Into the Narrowdark, page 2
Viyeki travels south from Nakkiga toward mortal lands, accompanied by an army of Norns who plan to attack the mortal fortress of Naglimund. Viyeki is told that he and his Builders are going to excavate the tomb beneath the fortress of the legendary Tinukeda’ya Ruyan Vé, called “the Navigator”, and salvage his magical armor, though Viyeki does not understand how this can happen without causing a war with the mortals. Tinukeda’ya, also called “Changelings”, came to Osten Ard with the Sithi and Norn, though they are not the same as these other immortals. In Osten Ard, the Tinukeda’ya have taken on many shapes and roles.
Prince Morgan and Count Eolair finally contact the Sithi at the edge of Aldheorte Forest. The immortals have abandoned their settlement of Jao é-Tinukai’i and their matriarch Likimeya was attacked by humans and has fallen into a deep, magical sleep. Khendraja’aro, of the ruling Sithi Year-Dancing House, has declared himself Protector of their people and refuses to help the mortals in any way, causing friction with Likimeya’s children, Jiriki and Aditu. Aditu is pregnant, a rarity among the Sithi. The father is Yeja’aro, nephew and militant supporter of Khendraja’aro.
In the Thrithings, Unver challenges and kills his rival for Fremur’s sister Kulva. But Kulva’s brother, Thane Odrig, does not want to give his sister to an outsider and slits her throat instead. Unver kills Odrig and flees the Crane Clane to return to the Stallion Clan of his mother Vorzheva. Unver, we learn, is actually Deornoth, the other of Josua and Vorzheva’s twins. When Unver demands his mother tell him why he was sent away and where his sister has gone, Vorzheva says he was sent away by order of her father, Thane Fikolmij, and that Derra ran away shortly after.
Thane Gurdig, husband to Vorzheva’s sister Hyara and Fikolmij’s successor, comes to attack Unver, and in the confusion Vorzheva kills her now old and infirm father, Fikolmij. A giant flock of crows appears out of nowhere to attack Gurdig and his allies, causing many Thrithings-folk to declare that Unver may be the new Shan, the universal monarch of the Thrithings. Unver kills Gurdig, and is then declared the new thane of the Stallion Clan.
Far to the northeast, the Talon and Jarnulf manage to capture a small, young dragon, but then the mother dragon appears. During the struggle Chieftain Makho is badly burned by dragon blood and one of the other Talon members is killed, but the rest manage to escape and begin dragging the captive young dragon down the mountain.
Eolair and Morgan are returning from their embassy to the Sithi to their camp beside Aldheorte Forest, but discover that their party has been attacked and all the soldiers wiped out by Thrithings-men, some of whom are still there, looking for victims and pillage. Eolair and Morgan become separated and the prince ends up lost back in ancient Aldheorte.
Back in the Hayholt, Queen Miriamele and King Simon are invited to attend an important wedding in populous and troubled Nabban. Hoping the presence of the High Throne will help solve the problems between Duke Saluceris and his brother Earl Drusis, Simon and Miriamele accept the invitation. With the increased threat of the Norns and disturbing news from Hernystir they cannot both go to Nabban, so they decide Miriamele will attend the wedding while Simon stays in the Hayholt.
Royal counselor Lord Pasevalles meets his secret lover Princess Idela, John Josua’s widow. When she gives him a letter from Nabban he had dropped, Pasevalles sees the seal is broken and fears she has read the letter. He pushes Idela down a flight of stairs and when the fall does not kill her, he breaks her neck with his boot.
In Aldheorte Forest the onetime Sithi envoy Tanahaya at last awakes from her terrible illness and is reunited with Jiriki and Aditu. Despite her recovery, the future seems dark. It is clear that the Norn Queen Utuk’ku intends war on both the Sithi and the human world.
Synopsis of
Empire of Grass
Osten Ard has fallen into confusion and struggle after years of peace. And at a time when King Simon and Queen Miriamele most need each other, they are far apart.
While Simon remains in their castle home, the Hayholt in Erkynland, Miriamele is at sea, headed for Nabban to attend the wedding that will unite two powerful families. Drusis, feuding brother of Duke Saluceris, is marrying young Turia Ingadaris, whose family are the duke’s greatest rivals. But before Miriamele can even begin to worry about Nabbanai politics, she gets the terrible news of a death back home, her daughter-in-law, Princess Idela, who (although everyone thinks it an accident) was murdered by the Lord Chancellor, Pasevalles.
