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Lamplighter

Page 54

by D M Cornish


  slot and drag a slot is a trail of smells and a drag is a trail of prints and other visible signifers of passing.These two trails are much more acute to a leer’s augmented senses.

  slug(s) truly insulting invective against profound dim-wittedness and tardiness.

  Smellgrove, Eugus wastrel from Brandenbrass and fellow prentice with Rossamünd who loves his sleep. Smellgrove started out promisingly as a journeyman rat-catcher before being enticed by the romance of Imperial Service and the immediate glory of a whole Imperial billion.

  Snooks, the culinaire of the Winstermill kitchens, who rules her boiling, bubbling, savory domain from the head of a long scarred bench—a scale and weights always handy—attended on either side by a row of hanging carcasses glistening in the heat—mutton, bully beef, coney, pullet, venison for the officers. She reads from recipes and writes lists of comestibles required while kitchen hands chop and carve before her and the harried bustle spins about her. She rarely moves; certainly she never lifts a limb to help her henpecked staff, tyrannizing all with her wheezing, penetrating voice. A near-mythic fear of her makes pots-and-pans an excellent punishment for defaulting prentices.

  snuftkin what we might call a muff, a “tube” of fur worn over the hands, wrists and lower arms, for the warming of the same.

  sobersides one who does not drink or get drunk.

  soe gaulded silk; already a strong material, silk made into soe is an expensive but highly sought material for proofing. See lour.

  Soratchë said “Saw’rat’kee”; a small but widely spread and well-known calendar clave consisting almost entirely of caladines, those wandering loner calendars. The Soratchë’s stated mission is not so much to fend for the poor and helpless, but to eradicate the dark trades, especially the abominable practices of the massacars. Strangely, they have not been granted an Imperial Prerogative (an official commission from the Emperor). Notwithstanding, they are infamous for the vigor and violence with which they pursue their self-appointed mandate.

  sot-headed drunk or acting as if you are drunk; to be slow-witted and stupid.

  soutaine long coat with dead straight hems reaching to the knees or even ankles. A foreign style imported from Heilgoland and worn by those seeking to look serious and unaffected by fashion.

  Soutland(s), the ~ the large southern part of the Haacobin Empire, requiring two secondary capitals—the alternats—to govern properly and keep under the Imperial thumb. See entry in Book One.

  sovereign lime thickened lime juice mixed with lemon juice and other fortifying traces. Often mixed with cheaper alcohols to add flavor and encourage people to ingest some kind of antiscorbutic.

  spangled whelp-hound(s) smaller kind of tykehound but still big as dogs go, white with black spots on the rump and flanks and black points. Probably one of the more people-friendly of the tykehound family, and very similar to our own Dalmatians, yet a little larger and bulkier.

  Sparrow Downs, the ~ range of hills between Small and the Idlewild that acts as a boundary between the two. It is the reputed home of the Duke of Sparrows, an urchin-lord said to lurk and hide within. There are no official reports of a sighting of this mythical monster, and many doubt the truth of the tale. The deeps of the forest (the Nigflutenwald—“the Wood of Little Wings”) are held to be a tykewood—a woodland haunted by monsters, impenetrably threwdish and thickly grown.Those few peltrymen who dare to venture there report skulking threats and an inordinate number of sparrows and other small fowl.

  Sparrows, the Duke of ~ see Duke of Sparrows.

  spatterdash(es) also known as spats—which are usually a shorter version of the same—these are leather-and-buckle coverings for the shins and reaching over the top of the foot. Often proofed, they provide excellent protection for the lower leg.

  spendonette the term used among calendars for a pistoleer.

  spittende(s) a kind of fend, spittendes are very long pikes used especially to fend away monsters and sometimes large game, with barbed points and strong flukes to prevent a skewered beastie from pushing down the pole and harming the wielder. Also known as a durckshlägen.

  splasher, splasher boy most junior member of the lentermen crew, sitting at the back of the carriage ready to open doors, haul luggage, run messages, carry the post when necessary and otherwise serve the needs of the passengers, the driver and his side-armsman. It is a dangerous job, but a good one for a lad of between twelve and eighteen, paying pretty well, near as much as the prentices of Winstermill earn in a year, and without quite the same constrictions on their lives.When a carriage is in port and the splasher’s chores are done his time is his own.

