Empress of the Fall Read online

  Empress of the Fall

  Also By

  Also by David Hair

  THE MOONTIDE QUARTET

  Mage’s Blood

  Scarlet Tides

  Unholy War

  Ascendant’s Rite

  THE RETURN OF RAVANA

  The Pyre

  The Adversaries

  Title

  Copyright

  First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Jo Fletcher Books

  This ebook edition first published in 2017 by

  Jo Fletcher Books

  an imprint of

  Quercus Editions Ltd

  Carmelite House

  50 Victoria Embankment

  London EC4Y 0DZ

  An Hachette UK company

  Copyright © 2017 David Hair

  The moral right of David Hair 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 or transmitted in any form

  or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

  including photocopy, recording, or any

  information storage and retrieval system,

  without permission in writing from the publisher.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available

  from the British Library.

  EBOOK ISBN 978 1 78429 100 6

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters,

  businesses, organizations, places and events are

  either the product of the author’s imagination

  or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to

  actual persons, living or dead, events or

  locales is entirely coincidental.

  Typeset by CC Book Production

  www.quercusbooks.co.uk

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to my parents, Cliff and Biddy Hair. Always thoughtful, concerned, supportive and loving. Home has always been a sanctuary and the first place I gravitate to when things are tough, for some realism and perspective. I love you, and no matter where I travel, you’re always with me inside.

  Contents

  Yuros and Antiopia

  Central Yuros

  Mollachia

  Pallas

  The Gnostic Affinity Table

  The Moontide Cruades: A Recounting of the Past

  PART ONE

  1 The Day the Emperor Died

  2 Saint Balphus Monastery

  3 Ryneholt and the Stardancer

  4 Suitors

  5 The Clever People

  6 Heart of Empire

  PART TWO

  Prologue: The Masquerade (Heartface)

  7 The Emir’s Nephew

  8 The Mollach Slave

  9 The Queen’s News

  10 Homecoming

  11 In the Presence of Royalty

  12 Dangerous Days

  13 Finostarre

  14 Masked Assassins

  15 The Vitezai Sarkanum

  16 Son of Zillitiya

  17 Ludus Imperium

  18 The Sardazam

  19 The Wronged Man

  Interlude: The Masquerade (Jest)

  20 A Proposal of Alliance

  21 Death to Rondelmar

  22 The Archer’s Test

  23 The Abduction

  24 Sacred Union

  25 The Knowledge Trade

  26 A Vanishing Trail

  27 Riverreek

  28 Spirit-Caller

  29 The Vrulpa

  30 What Price a Kingdom?

  31 A Forest of Masts

  32 Common Ground

  33 The Time Has Come

  34 Draug-Witch

  34 Watcher’s Peak

  35 Loekryn’s Bridge

  36 Magas Gorge

  37 Storming Castles

  38 The Heart of the Storm

  39 A Broken Bastion

  40 The Storm Queen

  41 Twoface

  42 The Winter Garden

  43 The Broken Tower

  Epilogue: An East Wind

  Acknowledgements

  Yuros and Antiopia

  Central Yuros

  Mollachia

  Pallas

  The Gnostic Affinity Table

  STUDIES

  EARTH

  (Element)

  FIRE

  (Element)

  AIR

  (Element)

  WATER

  (Element)

  THAUMATURGY

  [tangible/material];

  the manipulation of inanimate matter

  Earth-gnosis: find, manipulate and alter stone

  Fire-gnosis: manipulate, survive and douse fire

  Air-gnosis: fly, alter weather, and otherwise manipulate air

  Water-gnosis: manipulate, purify, and breathe water

  HERMETIC

  [tangible/unseen];

  the manipulation of

  living matter

  Sylvanism (Earth-linked): alter wood and plant material

  Morphism (Fire-linked): alter the human form

  Animism (Air-linked): control animals, take on their form and senses

  Healing (Water-linked): restore flesh, and resist infection

  SORCERY

  [intangible/ unseen];