At the Hayholt, Simon has to deal with not only the death of his daughter-in-law, but the disappearance of grandson Prince Morgan, the heir to the throne. Morgan and Count Eolair, after a mission to meet with Jiriki and Khendraja’aro of the Sithi people, have been attacked by Thrithings-Men on the broad grasslands west of Erkynland. Eolair has been captured and Morgan has disappeared into the vast Aldheorte Forest. While the old knight Sir Porto, and the four trolls—Binabik, Sisqi, their daughter Qina, and her betrothed Little Snenneq—hunt for Morgan, the lost prince is in real danger of starving in the forest until he saves a squirrel-like animal he calls ReeRee and nurses her back to health. Living in the trees with ReeRee and her troop of creatures that he names Chikri, he learns to survive in the unfamiliar environment.
Count Eolair is taken by his bandit captors to the Thanemoot, where all the Thrithing-folks gather at mid-summer every year. This year the most powerful thane, Rudur Redbeard, has heard reports about Unver (born “Deornoth,” one of Josua’s and Vorzheva’s twin children) who many of the grasslanders think might be the Shan, a great leader foretold in legend. Jealous Rudur captures Unver and sentences him to torture and then exposure, but after being brutally flogged, Unver survives being chained to a pole overnight, and there are signs that wild wolves have come to bow before him—or that is the story that his friend Fremur and Unver’s mother Vorzheva make sure the other Thrithings-folk hear. Now in a difficult position, Rudur tries to poison Unver, but somehow the shaman Volfrag gives Rudur the wrong cup and Redbeard himself drinks the poison. With Rudur dead, Unver is freed and is acclaimed the Shan of the Thrithings people.
While all this is happening, Queen Utuk’ku of the Norns—the Sithi’s equally immortal kin—seems to have designs on mortal territory, even planning to renew outright conflict with the mortals despite their disastrous loss in the Storm King’s War. The Norns make a bargain with King Hugh, the mortal king of Hernystir, who allows them to cross his lands in secret, but this betrayal of humankind is discovered by Sir Aelin, Count Eolair’s young relation. Hugh’s soldiers try to imprison Aelin and his men, but they escape, meaning to warn others of Hugh’s treachery and the approaching Norn army.
Meanwhile, High Magister Viyeki, an important Norn leader, is beginning to have real concerns about what Queen Utuk’ku plans—he does not think another war with the mortals is a good idea after the terrible defeat the Norns suffered in the last one. But he is one of the few with doubts, and it soon becomes clear that the Norns are going to attack the mortals’ important fort, Naglimund.
Sir Aelin and his men race to Naglimund to warn the defenders, but on the same evening they arrive, the Norn armies also show up. The battle is brutal but swift, with the Norns throwing down Naglimund’s walls and killing most of its defenders. The only mortal survivors are those Viyeki claims he must have as laborers to fulfill his given task of opening the grave of Ruyan the Navigator, hero of the Tinukeda’ya people (or “Vao”), a changeling folk who came to Osten Ard with the Sithi and Norns thousands of years earlier on the Eight Ships when their shared homeland, the Garden, was destroyed by a deadly, unstoppable force called Unbeing.
Viyeki’s mortal concubine Tzoja was born “Derra,” and is Josua’s and Vorzheva’s other lost twin. After Viyeki has left Nakkiga on his mission for the queen, Tzoja faces retribution from Viyeki’s murderous wife, Khimabu, but escapes and goes into hiding in the depths of Nakkiga, where she meets a strange, deformed group called The Hidden. Tzoja is eventually captured, but to her surprise, instead of being given to a vengeful Khimabu, she is instead assigned as a healer to Queen Utuk’ku because of Tzoja’s previous experiences with the Astaline sect. Utuk’ku, the only living being who saw the Garden, is suffering both from sheer age and the loss of the Witchwood Trees, whose fruits have extended her life for thousands of years. And when Queen Utuk’ku leaves Nakkiga for the first time in memory, headed for captured Naglimund, she takes not just Tzoja but hundreds of Norn nobles with her into mortal lands.
