A Guile of Dragons (43 page)

Morlock found the prospect uninviting. It must have showed on his face, for Deor laughed and Tyr changed the subject.

“Most of your peers,” his
harven
father said, “have already left Thrymhaiam. They are pursuing the remnants of the guile through the north. It's unfortunate, in a way; I'd gotten quite fond of some of them. Particularly Earno.”

“Earno is a great partisan of yours, these days,” Deor informed Morlock, “but he is mixed metal, in my opinion. Badly mixed metal.”

“It would be a narrow mind,” said Tyr, “that could be filled by a single thought. Or a narrow heart, that never had conflicting feelings. Earno has his weaknesses, but he is not narrow. He does not grudge.”

“I do,” said Deor. “But does anyone notice?”

When his kin had left him to go to the New Year's Night feast, Morlock stood for a long time at the open window. He watched the three moons, reddish and somber, set in the east, beyond Haukr's black outline. He listened to the sound of cymbals and bells, ringing out from every part of Thrymhaiam welcoming a new year and a winter season beyond hope. He breathed the bitter air and felt his mind grow clear and cold.

He no longer ached for vengeance or death. The terrible feelings that had driven him to the edge of destruction were still within him; they were part of living, just as death was part of life. But they would not rule him. He would live his life and die.

It was all one, brilliantly clear and simple in his mind. He thought of it as a single act, like crossing a room to open a door. Whatever Other Ilk or dwarves had done in their lives before him, all that was over and done. Whatever he bore from it was something other than guilt. He was not his father. He was not either of his fathers. He would live
his
life and die.

Deciding he was strong enough to join the feast, he shuttered the window and turned away. He crossed the room to open the door. The hall outside was lined with doors, and at either end were staircases, leading to other halls and other doorways still.

On the next day, the first day of the new year, the masked powers of Fate and Chaos, enthroned in the dark blue heart of the winterwood, reflected on the failure of their stratagem with the dragons. It had been such a clever plan; they both disagreed about that. But it had failed; the Guard was unbroken; the Wardlands were as much a threat as ever. There were many the Two Powers might blame for this, including each other, and they did, taking what angry pleasure they could in that. But one person was most guilty of thwarting their opposing wills. And he had named himself to their agent Saijok Mahr, just before he had killed the master of the guile and ruined their clever plan.

“Ambrosius,” said Torlan, the power of Fate.

“Ambrosius,” disagreed Zahkaar, the power of Chaos.

“We hate him,” Torlan said.

“Hate,” agreed Zahkaar reluctantly, then added, “I hated him first.”

“Liar. Liar.”

“You're the liar.”

“All my decrees are true and eternal.”

“True and eternal
lies.”

So the long day wore on.

A
PPENDICES

APPENDIX A

T
HE
L
ANDS OF
L
AENT
DURING THE
O
NTILIAN
I
NTERREGNUM

L
aent is a flat or shield-shaped landmass bordered by ocean to the west and south and empty space to the east; north of Laent is a region of uninhabitable cold; south of Laent is a large and largely unexplored continent, Qajqapca. Beyond that is believed to be an impassable zone of fire.

Along the western edge of Laent lies the Wardlands, a highly developed but secretive culture. It has no government, as such, but its borders are protected by a small band of seers and warriors called the Graith of Guardians.

Dividing Laent into two unequal halves, north and south, are a pair of mountain ranges: the Whitethorn Range (running from the Western Ocean eastward) and the Blackthorn Range (running from the Eastern Edge westward). There is a pass between the two mountain ranges, the Dolich Kund (later the Kirach Kund). North of the Dolich Kund there are only two human cities of any note, Narkunden and Aflraun. The rest of the north is a heavily wooded and mountainous region, inhabited by humans and others of a more or less fabulous nature (e.g., the werewolf city of Wuruyaaria).

The Whitethorn Range, by custom, forms the northern border of the Wardlands. The Blackthorn Range is divided between the untamed dragons and the Heidhhaiar (Deep Kingdoms) of the dwarves.

Immediately south of the Whitethorn Range is the wreckage of the old Empire of Ontil, ruined by its rulers' ambitions, ineptitude, and misused powers. A period of general chaos and more or less continuous warfare obtained in these lands until the advent of the Vraidish tribes and the rise of the Second Empire of Ontil (some generations after the present story).

South of the former Empire of Ontil lay the so-called Kingdom of Kaen. The ancient cities of the Kaeniar considered themselves at perpetual war with the Wardlands, which lay just across the Narrow Sea. The Wardlands, however, took little notice of the Kaeniar, or any other domain of the unguarded lands.

The region between the Grartan Mountains and the Whitethorns was called the Gap of Lone by inhabitants of the unguarded lands. Inhabitants of (and exiles from) the Wardlands called it “the Maze,” because of the magical protections placed on it.

Immediately south of the Blackthorns was a wooded region of extremely poor repute, Tychar. Farther south was the Anhikh Komos of Cities, Ontil's great rival that unaccountably failed to take advantage of Ontil's fall to extend its domains. The largest Anhikh city, where the Kômarkh lives, is Vakhnhal, along the southern coast of Laent. Anhi may or may not extend its domain to the Eastern Edge of the world—accounts differ.

APPENDIX B

T
HE
G
ODS OF
L
AENT

T
here is no universally accepted religious belief, except in Anhi, where the government enforces the worship of Torlan and Zahkaar (Fate and Chaos).

In Ontil an eclectic set of gods are worshipped or not worshipped, especially (under the influence of Coranian exiles from the Wardlands) the Strange Gods, including Death, Justice, Peace, Misery, Love, and Memory.

In the Wardlands at least three gods, or three aspects of one god, are worshipped: the Creator, the Sustainer, and the Avenger (“Creator, Keeper, and King”).

The dwarves of the Wardlands evidently assent to these beliefs. (At any rate, they have been known to swear by these deities.) But they have another, perhaps an older, belief in immortal ancestor spirits who watch the world and judge it beyond the western edge of the world. The spirits of the virtuous dead collect in the west through the day and night, and pass through at the moment of dawn, when the sun enters the world and the gate in the west is opened. Spirits of the evil dead, or spirits that have been bound in some way, may not pass through the gate in the west. Hence, dwarves each day (at sunrise, or when they awake) praise the rising of the sun and the passage of the good ghosts to those-who-watch in the west.

APPENDIX C

C
ALENDAR AND
A
STRONOMY

1. Astronomical Remarks

T
he sky of Laent has three moons: Chariot, Horseman, and Trumpeter (in descending order of size). The year has 375 days. The months are marked by the rising or setting of the second moon, Horseman. So that, if Horseman sets on the first day of Bayring, the penultimate month, it rises again on the first of Borderer, the last month. It sets after sunset on the first day of Cymbals, the first month of the new year. All three moons set simultaneously on this occasion. The number of months are uneven—fifteen—so that Horseman rises or sets on the first morning of the year in alternating years. Years where Horseman sets on the first day of the Cymbals are, idiomatically, “bright years”; those where Horseman sets with Trumpeter and Chariot on the first night of Cymbals are known as “dark years.”