  the manipulation of

  spirit beings

  Necromancy (Earth-linked): contact the dead, and remove life

  Wizardry (Fire-linked): summon and control aetheric spirits

  Divination (Air-linked): use aetheric spirits to predict outcomes

  Clairvoyance (Water-linked): use aetheric spirits to ‘scry’ distant places

  THEURGY

  [intangible/material];

  the manipulation of

  mind and spirit

  Spiritualism (Earth-linked): send one’s spirit out of body

  Mesmerism (Fire-linked): dominate or mislead another mind

  Illusion (Air-linked): deceive another’s senses

  Mysticism (Water-linked): psychic linking to aid another mind

  How to use the Table:

  All magi have a primary affinity to a Study and/or to an Element. Most have an affinity to both, and many have a weaker secondary affinity.

  Any affinity creates a blind spot to its antithesis, as follows:

  FIRE

  EARTH

  THAUMATURGY

  THEURGY

  AIR

  WATER

  HERMETIC

  SORCERY

  Fire and Water are opposites Thaumaturgy and Sorcery are opposites

  Air and Earth are opposites Hermetic and Theurgy are opposites

  e.g. a Fire/Sorcery mage is strongest at wizardry (the intersection of Fire and Sorcery) and most vulnerable against Water-gnosis (the intersection of Water – the antithesis of Fire; and Thaumaturgy – the antithesis of Sorcery).

  The Moontide Cruades:

  A Recounting of the Past

  On the world of Urte there are two known continents. Yuros is cold and wet and the people are pale-skinned. Ahmedhassa (or ‘Antiopia’) is equatorial, largely arid, and heavily populated by dark-skinned peoples. These two great landmasses are divided by a raging sea; because of Urte’s strong lunar cycle, massive tides make the sea impassable. Even though they were once one landmass until relatively recently, the two continents were unaware of each other.

  That all changed some five hundred years ago.

  The catalyst was a man called Corineus, who had gathered together a thousand religious pilgrims in Yuros. They consumed a fluid (‘ambrosia’) that imbued them with magical powers, which they called the gnosis. Half of the pilgrims died, i
ncluding Corineus himself (apparently murdered by his ‘sister’ Corinea, who fled the scene). Of the remainder who survived the Ascendancy, three hundred, led by Sertain Sacrecour, set out to conquer the continent using their new gnostic powers; the magic of these ‘Blessed Three Hundred’ enabled them to destroy the Rimoni Empire with ease and establish their own regime: the Rondian Empire. They founded the ‘Gnostic Keepers’, an order of Ascendant magi dedicated to serving the empire and the gnosis. The Keepers encoded the recipe for the ambrosia into an artefact called the Scytale of Corineus to preserve its secret for the empire alone.

  This event, known as The Ascendancy of Corineus, changed the world. The first magi, as they called themselves, found their children inherited their powers, though the gift was weakened if they didn’t breed with other magi. As the magi multiplied, they claimed their own fiefdoms and spread their influence across Yuros.

  Not all of the five hundred surviving Ascendants (the first magi) joined the Blessed Three Hundred in their conquest. A hundred men and women who abhorred violence and wanted no part in the overthrow of the Rimoni Empire departed into the wilds, led by Antonin Meiros. They settled in the southeastern corner of Yuros, where they formed a pacifist order of magi known as the Ordo Costruo.

  The remaining hundred Ascendants at first appeared to have no magical power at all, but most had developed variations upon the gnosis, the most common being ‘soul-drinking’, whereby triggering the gnosis requires consumption of another mage’s soul, and thereafter predation on human souls to renew their powers. These Souldrinkers (or ‘Dokken’) were declared heretics, but some eluded capture and remain a hidden threat to the magi.

