In the Company of the Dead (The Sundered Oath Book 1)
Page 40
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Alamus (al-ah-muss)—an earl of the kingdom of Velena, and rumoured to be the father of Sayella LaFete.
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Aut agere aut mori (OWT AH-gair-ah OWT MOH-ree)—the old motto of Clan Aharris in Old Ahlleyn, which means “Do or die”. Since the motto has fallen into disuse, Lyram Aharris has taken it as his own personal motto.
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Battle Priestess, the—a unique priestess called to the service of Ahura in times of great need. The position is frequently vacant, but there is never more than one at a time. She is always chosen from outside the ranks of the Order of Ahura, and the selected girl begins her training by the age of five. The Battle Priestess is trained in battle and the art of war, and is the primary line of defence against the worshippers of the dark gods. There have been five Battle Priestesses prior to Ellaeva, none of whom have lived to the age of thirty.
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Bradlin, Natyn (BRAD-lin, nah-TIN)—a minor noble of Ahlleyn, who holds the rank of viscount.
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Ciotach an Bhais (ke-TACH an barsh)—the name used in Ahlleyn to refer to Ellaeva, meaning “The Left Hand of Death”.
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Caisteal Aingeal an Bhais (cas-tel AYN-ghal an barsh)—the full name of the castle to which Lyram Aharris has been exiled. It means Castle of the Angel of Death in Old Ahlleyn.
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Chalon (shah-LONN)—the god of life, love and mercy. One of the six gods considered to be part of the natural order.
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Dayhl (DALE)—a kingdom in the east of the continent, characterised by fair-skinned, platinum-haired people. The origin of “sword-dancing”.
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Drault (DRAWLT)—the crown prince of Ahlleyn, and son of King Alagondar. A member of the Clan Gaylbrath.
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Dulanica (due-LAN-ick-ah)—wife of Janun Maggrig and mother of Kastyn Maggrig.
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Everglasshey (ev-her-glais-he)—a duchy in the kingdom of Ahlleyn. The current incumbent is Chancellor Ailfric Traeburhn.
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Ellaeva (ell-AVE-ah)—the current Battle Priestess of Ahura. She has served in this capacity for five years since her initiation at the age of eighteen.
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Everard (ev-er-ARHD)—aide-de-camp to Lyram Aharris. A member of the Clan Aharris.
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Frictionnaire—a man or woman able to create supernatural effects using energy generated by conflict. The friction of a finger against a thumb can generate a very small energy that can be used in small magic, while the conflict of a battle creates sufficient power for sophisticated and ruinous war magic.
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Galdron (GALL-dron)—the captain of the personal guard of Lyram Aharris, and a member of the clan Aharris.
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Gallowglaighs, the (also The Gallowglaigh Bastards) (GALLOW-GLAYS)—an independent mercenary company out of Velena, captained by Sayella LaFete.
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Habrodeen (HAB-row-deen)—a duchy in the kingdom of Ahlleyn. The current incumbent is the clan chief of Aharris.
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Invergahr, Siege of (in-ver-GAR)—the final, deciding battle in the intermittent Border Wars between Ahlleyn and Velena, after which the kingdoms struck a tentative peace treaty to end the squabbling. Prince Drault of Ahlleyn was trapped in the ruined broch of Invergahr by a force of Velenese that outnumbered the Ahlleyn three to one. As King’s Sword, Lyram Aharris was along to captain the prince’s bodyguard, and he marshalled the defence and ultimately withstood the besieging force for eleven days. Aharris led a final charge against the Velenese troops, breaking the siege shortly before the nearest Ahlleyn garrison arrived to assist.
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Istural (iss-STOOH-ruhl)—the goddess of hope, independence and change. One of the six gods considered to be part of the natural order.
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Junjani (june-JAH-nee)—a secretive martial art known only to a few. The Battle Priestess of Ahura is always trained in this art.
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Leinahre (le-NAIR)—the secretary of Zaheva, the late wife of Lyram Aharris. She is a member of the Clan of Kinyere, a minor clan in vassalage to the Clan Aharris.
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LaFete, Sayella (la-fay, say-ELL-ah)—captain of the Gallowglaigh Bastards. She is the unacknowledged bastard daughter of a Velenese earl, believed to be Earl Alamus.
