Servant of a Dark God
Page 55
River touched its arm. “You watched over us here. Watch over us now from the other side.”
The Creek Widow said nothing, but Talen could see she was trying to hold back tears.
The monster that was Da grasped the raveler. Talen could feel the horrid strength in that stony hand. Now was the moment. Talen wondered if it would destroy this tooth as the other monster had done.
“We will see you in brightness,” Talen said, and he released the raveler.
The monster held it up in the moonlight as if examining it. Then the spike flashed to life and burrowed into the rough hand.
The creature opened its ragged mouth and took a terrible breath.
River stepped back.
The creature stood for quite some time, its arm outstretched, as if noting the progression of the raveler. Suddenly, it looked down and felt its chest. Then it looked back up at Talen and River and staggered back a step.
“Da,” River said.
The monster threw its head back and opened wide its mouth. No sound escaped. But three shining ribbons of lavender light shot out and streaked up into the night sky. Moments later, the monster leaned to one side, sagged, and fell heavily to the earth.
Talen waited for it to move again, to continue the throes of its death, but it did not move. Something silver flashed in the moonlight and the raveler wriggled its way out of the creature’s side, dropping into the dry autumn grass.
Talen picked up the raveler and it immediately stilled. He looked around. He hoped the ancestors had been there and gathered Da into safety. “Do you think they came?”
“Why wouldn’t they?” asked River.
“Those ribbons,” said the Creek Widow and trailed off. “So many questions.”
Earlier they had discussed the glorious visions of the woman or man, or whatever it was in the cave. He told the Creek Widow he’d seen its true form, but the Widow had questioned that-how did he know it hadn’t shown that awful visage to him on purpose? Indeed, the Creek Widow was right. There were so many questions for which they had no answers.
Talen looked into his sister’s eyes, then he took her hand and they walked back to the campfire to sit and drink tea.
The Creek Widow stayed back with the body for some time, talking to it, talking to Da. When she returned, he gave her another cup of tea. He motioned at the gauntlets and raveler case. “A little bit of knowledge,” said Talen. “That’s all that separated Da from the Divines.”
“In a way that’s true,” said River. “But in another it’s not. The Divines serve their own masters. But Da served the Creators.”
“At least what we know of them.”
“That is right,” said River. “He was more like one of the old gods than anything else.”
That set Talen back. The old gods were the stuff of stories and legend.
“Imagine what he could have done,” said River, “if he had been able to practice in the open.”
“He would have blessed the hens,” said Talen. “He would have multiplied their eggs.”
River looked sidelong at him. “How do you know he didn’t?”
“Goh,” said Talen. And he realized Da probably had. Their farm had prospered. Not always. The hens had died, after all, but even the peach trees seemed to bear more fruit than those of the neighbors.
“Da would be so pleased to know that the vision he worked for is now beginning to come to pass,” said River. “Not in the way he hoped, but coming to pass nevertheless.”
“Perhaps,” said the Creek Widow.
“We’ll be attacked on all sides,” said Talen.
“We will,” said River. “But we should have a season to prepare. And if we ultimately fail, we will go out like Da, fighting.”
Talen nodded. He wrapped the white gauntlets and raveler case in a cloth and placed them in a sack and put it aside. “If Da was like one of the old gods, does that also mean I have to worship you? Because I’m just not going to do it.”
River laughed then she hit him on the forehead with the heel of her palm. “You will always worship me.”
“I will,” said Talen. And he meant it.
They began to reminisce about Da and Mother. The Creek Widow added stories Talen had never heard before. Every remembrance seemed to call forth three more, and soon the bittersweet memories came as a flood.
So many memories.
Sugar and Legs woke to the Creek Widow’s laughter, and after being led to view the creature’s body, they joined Talen and River at the fire, drinking tea and adding the stories of their family. Nettle slept on. But the rest of them talked through the night, the fire crackling at their feet, the stars shining brightly above.
When the eastern sky began to lighten, Blue and Queen joined them, Blue hobbling up the hill on three legs. His hind leg was still worthless, but the injury was healing clean. Eventually he found Nettle and licked his face until he woke.
“Blue,” said Nettle in recognition. He turned and looked at the others by the fire. “What have I got to do to get something to eat?”
“He’s not all gone, is he?” said River.
“You only wish,” said Nettle.
Talen and River looked at each other. Could the old Nettle have come back?
But then Blue licked his face again and Nettle began to roll around like a toddler, playing with the dog.
Down at the farmstead Prince Conroy began to crow, and as the sun rose it turned the ripple of thin clouds a breathtaking gold and pink.
“We’ll need to lever that body onto a cart,” said Talen, “and take it home to Uncle Argoth.”
“No,” said River. “I think in this case we shall leave it where it is and build over it a monument of stones.”
Talen nodded. “After that we’ve got a field of barley to mow.”
“I will help,” said Sugar.
“And I,” said Legs, “will dance and sing.”
