‘Why here?’ Keshik asked.
‘When the Readers fled under persecution, their leader was eaten here by a julle. So they stopped running and built the Rurthi.’
‘This leader, his name was Rurthi?’ Maida could not resist asking.
Alberrich gave a wheezing snorting grunt that Maida presumed was laughter. ‘No, it was the name of his pet cat. His name was Leserlang.’
‘And the watching?’ Keshik pressed.
‘With no agriculture, no mining and no art heritage worth spitting on, we get bored. It is our main form of entertainment, watching others.’
‘And you, do you watch?’
Alberrich gave the snorting grunt again and held out his misshapen arms. ‘I have been told that I am less than attractive to women, so what choice do I have?’
Maida felt a sudden pang of pity for this ugly creature, living here below the ground in this ugly city.
‘Can you get us into the Rurthi?’ Keshik asked.
‘How could I do that? I live underground.’
‘You have others who work for you. They do not live underground.’
‘Sadly, I also have bills to pay, bribes to make and people to appease. I was offered a choice this morning — find and hand over the murderers to the Readers’ Guard, or suffer an intense scrutiny of all I do.’
‘And what did you decide?’
Alberrich rose slowly from his chair. ‘I was made another offer just a little while ago. One which was much more profitable for me.’
Maida’s heart sank.
‘I will take you outside the city walls and hand you over to the soldiers of the Blindfolded Queen. They have offered to pay most handsomely for you.’
‘The Blindfolded Queen?’ asked Maida. ‘What does she want with us?’
Alberrich shuffled slowly out of her view. She heard him open a door before he spoke again. ‘I have no idea, but she wants the female friend of the Scarred Man. Odd, but no one said anything about wanting the Scarred Man. So you, Scarred Man, I shall hand over to the Readers’ Guard.’
Glossary
Acolytes of Varuun — mystical order, based in northern C’sobra, consisting of:
Arms of Varuun — the warrior arm of the Acolytes
Belly of Varuun — menial servants of the Acolytes
Eye of Varuun — oracles, pureblood Mertian women
Mind of Varuun — the priesthood of the Acolytes, individually called Wielders or Yielders of the Key of Varuun
Aesla — archery master, working for Slaaj
Alberrich — Leserlang native
Aue — Key Wielder, one of the Mind of Varuun
San Aven — Vogel nobleman, son of Lan Dieals
Cort — Mollnde merchant
Crossing — a time when the moon Grada passes in front of her sister, Yatil. It happens regularly and is used to mark the passage of time. Crossings are separated by 200 days and are preceded by a time known as the Kissing, when Grada appears to kiss the edge of Yatil. Each new Crossing is greeted by celebrations across all of the Eleven Kingdoms.
Lan Dieals — Vogel noblewoman
Drikka — woman working for Huenu, based in Vogel
Emilengel — minor C’sobran noble
Fraunhof — C’sobran Reader
Hekseri — Vogel woman
Hinrik — librarian, member of the Mind of Varuun
Huenu — aged Siecentan warrior, now Jooure merchant
Ileki — C’sobran Reader, visitor to Vogel
Iskopra — sailor out of Aposmenos, skipper of the Sotiria
Joukahainen — the Wielder and Guardian of the Key of Varuun
Keshik — Tulugma Swordmaster
Koslea — Key Yielder, one of the Mind of Varuun
Kooy — swordmaster, working for Slaaj
Koude — one of the Belly of Varuun
Leserlang — centre of Reading in C’sobra
Lijke — vorbynd freak
Maida — companion to Keshik
Manred — Venste native
Mertians — ancient race, now all but extinct
Mollnde — capital city of C’sobra
Myrrhini — Oracle, an Eye of Varuun
Onaven — Bane, one of the Belly of Varuun
Panxo — Siecentan man working for Huenu
Seagull — loose alliance of free sailors, often anecdotally linked with piracy and smuggling
Scarens — ancient warrior race, all but wiped out by the Mertian-Varuun alliance
Slaaj — mercenary supplier in Vogel
Slave — slave of Sondelle
Sondelle — sorcerer in Vogel
Tatya — shapeshifter
Thurgista — Jooure trader
Tristan — Rilaman swordsman
Tulugma — ancient warrior code, named for a legendary swordsman whose travels through the world form the basis for the Tulugma Way
Ur Dee — cook, one of the Belly of Varuun
Vorbyndjaarge — lit. ‘rat hunter’; the poor quarter in the city of Vogel
Vyndde Luutes — leader of the vorbynd freaks
Vogel — capital city of Lac’u
Sana Waarde — Vogel noblewoman, daughter of Lan Dieals
Wilfred — Rilaman Laird
Preview
Look out for
Scarred Man
THE ELEVEN KINGDOMS
BOOK TWO
In all good bookshops
July 2011
About the Author
Bevan McGuiness lives near Perth with his wife and daughter. He has worked as a factory hand, geophysicist and laboratory assistant, and he is now a teacher of chemistry at a boys’ school in Perth. He has been writing for years and has published short stories, book reviews, a trilogy and pieces for texts on science education. You can contact Bevan at [email protected]
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Books by Bevan McGuiness
THE TRIUMVIRATE
The Awakening (1)
The First Weapon (2)
The Way of Purity (3)
THE ELEVEN KINGDOMS
Slave of Sondelle (1)
Copyright
HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
First published in Australia in 2010
This edition published in 2010
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
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Copyright © Bevan McGuiness 2010
The right of Bevan McGuiness to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
McGuiness, Bevan
Slave of Sondelle / Bevan McGuiness.
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ISBN: 978-0-7304-9394-5 (ePub)
McGuiness, Bevan. Eleven kingdoms ; bk. 1.
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Maps by Bevan McGuiness
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Slave of Sondelle: The Eleven Kingdoms Page 37