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Maggrig, Sir Janun (mah-GRIG, ja-nun)—the head of Clan Maggrig, a very small and minor clan of the Ahlleyn Borders, and castellan of Caisteal Aingeal.
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Maggrig, Kastyn (mah-GRIG, ka-stin)—the eldest son and only child of Sir Janun Maggrig.
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Malharni (mal-HAR-nee)—the last Battle Priestess of Ahura before Ellaeva. She was lost at sea and her final fate unknown, presumed drowned, although the holy sword of Ahura eventually made its way back to the Temple. It was passed from hand to hand, starting with a sailor who survived the shipwreck, until it came home to await the next Battle Priestess.
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Oriella (aur-ee-ella)—a priestess of the Order of Ahura in service at Caisteal Aingeal an Bhais.
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Rahmyr (RAH-MEER)—the goddess of decay, despair and corruption. One of the six dark gods.
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Rahmyrrim (rah-MEER-im)—specifically, a necromancer in service to the goddess, Rahmyr, or more generally, any of Rahmyr’s worshippers.
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Revenant—a reanimated corpse enslaved to the will of a Rahmyrrim.
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Shambler—a slang term for a revenant.
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Spectre—a spirit enslaved to the will of a Rahmyrrim. Their touch is deadly and will kill within the space of several days, if not immediately. Anyone touched by a spectre will, in turn, become a spectre.
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Sword-dancer—a practitioner of a particular form of swordsmanship originating in Dayhl. Sword-dancers are especially proficient and deadly.
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Tembra (TEM-brah)—the south-western kingdom of the continent. Its people are typically dark-haired, dark-eyed and pale-skinned.
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Traeburhn, Ailfric (TRAY-burn, AYL-fric)—the current incumbent of the title of Duke of Everglasshey, and chancellor to the king of Ahlleyn.
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Tyrandell (te-RAN-dell)—the city of the frictionnaires, which owes no allegiance to any kingdom. Those who wish to learn friction sorcery go there to study, but its location is not officially known.
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Valkyrs (VAL-keer)—women in service to the goddess of Ahura, although not priestesses of the Order of Ahura. They serve as general lawkeepers and enforcement troops as part of the Order’s role in upholding justice, engaging in such tasks as settling civil wars and other martial conflicts. When there is a current Battle Priestess, she commands them directly. There is a tendency for their numbers to fall in long periods without a Battle Priestess. They are also known as the “swordsingers of the goddess”.
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Velena (VEL-eh-nah)—a central kingdom of the continent, positioned between Ahlleyn, Jerrek and Mysena. Until recently, it was engaged in a long-running border feud with Ahlleyn.
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Zaheva (zah-HEEV-ah)—the deceased wife of Lyram Aharris. She was a Tembran noblewoman and ambassador to the court to Ahlleyn, prior to her marriage.
First and foremost, I am eternally grateful to my editor, Marissa van Uden—I have a sneaking suspicion I can sometimes be a little challenging to deal with, I question things a lot, and this was the first time we’ve worked together, so we were establishing our relationship. Thank you for your patience, understanding, and very detailed explanations—as well as your sense of humour! Sometimes the chuckles helped me get through the rest of the edits. Many thanks to go out to my beta readers, Robert Lumsden, TP Hogan, and MJ Kaufmann, for their wonderful and detailed feedback which helped to shape the early drafts of the story, to my writers’ group, Infinitas Wri
ters’ Group in Sydney, for their constant support constructive criticism, to Dionne Lister and Erica Lucke Dean for endlessly helping me with new and improved blurbs, and to my artists—Sam Keiser, who did the cover art for ebook and print versions, as well as internal artwork on chapter headings and scene breaks, and to Worlds Beyond Art for their work on the world and castle maps. Last but not least, thanks to my husband, Matt, for the various pieces of information you’ve shared with me on fire behaviour, and especially for your patience, generosity and thoughtfulness in the last weeks as I tried frenetically to get the manuscript finished in time for release day.
I grew up on a steady diet of adult epic fantasy from the age of nine, leaving me with a rather confused outlook on life—I believe the good guys should always win, but I know they often don’t. I am an oxymoron; an idealistic cynic.