TERMS AND PEOPLE
POLITICAL HIERARCHY
While there are many variations, the basic power hierarchy in the realms of the western glorydoms flows from the Glory down:
Glory
|
Lesser Divines
|
Territory Lords and Warlords
|
District Lords and Village bailiffs
There are still some small areas of the known world ruled by barbarian kings or chieftains, but almost all of these pay tribute to one Glory or another in the form of treasure, slaves, or Fire. The major western glorydoms include Mokad, Koram, Nilliam, Kish, Urz and Cathay.
THE SIX ORDERS OF THE DIVINE
• Fire Wizards
• Kains
• Skir Masters
• Guardians
• Green Ones
• Glories
Infamous Divines include the Goat King, the Witch of Cathay, and Hismayas, the ancient lord of the Sleth.
MAJOR MOKADDIAN CLANS WITH HOLDINGS IN THE NEW LANDS
• Birak
• Burund
• Fir-Noy
• Harkon
• Jarund
• Mithrosh
• Seema
• Shoka
• Vargon
KORAMITES
Hogan
River
Ke
Talen
Sparrow and Purity
Sugar
Legs
The Creek Widow/Matiga
MOKADDIANS
Argoth and Serah
Nettle
The bailiff of Stag Home
Bosser (captain of the Vargon Clan)
The Crab (territory lord with the most holdings of the Fir-Noy clan)
Fabbis (son of a wealthy Fir-Noy lord)
Leaf (the Eye of Rubaloth)
Lumen (the missing Divine of the New Lands)
Rose (sister to Argoth, wife of Hogan the Koramite)
Rubaloth (Skir Master of Mokad)
Shim (warlord of the Shoka clan)
ARMSMEN
Every clan has various martial orders within it. The ranks of the vast majority of these orders are filled with those who are not full-time soldiers, but farmers, laborers, and craftsmen. However, there are orders in some clans of elite and sometimes professional soldiers. The members of such orders are called armsmen.
BONE FACES
Barbarian raiders from the south who have begun striking Mokaddian holdings by sea.
DREADMEN
Those without lore who are endowed by Divines with weaves of might. When such weaves are worn, they multiply the wearer’s natural mental and physical abilities. However, the weaves carry a cost: worn too frequently, the body wastes, consuming itself to fuel the magic.
ESCRUM
A weave that binds the wearer to a master, allowing communication over long distances.
FRIGHTS
Not completely of the world of flesh, frights feed on Fire. They most often prey on the sick and dying, attaching themselves like great leeches.
GODSWEED
An herb with properties said to repel some creatures such as frights and the souls of the dead. The smoke from one thin braid can rid a house of an infestation for many weeks. But its effect does not discriminate between frights, ancestors, or even the servants of the Creators. Hence the saying: Take care to appease those you’ve chased with smoke.
KING’S COLLAR
A weave wrought by a special order of Divines called Kains. Such collars not only prevent a person from working magic, but also weaken the wearer to make them easy to handle.
SKIR
Orders of beings that inhabit the heavens as well as the deep places of the earth and sea. While invisible to the naked eye, many do exert power in the visible world and can be harnessed by those knowing the secrets. But not all are useful to man. Many orders of smaller skir are deemed insignificant, while other powers are so dreadful none dare summon them.
STONE-WIGHTS
A vanished race whose ruins are found in the New Lands. Some claim plague or war took them. Others find evidence they were destroyed by the Six themselves.
THE SIX
Seven creators fashioned the earth and all life therein. However, upon seeing that the finished work was flawed, the seventh, called Regret, wanted to destroy the work and begin again. The remaining Six, whose names are sacred, refused, but they were not able to overcome Regret. And so it is that the powers of both creation and dissolution still struggle on the earth.
SLETH
Another term for “soul-eaters.” In the Urzarian tongue it literally means “the east wind,” which dries and kills life. Applied to those who, in rebellion of the Glories, use an unsactioned form of the lore of the Divines. They are beings and orders of beings supposedly twisted by their polluted draws. Said to have gotten their lore from Regret, one of the seven Creators who, having once seen the creation, realized its flaws and wanted to destroy it.
THE THREE VITALITIES
All life is made up of one or more of the three vital powers. There are many names for these life forces. The most common terms in the western glorydoms are Fire (sometimes called Spirit), Body, and soul. There are rumors, among those who know the lore, of lost vitalities: powers that have passed out of human ken.
WEAVES
Objects of power. Some can only be quickened and handled by lore masters. Others, wildweaves, are independent of a master and can be used by those who do not possess any lore. Weaves may be made of almost any material; however, gold is used most often for the wildweaves given to dreadmen.
WOODIKIN
Creatures that live in great families beyond the gap in the wilds of the New Lands. About half the size of a man, they are still ferocious and spilled much blood in the battles fought with the early settlers. Although rare, single woodikin are still sometimes seen in human lands.
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Document creation date: 29.06.2010
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