  Splinteazle, Seltzerman 2nd Class ~ bosun to House-Major Grystle when he was a ram captain, following him from vessel to vessel and so loyal he went with the man when he was ejected from the navy. As the best fit for his previous skills he has taken up the role of seltzerman, and though in the ranks of Winstermill he no longer has quite the same authority, he is known as the old servant of the house-major’s and is respected accordingly.

  sprither said “sprih-ther,” with a short i; the common name for the tubelike needle used to extract ichor (monster blood) from a slain monster; also known as a bludspritz, its technical name being a cruorclyst. It comprises a long, thick, needle-pointed, steel tube known as a clystron; a round pewter or tin receptacle known as a curbit is fixed to the clystron’s blunt end. Usually, a preserved gut tube—the intestin—is attached to the other side of the curbit, upon which the user draws with the mouth, sucking the ichor out of the monster and into the curbit.The more advanced cruorclysts will have a small preserved bladder instead of the intestin, which is squeezed rapidly to achieve the same outcome. Ichor, once taken out of the monster, is known as cruor—“spilled blood.” If the curbit becomes full, the cruor is siphoned into a bruicle. See graille(s).

  spurn(s) lahzar or other teratologist who faithfully serves one master or organization. The word is used more generally to mean someone acting as personal bodyguard to an individual, the non-teratologist kind sometimes known as harnessgarde.

  Squarmis a costerman who dares the long stretch of the Frugal Way (see entry on the Wormway) to make occasional deliveries to Haltmire with an old boneshaker of a cart harnessed to a crotchety she-mule, Assanina, hiring out his services as a kind of wayfaring porter; a native of Brandenbrass, come to the Idlewild to escape some unpleasant business back home.

  “Stand While You Can” rousing military tune with an up-tempo beat despite the grim turn of its content, showing typical bravado in the face of a violent end. Sung by soldiers throughout the Haacobin Empire, it goes something like this:

  Though foemen press hard, lads

  Though foemen press hard;

  Fight for Ol’ Barny and

  Stand while you can.

  Stand while you can, lads,

  Stand while you can:

  With a shout of “Ol’ Barny!”

  Stand while you can.

  Don’t tarry o’er death, lads

  Don’t tarry o’er death;

  Just put your thew forward, and

  Stand while you can.

  Stand while you can, lads,

  Stand while you can:

  For the Glory of Ol’ Barny,

  Stand while you can.

  And so on like this for a whole twenty verses. Its history is obscure, though the tune is of some antiquity and was around in other songs well before these words were put to it.

  Stander Lates, the ~ Brandenard rendering of Stendrlaeti (“shores of fiendish howling”), the Hagenard name for the southwestern coast of the Hagenlands, where Ingébiargë is said to dwell, devising her wicked brews and waiting for sailors to eat.

  sthenicon these sensory-enhancing biologues are worn by nonleers as well; such folk are called lurksmen. For both lurksmen and leers the sensation of removing a sthenicon is, for a very brief moment, powerfully disorienting as the wearer’s senses adjust back to normal input: the world seems dull and colorless, sounds odd
ly muted, the air too still and bland.This confusion is properly known as accosmia or more commonly as the dulldrins or dimmings. In a few this can continue on for several days, characterized by the squints—or strabismic droop—with squinting eyes and disorientation.The squints is almost guaranteed if you wear a sthenicon for more than a week without respite.

  stingo(s) a common term for pints of beer.

  storm-bird(s) cuckoo-shrikes, whose appearance is said to precede and therefore announce the arrival of rain, especially heavy, storming rains.

  stouche • (noun) a fight, a battle. • (verb) to fight.

  stoup also called a fistulum, a cylindrical case of (usually) leather-covered wood or just layers of stiffened leathers, in which scripts are carried for easy access. The interior of a stoup is well padded and so arranged with removable platelike layers that allow the most needful potives to be got to first, with others arranged by priority beneath. Most stoups have about 4 or 5 layers, but some are double-ended and can be up to 12 layers long. See Appendix 7.

  stovepipe hat vernacular for a copstain or capstin, a tall cylindrical hat with a flat crown and a somewhat narrow brim. Some varieties are a little more conical.

  strig(s) shortened form of strigaturpis; not considered a very polite word.

  strigaturpis originally the wild heldin fighting women of the Phlegms and then the Attics during the Heldinsage.The term is used now to refer to any combative female, especially a teratologist. Such women are also known as beldames. See calendar(s).

  stuff • (noun) clumps of thread or frayings from rope or cloth. • (noun) synonym for bloom. • (noun) flesh—though this is not a common use except in the phrase “stuff and bits.”