I began my first attempts at the craft of writing in 1992, culminating in the publication of my debut work, Confronting the Demon, in 2013. My first book published with Evolved Publishing is In the Company of the Dead.
I hold degrees in law and accounting, and I am a practising financial services lawyer. In my spare time, I speculate about taking over the world—how hard can it really be? If I could be anything, I’d choose a dragon, but if I am honest I share more in common with Dr. Gregory House of House M.D. —both the good and the bad. I am a browncoat, a saltgunner, a Whedonite, a Sherlockian, a Ringer and a Whovian… OK, most major geek fandoms. My alignment is chaotic good. I am an INTJ.
I live in Sydney, Australia, with my husband, my two daughters, and a growing menagerie of animals that unfortunately includes no dragons.
TO MAKE THE DEAD WEEP
By Ciara Ballintyne
Watch for the 3rd book in THE SUNDERED OATH series to release in the fall of 2018. For more information on this book, please visit the Evolved Publishing website.
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After a lifetime of self-sacrifice, now Ellaeva must decide if she will give up all she has left.
When Ellaeva runs afoul of the Rahmyrrim High Priestess and finds herself imprisoned, the only man who can help her is the one she vowed never to see again—Lyram Aharris. But Ellaeva’s faith in her goddess is broken, and when Lyram refuses to abandon her to fate, she struggles to come to terms with what she has lost. Haunted by his broken oaths, and consumed by his quest to restore his honour, Lyram cannot help her find peace.
Together they journey into the desert to solve the riddle of their connection to each other, but their search leads into the middle of a killing field. Amidst the murdered souls, they balance on the cusp of understanding—what is the mysterious link between the Aharrises, the goddess Ahura, and the dragons?
But before they can complete the puzzle, the High Priestess attempts to bring a piece of an evil god into the world, and Ellaeva and Lyram are betrayed from all sides. If the Rahmyrrim cannot be halted, they will lose the most precious thing they have.
Ellaeva has always known her path ends at the ultimate sacrifice—but can an embittered priestess bring herself to fulfill her duty?
Enjoy the First 4 Chapters of the second book in the award-winning THE SUNDERED OATH series, On the Edge of Death, below. Or....
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...Find purchase links for your favorite retailer here:
ON THE EDGE OF DEATH by Ciara Ballintyne
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CHAPTER 1 – PREMONITION
A Battle Priestess of the death goddess isn’t supposed to have friends, family or lovers, and Ellaeva was learning first-hand why not.
Blood ran over the ravine’s stone floor, flooding the tiny stream and distorting the dark reflection of the forest canopy. She skidded down the rocky slope, shale slipping beneath her feet and almost sending her tumbling head over heels. Rocks bounced and clattered down around her.
She followed the tinkling, blood-red stream into a grove of trees. The wind whispered through the leaves, murmuring sweet nothings, and the air was thick with damp and mould.
In the dark heart of the grove a woman lay face down on the bank, her lower body in the water. Three arrows jutted from her back.
Another one. Please, Ahura, why can’t you have mercy on your priestesses? But as had been the case for six months, the goddess did not answer her.
For two weeks now, priestesses of Ahura, the goddess of death, truth and justice, had been fleeing across the border from Jerrek into Velena, most of them wounded. All had haunted eyes in frightened faces, and every last one of them had lost someone, or seen another woman slaughtered out of hand. Many, like this one, had fled across the border at random points, afraid to pass through the official border crossing.
The woman inhaled with a harsh, rattling sound, and Ellaeva flung herself to her knees beside her. She thrust one hand hard against the wound below the woman’s collarbone to try to staunch the bleeding. Sticky redness slicked her hands to the wrist. She tore two lengths of cloth from the bottom of her robe with sharp jerks, and pressed them against the woman’s back.
Holding the crudely wadded bandages in place, she tried to the roll the woman over. The stream water had soaked the priestess’s robes, and in the end Ellaeva bunched fistfuls of cloth in her hands and hauled the woman on to her side. Cold water splashed up, dampening her own robes and chilling her skin.
At sight of the woman’s tattooed face, Ellaeva’s breath caught. Oriella.
