THE REVENANTS
Sheri S. Tepper
www.sf-gateway.com
Enter the SF Gateway …
In the last years of the twentieth century (as Wells might have put it), Gollancz, Britain’s oldest and most distinguished science fiction imprint, created the SF and Fantasy Masterworks series. Dedicated to re-publishing the English language’s finest works of SF and Fantasy, most of which were languishing out of print at the time, they were – and remain – landmark lists, consummately fulfilling the original mission statement:
‘SF MASTERWORKS is a library of the greatest SF ever written, chosen with the help of today’s leading SF writers and editors. These books show that genuinely innovative SF is as exciting today as when it was first written.’
Now, as we move inexorably into the twenty-first century, we are delighted to be widening our remit even more. The realities of commercial publishing are such that vast troves of classic SF & Fantasy are almost certainly destined never again to see print. Until very recently, this meant that anyone interested in reading any of these books would have been confined to scouring second-hand bookshops. The advent of digital publishing has changed that paradigm for ever.
The technology now exists to enable us to make available, for the first time, the entire backlists of an incredibly wide range of classic and modern SF and fantasy authors. Our plan is, at its simplest, to use this technology to build on the success of the SF and Fantasy Masterworks series and to go even further.
Welcome to the new home of Science Fiction & Fantasy. Welcome to the most comprehensive electronic library of classic SFF titles ever assembled.
Welcome to the SF Gateway.
Contents
TITLE PAGE
GATEWAY INTRODUCTION
CONTENTS
MAP
INTRODUCTION
BOOK I: The Quest
CHAPTER ONE: JAERA
CHAPTER TWO: JAER
CHAPTER THREE: MEDLO
CHAPTER FOUR: JAER
CHAPTER FIVE: LEONA
CHAPTER SIX: MEDLO
CHAPTER SEVEN: THEWSON
CHAPTER EIGHT: JAER
CHAPTER NINE: MEDLO
CHAPTER TEN: LEONA
CHAPTER ELEVEN: LITHOS
CHAPTER TWELVE: JASMINE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THEWSON
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: JAER
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE CITY OF CANDOR
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE CITY OF BYSSA
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE RIVER DEL
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE GRYPHON
CHAPTER NINETEEN: INSIDE MURGIN
CHAPTER TWENTY: OUTSIDE OF MURGIN
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE SISTERHOOD
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: THE COUNCIL
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: MAGISTER
BOOK II: The Gate
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: THE AWAKENING
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: KELNER
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: THE NORTHERN WAY
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: THE WARTY MEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: PO-BEE
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: LITHOS
CHAPTER THIRTY: THE DOG KING
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: THE ABYSS OF SOULS
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: THE SOUTHERN WAY
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: THE EASTERN WAY
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: TCHENT
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: BEYOND THE CONCEALMENT
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: THE STONE CITY
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: ORENA
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: ORENA ARMED
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: THE TWO CITIES
CHAPTER FORTY: THE GATE
WEBSITE
ALSO BY SHERI S. TEPPER
EPILOGUE
APPENDIX
THE HISTORY OF THE KNOWN WORLD
THE ROAD OF THE AXE KING
AUTHOR BIO
COPYRIGHT
INTRODUCTION
This is the story of the Seven Who Presumed – those called the Remnant in Orena-and of Thewson, proud warrior of the southland, driven by gods; and of Leona, Queen of Beasts, whose reign among the animals was stranger than even she knew; and of Jasmine, who loved her child; and of Medlo, prince and outcast, pro-heritor of a kingdom yet unfounded.
And it is the story of a million anonymous sufferers under the whip of Gahl.
And of Nathan and Ephraim, whose only frailty was age. And of Terascouros, whose only indiscretion was curiosity.
And it is the story of Jaer, innocent bearer of a terrible burden.
But to come to Jaer, we must begin with Jaera.
BOOK I
The Quest
CHAPTER ONE
JAERA
Years 1137-1153
The girl, Jaera, should have been smothered within hours of her birth, but she was not. If the family Widdek had been a little poorer, the birthers might have paid more attention; for it was well known that the poor were capable of anything. If there had been any prior rumour of deviation, any gossip or questions, the child might have lived no longer than her first breath; but the family Widdek was so middling, so ordinary, so meeching in its virtues and so mincing in its faults, as to provoke unconcern amounting almost to boredom. Besides which there were already three Widdek daughters and four Widdek sons. Who looks for deviation among such a herd?
The Keepers of the Seals of Separation had last visited the village a decade before, and it was thought likely they would not return for a decade more. The cringing old man whom they had appointed as Deputy Observer was now half blind and spent most of his days before his own hearthfire sipping warmed wine and muttering imprecations against old friends long dead.
So it was that Jaera came into the firelight of a late evening in the month of wings returning, squalled promptly, always a good sign, and suckled strongly when put to the nipple. If she was a bit pale, it was not remarked upon by the birthers. Of course the room was dark. She had a head of good black hair, too, and was as wrinkled as any newborn. The birthers took their silver cheerfully, did not go by the house of the Deputy Observer to report, and were not heard to speak of the baby thereafter in any but ordinary terms. The Deputy Observer neglected to call upon mother and babe, his duty demanding no more in this case than it had done in a half hundred others, equally neglected.
The black hair must have fallen out very soon for it was recalled later that Jaera had always worn a cap tied over her head. That was not, in itself, unusual. There were always mothers who put caps on the babes to protect their soft little heads from chill. It was recalled later, also, that soon after Jaera’s birth, the Wanderer had returned to the woods surrounding the village, this time, it seemed, to stay. At least she built a small house in a glade not far away and seemed to be there whenever someone went to buy a cure for a fever or a balm for a sprain, not that anyone from the village would approach too closely to her house or do anything to break the Seal. This was the woman they came to call ‘The Woman
