Midkemia Page 15

While I have my concerns over any ties between the Conclave and any given nation, so dire are the threats to this world that I am willing to put aside my apprehensions over such and take a more pragmatic view of things: Jim makes things work.

  Magnus and I could possibly have entered Queg’s Royal Library by magic, unless that part of the palace was warded, and even then we might have foiled detection, but we really had little idea what we were looking for, just the title of one ancient book on demons.

  So we needed to ensure Amirantha was with us, and to do that, Jim Dasher’s patent as a noble of the Kingdom, and I’m certain the work of agents in Queg, got us permission to research the library.

  Queg is a far more powerful nation than it has any right to be, but it is situated at the heart of the Bitter Sea, hence all shipping is subject to its predations. Taking advantage of that location, Queg has built what amounts to three fleets. It has a strong merchant fleet that sails as far away as the Keshian coast on the so-called Endless Sea, to as far away as Farafra. The navy consists of heavy war galleys, biremes and triremes, cumbersome and slow, but holding a huge advantage in the difficult winds of the Bitter Sea and deadly when within striking range. The nation also has a large number of small ships it provides marque to, privateers who are supposedly keeping pirates out of Durbin in check, but in reality who are competing with the pirates in Durbin to see which Kingdom, Free Cities, or ships of the other nation they can capture and loot first.

  What makes Queg even more difficult a neighbor is its riches. A spine of mountains runs from the north tip of the island to the south. Huge copper and iron deposits are found in those mountains, as well as tin, gold, and gemstones, providing Queg with a huge supply of trade materials and resources for arms and armor. The foothills were naturally blessed with orchards of fruit trees and grapes quickly tended into vineyards, producing a reasonable quality wine. Rolling fields between Copper Deep and Ardentrum, and along the whole of the eastern shore, provided grain enough to export. The mountains were heavily forested and water was abundant. In short, Queg could exist entirely self-contained, with no trade with the outside world. That provided them with a huge advantage in any conflict with their neighbors.

  QUEG AS DRAWN FROM MEMORY by an agent from the Prince of Krondor’s intelligence corps. It lacks detail, as the Quegans are especially suspicious of strangers and watch them closely. This is a copy of the original.

  Queg also boasted one other advantage. A breed of eagles, massive with spans three times normal, lived only on those peaks. Tomas once told me he believed them to be descendants of those birds that served the Valheru Ashen-Shugar. The Quegans have bred, for lack of a better word, riders for those birds. Men who are the size of small boys, and who can sit a harness atop the shoulders of those birds. The range of those ridden birds is limited, as is the load they can carry, but the advantage of seeing the enemy from on high is not to be discounted. Nor is the threat of even a small jar of Quegan Fire dropped from above onto the deck of a menacing ship.

  As I mentioned regarding the fall of Armengar, Quegan Fire is a naphtha-based compound that will not be put out with water. Even a small amount dropped on the deck of a ship can disable it, and the eagle riders are capable of carrying two such jars at a time.

  I arrived with my companions and we managed to infiltrate the library at Queg. Jim’s portrayal of a bored court noble required to shepherd three scholars around was played to perfection. In the end we found the tome, the improbably titled Libri Demonicus Ampuls Tantus, or Really Big Demon Book. In the ancient Quegan tongue, it most likely was intended to mean Physically Big and Really Important Book on the Subject of Demons.

  It took some searching of the Imperial Library in Queg, but Amirantha found the volume, and without much difficulty Jim stole it. We secreted it aboard our luggage and returned to the ship after our visit was over. Once far enough away from the city of Queg not to concern ourselves with Queg’s magic wards being alerted to our departure, I carried my companions to Sorcerer’s Isle and we began to study the book.

  Much of what was contained within that tome was colorful nonsense, but according to Amirantha, a large portion of it was some of the finest scholarship on demons and the nature of their realm, the Fifth Circle, as could be found in the world.