She’d last seen her friend two weeks ago, when the border guard’s spear had slammed to the ground between them, blocking Ellaeva’s path. The shaft was splintered and in need of oiling, and the foot-long spear point threatened gangrene more than anything else, but it had been sound enough to bar her way. After a quick, apologetic inspection of Ahura’s holy blade, the guards had turned her back. Though they certainly looked uncomfortable about it, their message was clear: the Battle Priestess of Ahura was not welcome in Jerrek. Ordinarily she could rely on the word of law to gain her admittance almost anywhere, but it seemed Jerrek had turned away from the law.
It had astonished her. To deny Ahura’s Battle Priestess was to deny truth and justice. That took guts, or a great deal of fear of something worse than Ciotach an Bhais.
The border guards reeked of fear, so much it almost made her sick.
Oriella had continued into the kingdom, following the lead they had on Ellaeva’s parents. Thought dead for almost twenty years and only recently discovered to be alive, the trail was cold, but they had so few other leads that Oriella had refused to give up the one viable possibility they had. Now Ellaeva cursed her friend’s decision bitterly—not that Oriella, on the other side of the border and out of reach, had given her any say in it.
Oriella’s eyelids fluttered in her tattooed face, her lips trying to form words.
How long had she been lying here? Too long. Too much blood stained the rocks. So much that she is beyond saving.
But Ellaeva’s thoughts scuttled away from that fact as she packed more improvised bandages around the arrow shaft. When she tugged on it gently, it didn’t move. Lodged in a bone, or perhaps even in a lung. She shivered at the memory of her own arrow wound some six months earlier, and the difficulty of its removal. Her back still ached on occasion. Then she steeled herself and gripped the next shaft.
“Stop.” The word was a mere breath of air on Oriella’s lips, and she fumbled for Ellaeva’s hand. “Stop. I am... dying.”
“No,” Ellaeva whispered. A sickening, cold feeling weighed heavy in her stomach. She settled back onto her heels, heedless of the blood and water soaking her black robes, and pushed loose wisps of dark hair away from her face. Her hand left a sticky streak down one cheek.
Oriella’s gaze met hers, her eyes glazed with pain. “We both... know it.”
Her chest constricted, and she gulped in a lungful of the evening air. It burned cold down her throat. “No. I won’t let you.”
“The goddess has already... stayed her hand once... for you. Think she’ll...
do it again?” A wry smile twisted Oriella’s lips for a moment before fading. Her breath came in shallow, laboured gasps.
Ellaeva’s back grew rigid. Ahura had returned someone from the grave at her request once already; she would not do it again. Despite that, or perhaps because of it, Ellaeva went back to her task, packing more cloth around the wound. The second shaft twirled freely between her fingers, the green feathers flashing in the dim light, though Oriella grunted. If she could get one out and bind the wound properly...
“Stop. Just stop, Ellaeva.” Oriella’s voice was a hoarse, pained whisper.
Ellaeva did as the priestess bade her, but in her mind’s eye she saw only the memory of a darkened tent, where the red-headed man lay dead before her. The same desperation as then coursed through her. She could not, simply could not, face that moment again.
Once more she called for Ahura. Once more, only a vast silence echoed in her head. That night, when Ahura had agreed to restore Lyram Aharris to life, had been the last night the goddess ever spoke to her.
“I have seen it. You cannot save me.” Oriella seized her hand.
Seen it. The words fell heavily in the peaceful silence beneath the trees. If Oriella had been given knowledge of the moment of her death, then nothing Ellaeva did could avert it. All Ahura’s priestesses knew the moment of their death. All except Ellaeva. A Battle Priestess had little enough hope as it was without foreseeing the precise moment of her demise.
“Here, in my robes...” Oriella fumbled at the black cloth a moment, before letting her hand fall feebly.
Ellaeva peeled back the sodden fabric, finding a wet, rolled parchment stained heavily with blood in a pocket.
Oriella nodded as Ellaeva lifted the parchment free. Blue tinged the edges of her lips. “I... kept notes.”
Ellaeva glanced down at the scrolled parchment, and when she looked up again, Oriella’s eyes had slid shut. With a wordless cry, she dropped the parchment and grabbed her friend’s hand. Her heart still beat, but her pulse beneath Ellaeva’s fingers was thready and erratic.