Back in the Hayholt in Erkynland, King Simon and others have learned of the destruction of their embassy to the Sithi by Thrithings raiders, as well as the disappearance of Count Eolair and the royal heir, Prince Morgan. Since he thinks the new Shan of the grasslands, Unver, may be holding Morgan hostage, Simon sends out an army under Morgan’s other grandfather, Duke Osric, to negotiate with Unver for Morgan’s return. Meanwhile, Unver Shan has purchased Count Eolair from the bandits who captured him, intending to use the Hernystirman as an envoy to negotiate between himself and the High Throne of Erkynland. But instead Eolair is rescued by Sir Astrian and Sir Oliveris. As they escape Unver’s camp, Eolair tries to convince Vorzheva to come with them, since Simon and Miriamele have been hunting for her and her missing husband, Prince Josua, for years. But Vorzheva refuses and attacks Eolair with a knife. She accidentally stabs her own sister Hyara, then blames Eolair, who escapes. Unver and the rest of the Thrithings leaders consider this an act of treachery by King Simon, and when a battle is provoked between Duke Osric and the grasslanders, Unver decides he must invade Erkynland to avenge what he sees as King Simon’s double-dealing.
In Nabban, far to the south, Queen Miriamele meets with the elders of the Niskies and is told that they (and other descendants of the Tinukeda’ya or Changeling race, who came from the lost Garden with the Sithi and Norns) are having powerful dreams in which they are called to go north. But Miriamele has greater worries, and soon finds herself in the middle of a deadly rivalry between Duke Saluceris and powerful House Ingadaris (into which the duke’s brother, Drusis, has just married) that threatens to turn into a civil war. While mobs of the two houses’ supporters clash in the streets of the ancient city, and as Miriamele discovers lies and treachery even within the duke’s own household, Drusis is murdered and Saluceris is naturally blamed for it. The dead man’s widow, child-bride Turia Ingadaris, tells Miriamele that she should leave Nabban, because violence is coming. It is more of a threat than a friendly warning.
In Aldheorte forest, where Prince Morgan has been living with little ReeRee and her tree-dwelling troop of Chikri creatures, he is separated from his small allies when they climb the steep hills into a mysterious valley full of fog and odd creatures. Before Morgan can follow them along the valley floor, a gigantic, monstrous ogre chases him through the mist and he only survives because he is saved by Tanahaya, the Sithi envoy sent to the Hayholt in The Witchwood Crown, who was attacked on her way to the castle and almost died. Morgan’s own mission with Count Eolair returned her to her people, who have cured her, and on her way back to Erkynland she has stumbled onto Morgan’s trail and decided to investigate. But she is not the only one. A group of Norn soldiers are tracking Morgan as well, but he and Tanahaya escape and flee the valley. She leads him to what should be a place of safety, the hillside home of her mentor, Master Himano, but they discover that the Norns have been there first and have murdered her old teacher. Tanahaya finds a parchment on Himano’s body that suggests the Norns are seeking witchwood seeds that were buried under the Hayholt long ago, back when it was the Sithi stronghold called Asu’a. Tanahaya is desperate to get this information to Jiriki and Aditu, her two close Sithi allies, but she has no Witness—a magical device for communication—and so leads Morgan toward the ancient Sithi city of Da’ai Chikiza, hoping to find a Witness there. But they are captured by the current inhabitants, a breakaway Sithi sect called The Pure, and because Morgan is a mortal, he is threatened with execution. But when Tanahaya tells the Pure of Himano’s death and the parchment, they reluctantly allow her to use a Witness to inform Jiriki about the witchwood seeds that may be hidden beneath the Hayholt. She has time only to tell him that it seems likely Utuk’ku will try to conquer the Hayholt, then they are interrupted by a force of Norn soldiers attacking Da’ai Chikiza. In the ensuing fight, Tanahaya manages to bring down the ceiling of the chamber, killing many Norns, but she and Morgan and all the others are buried under collapsing stone.
Not far away, Aelin and his few remaining men escape Naglimund only to be captured in Aldheorte. But they are fortunate: their captors are Sithi, not Norns.
Back in the Hayholt, Simon and Tiamak and Tiamak’s wife Thelía are struggling with many problems. Tiamak’s helper Brother Etan is away in the south searching for news of Prince Josua, missing for many years, but Bishop Boez informs them that he has discovered many thousands of gold pieces are missing from the royal treasury. All the news seems bad—Simon has just heard of the civil war flaring in Nabban, and is frightened for Miriamele, who is still there.