  Pug, Amirantha, and Magnus Study the Libri Demonicus Amplus Tantus

  That would prove beneficial, for shortly after defeating an attempt to bring a demon legion through a gate down in Kesh, knowledge of demons and their lore would prove incredibly vital.

  We met with a Star Elf, Gulamendis, a Demon Master, and his brother Laromendis, a Conjurer, and learned some history of the Taredhel. We also discovered that a host of demons fought across a hundred planets for centuries.

  There was a war among demons that was somehow involving us.

  Entry, the Nineteenth

  AFTER COMPARING WHAT THE TAREDHEL DEMON MASTER and the human Warlock knew of demon lore, my father determined he must return to the Saaur home world of Shila and find the ancient library in the city of Ahsart. My father, I, and a pair of younger magicians named Simon and Randolph went there and explored what was left. In so doing we discovered the Demon King Maarg had broken through to Shila, stranded himself, and died of starvation on a lifeless world.

  That left us with the question of who was behind the demon attacks that were reputed to be led by Maarg. Father then deduced that we had all been victims of a hoax of massive proportion. He expressed certainty that all this had been one long conflict going back to the time of his captivity, and that even the Midkemian gods might be pawns in a larger game than we could imagine.

  When we attempted to return to Midkemia, we discovered we were blocked. My father was considered to hold the supreme knowledge of rift magic and he was at a loss to know how this had been perpetrated and by whom. Rather than attempt to break the spell that locked us out of this rift, Father elected to have us help him fashion a new rift, confident of his own skills in reaching home. It took approximately an hour to finish the spell and we stepped through into chaos.

  My mother, Sandreena the Knight-Adamant of the Order of the Shield, Father-Bishop Creegan of that order, Amirantha, and others had traveled to the Peaks of the Quor, home to a strange and alien race, and discovered two bitter facts: that something was so powerful it had wrested control of demons out of the hands of their usual masters; and that the entire encounter there had been a ruse, designed to lure Miranda and her companions away from Sorcerer’s Isle, just as Father and I had been lured to Shila, so a monstrous attack could be launched on Sorcerer’s Isle.

  We returned to a battle that was close to a stalemate, and with the addition of Father’s and my magic, we quickly ended it. In the smoking ruin of our home, a demon feigning death leaped upon my mother, killing her before anyone could intervene. My brother and his wife also were among the dead.

  It was as tragic a day as I am capable of imagining.

  Entry, the Twentieth

  ENOUGH TIME HAS PASSED I feel able to further comment on this work, though as you might imagine at this point in my life, it is more of an amiable pastime than a pressing concern. Still, the value of a constructive narrative about the world in which we labor has its own value; else I would have abandoned this as my father did. I asked him and he waved off my question regarding this work.

  The only reason this work is intact is that the majority of works referenced here still reside in Macros’s tower in the Black Castle, or in my father’s sanctuary in Stardock. How much more I contribute to it, or if my father will ever return to it, remains to be seen.

  I do notice that as I sort through my father’s notes and attempt to further organize both that material he brought together and additional material I have discovered, old feelings, many of those unwelcome, return unbidden. With that in mind, I make no promises to continue this project with the rigor I applied years previous, but simply to promise I will try.

  Entry, the Twenty-First

  AFTER
SEVERAL MONTHS, I find myself nagged a bit about certain aspects of this journal that are probably lacking to you, the reader. It’s odd, isn’t it? I find myself confronting dire threats, yet I worry that you might read this someday and be a little confused.

  In the last entry I mentioned the Peaks of the Quor and the odd beings who live there. Some years ago, an expedition was dispatched to that region due to rumors of odd occurrences that were likely to be linked to the enemies we faced. Kaspar of Olasko led that group, joined by Jim Dasher in his guise as common thief, and my brother’s three foster sons, Jommy, Tad, and Zane. They found two groups living in the Peaks, a race of elves we’d never encountered before, the Sun Elves, or Anoredhel, who were tasked with guarding a race known as the Quor. They were a very alien, green-skinned race who guarded another, even stranger race—if indeed they are truly sentient beings—the Sven-ga’ri. These are creatures, things, whatever they may be, who seem to communicate with emotions that border on the blissful, filling any human who comes near with a sense of beauty so powerful it is almost overwhelming.