  “stuff and bits” flesh and bones.

  sturdy rough(s) hired muscle, as they say; your “heavies” used to do dirty work and intimidate opponents.

  Sulk End south-westernmost part of Sulk of which the Harrowmath is considered a part. See entry in Book One.

  Sundergird the Half-Continent, including all the lands outside the Haacobin Empire: Escatoris, the Gottskylds, the Herelands, the Netherlands and beyond, and the southern reaches of the Witherlends.

  surgeon(s) considered the lesser counterpart of physicians. See entry in Book One.

  swab • (noun) small child. • (verb) the action of washing a floor with a mop, which is also called a swab.

  swaggerer knave or hack or other hired tough; those who put themselves forward as monster-hunters or spurns; a mercenary.

  Swash, the ~ the great bay east of Needle Greening, south of the Frugelle and northwest of Flint, the source of thick fleermares that are blown inland by strong southerlies to saturate and water the parched Frugelle.

  Swill, Honorius Ludius Grotius named after an empress-dowager of old, Honoria Ludia Grotinia—said to be a revered distant relative of Swill’s line—Grotius is the young and gifted surgeon and physician’s ward at Winstermill, gaining the position through the influence of the Master-of-Clerks. A true Imperial subject, being born and raised in the Considine, his original poverty did not prevent him setting up shop as a talented carver. He soon got the attention of the surgeons of Sinster and became an articled man there under the tutelage of Flaccus Fusander, a sectifactor of great and irregular vision.There is a strange, suspicious cloud over Swill’s departure from Sinster, a departure he says was due to the near-violent jealousies of his rivals. A voracious reader with a large personal library, Swill is ambitious for knowledge—the more obscure the better—and with this the power it might bring.

  Syntychë see Vey, the Lady; forename of the august of the Right of the Pacific Dove, and Threnody’s mother. A peer of middling rank, she possesses the hereditary title of marchess and, like most peers, claims a blood-link to Dido’s race. It is said she was transmogrified when in her twenties, though none beyond the intimacy of the Dovecote have ever seen her perform a lahzarine act, and her true nature remains a mystery.

  T

  tally-clerk person responsible for counting and recording the comings and goings through whichever door, gate or other portal he or she is assigned to watch. The use of such a function in a place like Winstermill is to regulate trade, traffic and even emigration, and for awareness of who and what is within the manse. They are assisted greatly in their duties by cursors.

  tandem, tandem chair finely carved, two- or three-seater cushioned seat; what we might call a chaise lounge.

  telltale(s) falsemen retained by one of office or status to inform their employers of the veracity of others’ statements or actions, to signal if fellow interlocutors are lying or dissembling or masking the truth in any other way. If they could afford to, most people of any significance would employ telltales, but there simply are not enough falsemen to fill so many vacancies. This means that a leer can earn a truly handsome living as a telltale, many commonly charging a premium for their service at fees usually beyond all but the very well off, or serving with promises for advancement and personal advantage. Then there are those honorable few who do it simply because it is their job and responsibility. Despite this rarity, many of the prominent work hard to nullify the advantage a telltale will give, either by employing their own falseman, or having a palliatrix (a highly trained liar—even rarer than a falseman) attend in their stead.

  tempestine military term for a wit, gained from the notion that they cause a tempest within the minds of the enemies.

  teratologist(s) monster-hunter. In truth there are not a great number of teratologists in the Half-Continent, and those who are there are stretched thin and typically prefer the higher financial recompense of knaving themselves to the poor pay received in direct Imperial Service. This is especially true of lahzars, who may well have a large debt to service, incurred to pay for their original transmogrification. Consequently it is only a few teratologists ever feel community-hearted enough to work permanently in the government’s pay at fortresses, manses and other outposts on the edges of civilization—and when one dies he or she is very hard to replace. See entry in Book One.