  Another dangerous variant, termed ‘dwyma’ or ‘pandaemancy’, involved the use of vast naturally-forming magical energies contained in a semi-aware ‘genilocus’ (spirits bound to a specific place). This was also declared a heresy and eradicated.

  The magi used their new powers to explore beyond the known boundaries of the world. When the Ordo Costruo discovered northern Antiopia (or Ahmedhassa, as the native people call it), they discovered ancient societies very different to those in Yuros, but every bit as rich and varied. They came in the spirit of peace and soon established themselves in the northwestern corner of Antiopia, in the great city of Hebusalim. In the 700s, Antonin Meiros and his order commenced work on a massive bridge to link the two continents, and in doing so created the second great epoch-changing event of the age.

  The Leviathan Bridge is three hundred miles long and perfectly straight. Because of limitations of both engineering and the gnosis, it rises from the waters only during the twelve-yearly super-low tide (the Moontide), and it remains passable for only two years of every twelve. After a hesitant start in 808, trade across the Bridge thrived and fortunes were made as a new breed of merchant-magi grew in influence. They ruled commerce for a century until, in 904, the Rondian Emperor Magnus Sacrecour, driven by greed, religious bigotry and racism, launched the First Crusade. Rondian legions headed by battle-magi seized the Bridge, pillaged Dhassa and occupied Hebusalim.

  Most Easterners blamed Antonin Meiros, founder of the Ordo Costruo, as his magi could have prevented the attack – although it would have meant destroying the Bridge. At the end of the Moontide in 906, the Rondians retreated, leaving an occupation force in Hebusalim (which was subsequently withdrawn when its position became untenable).

  Emperor Magnus didn’t live to enjoy the spoils of his Crusade – he died in 909, which led to a palace coup: his second wife Lucia, acting on behalf of her child Constant, usurped the throne from Princess Natia, Magnus’ daughter from his first marriage, and Natia’s Argundian husband Ainar. Natia’s fate is still unknown. The regime change led to uprisings in several regions, most notably Noros, which was quashed with difficulty, and in northern Coraine, the birthplace of Natia’s mother.

  Constant, under his iron-willed mother’s guidance, was able to secure his reign, and in 916 he launched the Second Crusade, which penetrated deeper into Ahmedhassa and reaped a fresh harvest in plunder. The Rondians appointed a governor and established a permanent mission in Hebusalim. Constant came of age formally in 921, and had two children, Cordan and Coramore, but lost his wife Tarya to illness shortly thereafter.

  The Third Crusade, launched in 928, was part of a Rondian strategy to seize the strategic region of Javon in northern Ahmedhassa as a staging point for permanent Occupation, to push beyond previous incursions and occupy hinterland territories, and to destroy the Leviathan Bridge while restoring the undersea isthmus upon which it was constructed, to enable permanent occupation of the East.

  However, by now the East was prepared. Sultan Salim of Kesh had been building vast armies, and a mixed-blood Ordo Costruo mage, Emir Rashid Mubarak, had been secretly breeding Eastern magi, using captured Yurosi magi as broodmares and studs. Rashid had Antonin Meiros assassinated and the Rondian Second Army was lured into a trap at Shaliyah, deep in the deserts, where Salim’s forces all but destroyed it. Meanwhile, a number of people discovered that the Scytale of Corineus was not safe in the cathedral vaults, but had been stolen by Noros magi during the Noros Revolt; they hid the priceless artefact when the Rondian Empire won. It was recovered, at enormous personal cost, by a young Noros mage, Alaron Mercer, who used it to found a new order of Ascendant magi – the Merozain Bhaicara, or ‘Brotherhood’.

  In Junesse 930, as the Third Crusade ends, the Imperial Keepers are preparing to destroy the Leviathan Bridge, unaware that the Merozain Bhaicara are racing to stop them . . .