And in fact, things have gone from bad to worse in Nabban. Angry citizens, enflamed by several mysterious murders and the propaganda of House Ingadaris, now storm the ducal palace. Duke Saluceris is killed by the mob, but Queen Miriamele helps the duke’s wife, Duchess Canthia, to escape with her two children and Jesa, the children’s Wrannawoman nurse. Miriamele gives Canthia her wedding ring so that Simon will know the message the duchess carries is truly from her, but then Miriamele herself barely escapes the mob and the destruction of the palace. Miriamele must ride north alone, through wild country, in a desperate attempt to get back to Erkynland and safety. But she is attacked by bandits, and though she escapes, her horse is killed and Miriamele falls down the hillside and is struck senseless. Canthia and Jesa are even less lucky. Their carriage is chased by Thrithings mercenaries and set on fire. The duchess and her little son are killed, with Canthia burning to death in the wagon after it is hit with flaming arrows. Canthia’s friend Jesa manages to escape the carriage with infant Serasina, but the two of them are now stranded in an unfamiliar land and still being mercilessly hunted.
In Aldheorte forest, Binabik and the other trolls are searching for Prince Morgan, but the Norn invasion of Da’ai Chikiza prevents them from finding him. They have also discovered that many people and creatures—humans, ghants, even kilpa—are moving north as if drawn by some invisible force. They decide to split up, Binabik and Sisqi to take news of what is happening south to the Hayholt, their daughter Qina and her betrothed Little Snenneq to continue searching the forest for Morgan.
Inside the conquered fortress of Naglimund, Queen Utuk’ku herself has arrived—the first time she has left her mountain city of Nakkiga in living memory. Viyeki, his Builders Order, and his conscripted mortal slaves open the ancient tomb of Ruyan the Navigator and find the Tinukeda’ya lord’s fabled armor. In a strange ceremony, Utuk’ku’s Order of Song sorcerers put the bones of the Storm King’s brother Hakatri, burned by dragon’s blood and in terrible pain until his death, into Ruyan’s armor. (The bones had been found and retrieved earlier by Nezeru and her Norn companions.) Then the dragon that Nezeru and the rest captured on Urmsheim is sacrificed and the blood is poured into armor as Queen Utuk’ku invokes a terrible spell. Jarnulf, a mortal who insinuated himself into the Urmsheim expedition but then left afterward, is hoping to have a chance to kill the Norn queen with an arrow from a high spot overlooking the ceremony, but the forces Utuk’ku unleashes are so terrible that Jarnulf is overcome with terror and flees. Even Viyeki, who had already seen the resurrection ceremony that brought Ommu the Whisperer back to the world, is sickened when Ruyan’s armor comes to life, inhabited now by Hakatri’s tormented spirit. The resurrected Sitha lets out a cry of horror so dreadful that it kills birds flying overhead.
In the Hayholt, and already overwhelmed by terrible news—the Norn attack on Naglimund in the north, Unver’s grasslanders invading over the western border—Simon and his closest advisors learn that a corpse has been found in the ashes of a carriage on the border between Nabban and Erkynland. The body inside was burned beyond recognition, but it wears Miriamele’s wedding ring. Simon is devastated, and all Erkynland is plunged into mourning for their beloved queen.
Foreword
Tanahaya stood at the edge of an orchard valley and knew she must be dreaming. This lush vale, with blossoming groves that embraced both banks of the river, could only be Shisae’ron. She knew it achingly well—she had spent her childhood here. But even as the limbs of the fruit trees quivered in the gentle breeze, a part of her knew the scene was impossible, because though the river might still flow, the orchards and the home of her youth were long gone.
Full of confusion, she made her way down the slope through tumbling petals that danced like snowflakes. A single thought drew her on, though she knew she walked through her own past: Where is my mother? If the orchards are in bloom, she is still here. And Willow Hall must still stand!!
Just as some part of her knew that she was dreaming, she also knew that the orchards her father had planted so carefully had not long outlived her mother. During Siriaya’s long decline, as her mourning for Tanahaya’s father slowly became something darker and closer to madness, most of the members of her Heart-Seed Clan had deserted her and the beautiful settlement had begun to die—as if, like Siriaya herself, it had lost the desire to continue. But here it stood once more, alive and burgeoning, and if the orchards lived, then so did her mother. Their house must still stand above the valley, watching over the river and the trees. Everything could be reclaimed. Time’s previous, terrible path could be changed and both Siriaya and the House of Heart-Seed could be saved.
The branches of the orchard trees, at first only a lacy fretwork, grew thicker and closer together as Tanahaya passed deeper into the valley, until she could barely see the sky. The limbs reached toward her like hungry ghosts, hemming her in, and soon she was completely enwrapped. She struggled, but soon the sky was gone, the darkness complete, and she could not move.