  test place where skolds, dispensurists or other habilists do their makings, their brewings and combinations of parts. What we might term a “laboratory.” Consequently, to brew or otherwise make a potive is to testtelate.

  test-barrow or chymistarium or testtle; a wheelbarrow-like device, a sizable oblong box striated with hinges and doors, drawers and locks, that folds open to reveal many compartments and a small yet fully functioning and very portable test. This includes a small but remarkably well-appointed portable chymistarium (what we might think of as a chemistry set) that can include a little stone-lined stove-plate, kept hot even when on the move, providing the clean puffs of smoke from its chimney. Test-barrows are ancient tools, more basic versions used first by the rhubezhals of old and refined over the centuries. Expensive items, their possession proves the affluence and (assumedly) the successful skill of its possessor.

  thaumateer(s) term for a teratologist in military service; taken from the Attic word for “a wonder” or “a marvel.” As may be expected, the various kinds of teratologist are given their own military designation, such as tempestines for fulgars, torsadines for wits, bombastines for scourges, avertines for skolds and so on.

  theiromisia also known as theiraspexthis, apexthia or, most commonly, invidition: the implacable hatred of monsters. The opposite of outramour, which is the love of monsters, as an invidist or execrat is the opposite of a sedorner (see sedorner in Book One). See individist(s).

  theme(s) military districts that are given into the charge of a general or even a marshal—who may even be in charge of a multiplicity of them. All matters military or to do with the defense of the people are under the control of the marshal or general. There are two kinds: Static themes—under the control of a state, and Imperial themes, established by Clementine and not necessarily conforming to sociopolitical boundaries established by the states. Where Static themes and Imperial themes overlap there can be a great deal of wrangling and collisi
on of jurisdictions.

  therimoir(s) pronounced “there’ih’moyr” (Attic, literally, “monster-fate”), also tierschlächt (Gott); weapon designed or fitted to slay monsters. The most famous and useful of these are ancient devices, many of which have been lost in the many rises and falls of civilization.

  therlane(s) literally, “monster-butchers,” typically members of the dark trades who, by experience, are usually able to make a common sense of the varying anatomies of dead monsters and cut them up with sectitheres for the various uses for which each part will be employed. Those who use such parts are utterly reliant on these monster-carvers, and skilled therlanes can command high prices for their expertly dissected bogle-bits.

  theroid(s) a more technical term for a monster.

  theroscade(s) quite simply, an attack by monsters, particularly an ambush, but the term is used to mean any assault by üntermen.

  Theudas, Fadus young lamplighter serving at Wormstool, born and raised in the Considine. His father is a midlevel bureaucrat in the Imperial Service.Theudas could not bear the idea of the desk life and fled his home; after many adventures he found the active simple life he desired with the lamplighters of the Wormway. An eager fellow who, through persistence and the excellence of his brief service record, gained a billet out on the “ignoble end of the road.”

  thill(s) shafts on a cart or carriage onto which a horse or other such animal for pulling the vehicle is harnessed.

  Threnody of Herbroulesse, Marchess-in-waiting, the Lady ~ only child and daughter to the LadyVey, conceived outside of the banns of any intended marriage, simply for the purpose of producing an heir. She is a self-determined girl, stubborn and quick-witted, and even quicker tempered, sent to Sinster by her mother on the advent of her thirteenth birthday to be transmogrified into a lahzarine wit. Consequently, when Rossamünd was still at Madam Opera’s despairing of his chance at getting work,Threnody was under the knives of Spedillo and Sculapias, said to be among the best surgeons to have ever held a catlin. Dolours and others of the clave advised the LadyVey to wait, but she would not, determined to have her daughter as a powerful wit, well learned in antics by the time she was old enough to begin to share the lead.Threnody has ideas of her own which (of course) do not always correlate to her mother’s ambitions for her. The tension between them is continual, often emotionally violent, to the point that Threnody’s request to become a lamplighter was granted her, if only to give Syntychë and the columbines of Columbris a rest from all the agonies of mother-daughter angst. One of the “joys” of Threnody’s new state is the endless imbibing of the necessary chemistry to keep her new organs in check.

 

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