to Jarwa
Kelka – corporal in Nahoot’s company
Khali-shi – Novindus name for Death Goddess
Lalial – elf in Elvandar
Lender, Sebastian – Litigator and Solicitor at Barret’s Coffee House in Krondor
Lims-Kragma – Death Goddess
Macros the Black – legendary sorcerer; considered the greatest practitioner of magic ever known
Marsten – sailor on Trenchard’s Revenge
Mathilda – Baroness of Darkmoor
Milo – Innkeeper at Inn of the Pintail in Ravensburg
Miranda – mysterious friend to Calis
Monis – Jarwa’s Shieldbearer
Mugaar – horse trader in Novindus
Murtag – Saaur warrior
Nakor the Isalani – strange companion of Calis
Nathan – new smith at Inn of the Pintail in Ravensburg
Notombi – former Keshian Legionary, then prisoner; later member of Calis’s company
Pug – also known as Milamber; magician of great power; considered second only to Macros the Black in knowledge
Rian – one of Zila’s mercenaries
Rosalyn – Milo’s daughter
Ruthia – Goddess of Luck
Shati, Jadow – member of Calis’s company
Shila – Saaur home world
Sho Pi – Isalani, former Monk of Dala; later prisoner; later member of Calis’s company
Taber – tavern keeper in LaMut
Tarmil – villager at Weanat
Tomas – consort of Aglaranna, father of Calis; wearer of the Armor of Ashen-Shugar, last of the Dragon Lords
Tyndal – smith at Inn of the Pintail in Ravensburg
von Darkmoor, Erik – bastard son of the Baron von Darkmoor; later prisoner; later mercenary in Calis’s company
von Darkmoor, Manfred – youngest son of Otto; later Baron
von Darkmoor, Otto – Baron of Darkmoor; father of Erik, Stefan, and Manfred
von Darkmoor, Stefan – Otto’s eldest son
Zila – treacherous mercenary leader
Days, when the ball of our vision
Had eagles that flew unabashed to sun; When the grasp on the bow was decision. And arrow and hand and eye were one; When the Pleasures, like waves to a swimmer, Came heaving for rapture ahead! – Invoke them, they dwindle, they glimmer As lights over mounds of the dead.
– George Meredith
‘Ode to Youth in Memory’
The drums thundered.
Warriors of the Saaur sang their battle chants, preparing for the struggle to come. Tattered war banners hung limply from bloodied lances as thick smoke shrouded the sky from horizon to horizon. Green faces marked with yellow and red paint watched the western skies, where fires cast crimson and ocher light against the black shroud of smoke, blocking the vanishing sun and the familiar tapestry of the western evening stars.
Jarwa, Sha-shahan of the Seven Nations, Ruler of the Empire of Grass, Lord of the Nine Oceans, could not tear his gaze away from the destruction. All day he had watched the great fires burn, and even across the vast distance the howls of the victors and the cries of their victims had carried through the afternoon. Winds that once carried the sweet scent of flowers or the rich aroma of spices from the market now carried the acrid stench of charred wood and burned flesh. He knew without looking that those behind were bracing for the coming trial, resigned in their hearts that the battle was lost and the race would die.
‘My lord,’ said Kaba, his Shieldbearer and lifelong companion.
Jarwa turned to his oldest friend and saw the concern etched faintly around his eyes. Kaba was an unreadable mask to all but Jarwa; the Sha-shahan could read him as a shaman reads a lore scroll. ‘What is it?’
‘The Pantathian is here.’
Jarwa nodded, but he remained motionless. Powerful hands closed in frustration over the hilt of his battle-sword, Tual-masok – Blood Drinker in the ancient tongue – far more a symbol of office than the crown he had worn only on rare state occasions. He pushed its point down into the soil of his beloved Tabar, the oldest nation on the world of Shila. For seventeen years he had fought the invaders as they had driven his hordes back to the heartland of the Empire of Grass.
When he had taken the sword of the Sha-shahan while still a youth, warriors of Saaur had passed in review, filling the ancient stone causeway that spanned the Takador Narrows, the channel connecting the Takador Sea and the Castak Ocean. One hundred riders – a century – side by side, rode past, one hundred centuries to a jatar: ten thousand warriors. Ten jatar to a host, and ten host to a horde. At the height of his power, seven hordes answered Jarwa’s battle horns, seven million warriors. Always on the move, their horses grazed the Empire of Grass, while children grew to adulthood playing and fighting among the ancient wagons and tents of the Saaur, stretching from the city of Cibul to the farthest frontier, ten thousand miles distant; it was an empire so vast that teams of horses and riders, never stopping their gallop, would take a full turning of the moon and half again to ride from the capital to the frontier, twice that from one border to the other.
Each season, one horde rested near the capital, while
