much younger than the others.

  “You are the best among you?” Yggur asked, his fists clenched, his knuckles white.

  Xarah looked down at the snow, fingering a bracelet on her wrist. She knew what was going to be asked of her. Then she gazed up at the construct, gauging the distance. Only Karan’s head could be seen now.

  “The best that is able,” she said. “I can hit any target in Carcharon from here.”

  “And on the construct?”

  “An uphill shot, but I can do it.”

  Yggur followed her gaze. He spasmed again, tried to take control but failed. “Then put an arrow in Karan’s eye, for pity’s sake! For her and for us.”

  She did not move. “Do it this minute!” he shouted, and there were flecks of foam at the corners of his mouth. He looked as if he had just fought a monumental battle with himself, and lost. He would do anything to avoid Rulke possessing him again.

  Xarah shivered. She looked up at Malien, her midnight-dark eyes expressionless in the red light.

  Malien put out her hand. “Stay, Xarah!”

  Mendark looked thoughtful. “Rulke has made an error of judgment. If we were to neutralize her, it might cripple him.”

  Llian staggered between them, the ice-crusted manacles tearing his legs until the blood flowed. He took no heed of that pain; it was nothing beside what he was feeling inside.

  “No!” he screamed, crashing into Mendark, who pushed him away.

  “Don’t interfere, chronicler!”

  “But Karan—” Llian wept.

  “It’s a choice between her life and our world, Llian!” But still Mendark stared at the construct and did not give the order.

  Nadiril the librarian was bent right over on his walking staff, looking frailer than ever. Shand, a head shorter beside him, held his arm. Lilis stood by Nadiril, hopping from one foot to another, crying, “Stop them, Nadiril!”

  “This deed will come back to haunt you, Yggur,” said Nadiril. “She—”

  “Just do it!” Yggur screamed.

  “No more will I do evil,” said Malien softly, “even if the greatest good comes out of it. Xarah, put down your bow.”

  Tensor slid his legs over the side of the litter and with a convulsive wrench forced himself to his feet. He was as gaunt as a skeleton now, the once huge frame nothing but bone and sinew that was all twisted from Rulke’s blow in Katazza last summer. Llian tried to claw his way over the snow but Basitor’s huge foot slammed into the middle of his back, pinning him down.

  “A chance,” Tensor rasped. “A chance sent for my torment! What evil did my forefathers do that I should suffer so? Do you give t
he order, Malien?”

  “No!” she whispered, and a tear froze to crystal from each eye.

  “You have always been true,” he said, clinging to her for a moment.

  Tensor took a lurching step toward Xarah, and another. He wavered toward her like the grim reaper, an animated skeleton covered in skin. She watched him come, the long bow hanging from one hand, the red-feathered arrow in the other. At the last moment she tried to put them behind her, but the look in his eyes paralyzed her.

  Tensor plucked the bow from one hand, the arrow from the other. The arrow went to the bowstring. The string was drawn back. Llian’s arms and legs thrashed as if swimming in the snow, but Basitor’s boot held him in place.

  “I’m sorry, Karan,” said Tensor ever so gently.

  “Shoot, damn you!” cried Yggur, shaking so hard that his head nodded like a child’s toy.

  Karan’s red hair looked to be on fire in the boiling glare from the tower. Her face was a white blotch, but Llian had no doubt that Tensor could hit her eye from here. Before he even released the arrow, Llian could see it flying straight and true toward her lovely face, to spear straight through her skull with a shock that would carry her backward off the construct and down, down dead onto the rocks at the bottom of the gorge.

  “No!” Llian shrieked with every fiber and atom of himself, broadcasting his love and terror across ridge and valley and mountain, trying to speak back across the link Karan had closed down only a few days ago.

  The company stopped their ears against the curdled shriek. Twisting around, Llian sank his teeth into Basitor’s calf. Basitor yelped and sprang backward. Tensor did not even shiver. He stood up straight, sighted along the arrow and let it fly. It disappeared into the night.

  At the same time the construct lurched sideways like a puppet whose strings had broken. It shuddered in the air and fell like a rock. Rulke was suspended above it for a moment then stood up straight and tall, his hands dancing. The machine slammed into solid air, bounced, drifted around in a circle and veered back toward Carcharon, listing like a sinking yacht. Karan was nowhere to be seen.