Falconfar 03-Falconfar
Also by Ed Greenwood
Forgotten Realms
Shandril's Saga
Spellfire
Crown of Fire
Hand of Fire
The Elminster Series
Elminster: The Making of a Mage
Elminster in Myth Drannor
The Temptation of Elminster
Elminster in Hell
Elminster's Daughter
The Shadow of the Avatar Trilogy
Shadows of Doom
Cloak of Shadows
All Shadows Fled
The Cormyr Saga
Cormyr: A Novel
Death of the Dragon
The Harpers
Crown of Fire
Stormlight
Double Diamond Triangle Saga
The Mercenaries
The Diamond
Sembia
"The Burning Chalice" - The Halls of
Stormweather:
A Novel in Seven Parts
The Knights of Myth Drannor Trilogy
Swords of Eveningstar
Swords of Dragonfire
Other titles
Silverfall: Stories of the Seven Sisters
Other Novels
Band of Four Series
The Kingless Land
The Vacant Throne
A Dragon's Ascension
The Dragon's Doom
The Silent House: A Chronicle of Aglirta
First published 2010 by
Solaris an imprint of Rebellion Publishing Ltd,
Riverside House, Osney Mead,
Oxford, OX1 OES, UK
ISBN: 978 1 906735 61 6
Copyright © Ed Greenwood 2010
The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.
10 987654321
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
Designed & typeset by Rebellion Publishing Printed in the US
The Story Thus Far
ROD EVERLAR, A successful author of Cold War-era action thrillers and fantasy novels set in his imagined world of Falconfar, is astonished one night when Taeauna—one of a race of good winged warrior-women he created for his fantasy books—literally falls out of his dreams, onto his bed. Badly wounded and beset, she pleads with Rod to aid her and Falconfar.
Rod discovers the world he thought was created only in his imagination is all too real—and that its people believe he, Rod Everlar, is its Lord Archwizard or Dark Lord, the most powerful of the "Dooms," powerful wizards who can literally change Falconfar with their magic.
Plunged bewilderingly into a medieval fantasy world that's familiar but also dangerously different from his imaginings, Rod is swept into a civil war in the kingdom of Galath. One of the Dooms, the wizard Arlaghaun, is controlling the King of Galath, and seeking absolute tyranny over the Galathan nobles.
For years, the three other Dooms—the wizards Arlaghaun, Malraun, and Narmarkoun—have fought each other, in a struggle that none of them could win. Rod's arrival shatters the stalemate between them, just as Arlaghaun is on the verge of seizing control over Galath.
There are signs that a long-dead wizard of matchless might, Lorontar—the only Lord Archwizard of Falconfar before Rod— is stirring, somehow still alive (or undead), and seeking to control the living.
At the end of DARK LORD, the first novel of the Falconfar saga, Arlaghaun is slain in Ult Tower. The wizard Malraun appears, snatches Taeauna, and magically whisks her away as his captive, leaving Rod Everlar raging helplessly, desperate to rescue her but not knowing how.
As the second Falconfar book, ARCH WIZARD, begins, Rod tries to follow Taeauna, using magic he doesn't understand, but instead arrives in the distant vale of Ironthorn, where three self- styled Lords (Hammerhand, Lyrose, and Tesmer) are locked in a struggle against each other for rule of the valley—a long-term struggle that has just flared up again with the slaying of the Hammerhand and Lyrose heirs in a forest skirmish.
Taken to Lord Hammerhand, Rod asks for help in finding Taeauna and ends up taking part in an assault on the castle of the rival Lyrose family, where Lord Hammerhand insists Taeauna must be. Hammerhand secretly intends to use Rod's powers as Lord Archwizard to destroy or greatly weaken his hated foes the Lyroses, then have Rod killed, considering wizards far more dangerous than rival Ironthar.
During the assault, Rod and the band of Hammerhand knights are magically transported to distant Malragard, the tower of the Doom Malraun (ally of the Lyroses). Its defenses kill the knights, one after another, but Rod manages to stay alive, and eventually manages to sleep and dream, "Shaping" (altering the reality of) Falconfar. He dreams, among other things, of Malragard collapsing around him—and it does.