  The Anoredhel were dying, isolated for years and troubled by a type of Dread never encountered before. Word was carried to my mother and then to Tomas in Elvandar and aid was sent. A company of elves, formerly living in the Edder Forest, traveled to the Peaks to bolster the dwindling community there. As I write this, the mystery of the Sven-ga’ri and the Quor are another matter to which I may return someday.

  Entry, the Twenty-Second

  I RETURN TO THIS TO AMEND EARLIER PASSAGES, as the political reality of all the region from the Far Coast to the Eastern Kingdoms has shifted dramatically. As a result, much of what has already been touched upon is no longer accurate.

  Let me begin by speaking of a region of Triagia known as the Keshian Confederacy. I’m including a map from my father’s archives. This map came from a map-seller in the city of Great Kesh, and was reputed to be accurate at the time my father purchased it.

  If this map had been drawn yesterday, the first thing one must realize is that everything south of the Girdle of Kesh is fluid. Boundaries are nonexistent except for a few naturally occurring ones.

  Our first inkling that difficulties were heading our way came with reports of unusual shipping activity in the southern half of the Empire. I discovered Jim Dasher undertook a journey of exploration and found that there were Pantathians involved. Our belief we had somehow destroyed their nests proved false.

  Three men rose in influence and power in three nations, Lord John Worthington in Roldem, Sir William Alcorn in the Kingdom of Isles, and Prince Harfum of Great Kesh. What became apparent later is all of them were the same man, or rather the same man duplicated. False beings, like the false Murmandamus and other Pantathian servants sent to beguile and confound, they had a mission, which was to plunge three nations into needless war, to distract us from their true purpose.

  The truth is three men were in position to rise quickly in three royal courts, the genius being they were minor nobles whose influence was effected by an ingenious plot years in the fashioning. It wasn’t merely that these three men had the ear of people in critical positions, Kings, Princes, Dukes, Chancellors, and other royal advisers, but also that they were given the power to appoint people to positions that appeared to be of minor importance, but in the end turned out to be critical: masters of ports and customs, those responsible for directing freight to military outposts, those assigned the duty of resupplying and reinforcing garrisons. Slowly efforts were brought to bear in the Confederacy to begin relocating people. To understand the genius in this plot, you must know a little about those lands.

  People speak of “the nations of the Keshian Confederacy.” This is a misnomer, for these are not nations. In many cases they are not even coherent cultures and tribes, but rather loose associations of people brought together by circumstances when they deem such alliances mutually beneficial, just as warring between them occurs when they deem that beneficial.

  The geography of that region is not hospitable for the most part. The one stable region south of the mountains known as the Belt is the land of the Isalani, Nakor’s home. To the north those lands abut the mountains of the Girdle, and to the south, the deep forest called the Dragon Mere and to the west the sea, and to the east another range of mountains, the Fenhair Spires. These people are among the most peaceful in the Empire, a nation of scholars, philosophers, poets, and mystics. Otherwise the entirety of the Confederacy is bad farmland, swamps, dangerous forests, arid grasslands, and sandy wastes.

  As a result, on a regular basis, those living in the South find common cause to rise up and sack whatever defences the Empire has established in the gap between the Belt and the Clasp, often spilling into the rich farmlands north of the Girdle of Kesh. This is a region of constant strife, regular warfare, famine, plague, and hunger.

  A MAP OF THE SO-CALLED KESHIAN CONFEDERACY, purchased from a map-seller in the city of Great Kesh. As many of the people living there are nomadic, the areas to the north are fluid and those in the south impossible to delineate.

  And because a minor Prince gave orders in the city of Kesh, criers went out proclaiming that for those willing to leave their homes, rich, bountiful farmland, forests with game, rivers with fish, and abundance beyond imagining would be theirs for the taking should they be willing to leave their hardscrabble life in the Confederacy.