  PART ONE

  1

  The Day the Emperor Died

  Corineus

  More than 500 years ago, in 379, a man died and his followers became the new gods of Yuros – the magi. They have ruled the western continent ever since, yet the name of he who died has been raised highest. Johan Corin – ‘Corineus’ – is now revered as a god made flesh, sent from Paradise Above to gather and empower his followers. He is said to have been the Son of Kore.

  But he was just a man: dead people are always easier to deify than living ones.

  ORDO COSTRUO COLLEGIATE, PONTUS, 927

  The Celestium, Pallas, Rondelmar

  Junesse 930

  Final month of the Moontide

  Kneeling is cruel, Ostevan Prelatus mused as he knelt in the holiest place in Yuros, mouthing prayers while staring at the massive rump of his superior. There were no seats, no cushions, just wooden leaning bars against which the thirty-two prelates of the Church of Kore could contemplate the infinite, while gazing upon the golden casket of Johan Corin – known to the world as Corineus the Saviour. Prelates should be exempt.

  The Chamber of Humility, a circular subterranean room at the very centre of the cross-shaped Kore Cathedral, was open-roofed to the great dome above. The cathedral was the heart of the Celestium, the Holy City in Pallas, on the south bank of the Bruin River.

  Though they were below ground, light poured through the stained glass of the windows in the dome, carving the dust-laden air into solid blocks of colour and setting the shadows to darker relief. Choirs sang, giving voice to the prayers of an empire.

  The lesson of the chamber was that no living man meant more than this dead one – but it was an illusory lesson, for although the Celestium was a massive, glistening testimony to the power of the Church of Kore, it was forced to look up at the Imperial Bastion across the river. The first thing Grand Prelate Dominius Wurther, and all these other holy men saw as they opened their curtains each morning was a reminder that emperors stood higher than grand prelates.

  I bet that cuts you to the quick, Dom, Ostevan thought.

  He’d almost forgotten that prayers could end when, miraculously, they did. Wurther rose ponderously to his feet, backed away from the casket and left the chapel. His exit was the signal for the thirty-two prelates to do likewise. They rose as one, none meeting each others’ eyes as they backed from the shrine.

  Outside, Ennis, Wurther’s secretary, was waiting. ‘The Gr
and Prelate prays you will all adjourn to the amphitheatre to watch events in the East unfold,’ Ennis announced.

  Ostevan’s eyes narrowed. It still hurt that he – who’d been Wurther’s closest ally in his rise to the grand prelate’s throne – had learned of this event only an hour ago.

  It was approaching midday here in Pallas, but three thousand miles eastwards, over the Pontic Sea, it was already mid-afternoon, and the empire was preparing to destroy the Leviathan Bridge and change the world. Only a handful of men knew that Imperial magi planned to take the energy supporting the bridge and use it to raise the isthmus that had once linked Yuros and Antiopia. This incredible act of land-shaping was unprecedented, audacious and epoch-changing.

  Clearly Wurther had known all along – and told no one, which said everything about Ostevan’s current standing. He’d always been Wurther’s man, helping propel him to the Pontifex’s chair, but since 909, Ostevan’s northern connections had been a liability.

  And only one rump can fit on a throne, right, Dom? Especially one as large as yours.

  Rodrigo Prelatus, an Estellan zealot, clutched Ostevan’s sleeve as those prelates who were tied to the Imperial Sacrecour-Fasterius family shoved their way gracelessly to the exits. ‘So how long have you know about this business with the Bridge?’ the old Estellan wheezed. Like Ostevan, he wasn’t one of the Imperial coterie, but there their similarities ended: Ostevan was – or had been, at least – an insider; Rodrigo, like the other provincial prelates, was a nobody.

  ‘Longer than you, Padre.’ Ostevan sniffed. ‘Let’s not keep his Holiness waiting, hmm?’

  The clergy supposedly forsook their secular allegiances with their family names on entering the Church, but all were connected to powerful mage Houses and such allegiances were never truly put aside. Ostevan was a Jandreux of House Corani, and as Corani influence at court had waned, so too had his star.