Before their deaths, Hammerhand's knights had drugged Rod Everlar to compel him to tell the truth, and questioned him about where he'd come from. The wizard Narmarkoun used magic to spy on this questioning from afar, and so learned about our Earth from it; enough to pique his interest. He sends a lorn and some Dark Helms to Earth, to mount an attack on Holdoncorp, the computer gaming company that owns the rights to the world of Falconfar. Like Rod Everlar, some of its programmers have the unwitting power to affect "reality" in Falconfar, as Shapers, and Narmarkoun is determined to gain control of all Falconfar by controlling—or killing—all of the Shapers who can influence it. Through the eyes of Rusty Carroll, security chief of Holdoncorp, we see Narmarkoun's forces attack the company's corporate headquarters and butcher their way through Holdoncorp staffers.
Meanwhile, two rough, veteran and aging scoundrels and adventurers, Garfist Gulkoun and his longtime partner Iskarra Taeravund, have blundered into the midst of Rod Everlar's adventures and become captives of the Aumrarr, who repeatedly whisk them away from trouble but keep them captive because they will soon become "useful" or "necessary." For just what, the Aumrarr decline to say. As FALCONFAR begins, these Aumrarr have been reduced to two, Dauntra and Juskra, and they have promised to fly Gar and Isk across most of the vast forest known as the Raurklar to the land of Galath, for their safety and to await their future moment of usefulness.
The wizard Malraun has also been busy, with a captive, mind- controlled Taeauna at his side. He has been aiding the Army of Liberation, mustered by the Stormar warlord Horgul (who has been acting under his influence), and with Horgul's death, leading the Army himself. The Army has conquered hold after hold, heading for Ironthorn.
Unbeknownst to Malraun, the infamous Lorontar, the long- dead Lord Archwizard of Falconfar, still exists in undeath, and has invaded (and is hiding in) Taeauna's mind. After the army conquers the hold of Darswords, distant meddling by the wizard Narmarkoun (who, though he doesn't know it, has himself fallen under Lorontar's mental influence) unintentionally breaks Malraun's control over Taeauna, allowing Lorontar to control her instead. Not realizing this, and awakened by the chaos in his own mind caused by the ruin of his distant tower of Malragard, an enraged Malraun magically transports himself to Malragard, to destroy the cause of that destruction: Rod Everlar.
Back in Ironthorn, its third ruling family, the Tesmers, have long been the agents of the wizard Narmarkoun (just as the Lyroses were backed by Malraun), though they fight among themselves almost as fiercely as they strike out against their rivals. We see two of the many Tesmer children, Belard and Talyss, a brother and sister who've long hated each other, enter into a secret alliance, steal wealth from their parents, and depart Ironthorn. Which is when their mother reveals to her husband that he's not their father; of all their children, these two were sired by the wizard Narmarkoun—and, it now seems, have inherited his magical skills.
As the wizard Malraun appears in Malragard, to destroy Rod Everlar, Lorontar uses his control over Narmarkoun to make that wizard whisk the surviving Dark Helms he sent to Earth to Malragard, and take himself there, too, to do battle with Malraun. Lorontar has already broken Narmarkoun's control over his "greatfangs," huge dragon-like flying monsters he has been breeding and training—and all six of them are now racing toward Malragard, to attack and destroy their master.
Finding himself beset on all sides, Malraun reaches back to the mind of his thrall, Taeauna, to whisk himself to her side, back to Darswords and away from peril—and Lorontar gloatingly reveals himself and strikes at Malraun with spells.
The wizard goes mad, hurling magical destruction right and left—including blasting the wizard Narmarkoun.
As ARCH WIZARD ends, Malraun's body, now controlled by Lorontar, stalks toward Rod Everlar. Lorontar declares he'll now take Rod's body from him, Rod feebly tries to flee—and from out of the sky, six huge greatfangs swoop down, jaws agape, seeking to devour the wizards they so fear and hate.
For what happens next, read on...