  So, behind a screen of attacking armies, a flood of colonists arrived in Crydee, occupying farms, towns, fishing villages, and herders homes, as citizens of the duchy left before the attacking Keshian soldiers. The massive assault against positions throughout the Kingdom, coupled with threats against Roldem should she involve herself, the enemy’s plans were unfolding.

  The younger sons of Duke Henry of Crydee, Martin and Brendan, were forced to protect their duchy with barely adequate defenses, as their father had answered the Prince of Krondor’s call for the Western Lords to gather against possible attacks on the Principality. As seems to be the nature of the conDoin family, like their famous ancestor, Prince Arutha, the three sons of Duke Henry, Henry (known as Hal), Martin, and Brendan filed reports that were brief to the point of being cryptic, modest to a fault, and lacking comprehensive detail.

  What is known is that the Keshians landed in force, driving the townspeople into the Keep of Crydee or to the east. Some fled to the north, taking refuge with the elves in Elvandar, while others struck toward Yabon. Martin realized his position early on and engineered a brilliant retreat, costing the Keshian invaders both valuable time and more casualties than a less imaginative defense would have caused.

  Reports I’ve read indicate that young Martin considered this a defeat, while every other source indicates he did the best possible job in protecting as many lives as he could, and that by the time he reached the city of Ylith, he was ready to take command of the tiny force there and, along with the men who had accompanied him, mount an effective defense of that city.

  Politics being what it was, the city was finally saved by a truce between the two nations, but not until after grievous damage had been visited upon Crydee and portions of Yabon. Still, Martin and his brother were responsible for blunting a Keshian offensive that could have cut off Yabon from the Principality of Krondor.

  The long-term impact of this incursion has not been evaluated, even now, after the truce. Hundreds, even thousands, of those who once lived in the Keshian Confederacy now occupied Crydee Town, and the farms, ranches, grazing meadows, and lumber and fishing villages from the border of Carse to the Elven Forest, from the ocean to Yabon. While this land may be recovered by the Kingdom in full someday, the impact of these new residents can only be speculated upon for the time being.

  So much attention was diverted to conflicts along the Far Coast, in the Sea of Kingdoms, and against the southern border of the Kingdom, little attention or note was given to the events in the Grey Towers. For it was at the site of the original Tsurani rift so many years before, where the fabric between universe
s had most constantly been frayed that the final attack was coming.

  Tyrone Hawkins and Henry conDoin Meet Lady Franziska

  Entry, the Twenty-Third

  I FIND MYSELF FLIPPING THROUGH THIS VOLUME and while I am weary beyond telling, I also feel the need to comment on events since last I contributed to this work. Yet I almost do not know where to begin.

  This is the telling of a story that I do not wish to end.

  I sit and gaze at this page and realize my mind still churns over the events I must relay. So much has changed in my world.

  After my mother’s and brother’s deaths, my father went into a period of dark introspection, which was understandable, but one that also had serious ramifications for the Conclave. He abandoned Villa Beata, leaving it to become overgrown with weeds, thick with dust, and inhabited by vermin. His rationale was by doing so we would lull our enemies into thinking they had won, that we were defeated, while we scattered to a variety of locations and waited.

  We were defeated.

  Then came the events I last mentioned, the relocation of thousands of colonists by Kesh into Crydee as assaults were unleashed against the Kingdom and the effective quarantine of Roldem. It was perhaps not a coincidence that Father appeared to come out of his dark mood finally at the same time as the onslaught against the Kingdom began. Perhaps he felt our enemies had been lulled into thinking us no longer effective. I do not to this day know.

  It is immaterial, for events overtook us before we had time to indulge in that sort of reflection.

  The chaos that was unleashed by our enemies was to achieve one end, ensure that the attention of every nation was drawn away from locating their attempt to enter our world. That was the original valley where the Tsurani first invaded Midkemia.