The reign of the Axe King ended with his death in 164 TC, and the warrior bands he had led split into factions led by one or another of his sons or nephews. At least one of his sons was known to have led a great band of the D’Zunalor into the northlands in emulation of Widon the Golden. The D’Zunalor had an exaggerated veneration for the legends of the Akwith Kings.
In 210 TC, He from Gahl [Obnor Gahl – Whip Valley] began his teachings in the town of Soolenter in the Savus Mountains. During the early centuries of Gahlism, cities and towns were slow to change, but the teaching began to have far reaching effects by the ninth century TC. In 990 a woman of Hanar, later identified as Geraldhis, a prophetess, brought a prophecy to the Sisterhood at Gerenhodh and to Orena later in that year.
In the year 116’ TC, the world was changed.
THE ROAD OF THE AXE KING
The ancient route taken by the Axe King in his conquests of the lands lying to the east of the Outer Sea was called the Road of the Axe King. The rule of die D’Zunalor began in Rochagam D’Zunabat, the Plain of the people of the Axe, the native land of several tribes of nomadic, warlike herdsmen. These tribes were united under Zunabat, the Axe King, in 102 TC. Taking advantage of the general disorder, Zunabat gathered the tribes into his own system, governing through local ‘Axemen’ sworn to his service, the Rochazuna.
The Road included the cities of Gombator (River City), Labat Ochor (King’s Tower), Tachob (Granary), a city in the valley of the Del which may have been called Hanar (Camp), Obnor Gahl (Whip Valley, named for the punishment of dissident troops which took place there), the Ochor D’Batum (Towers of Stone, i:e., the World Wall Mountains) and finally the city of Dochor (‘Of Towers’), now called M’Wandi. These cities, together with intermediate stations, made up the road of the Axe King, and it was said a message could be sent from Gombator to Dochor in twelve days through post riders.
There was no true city of die Axe King. He lived always as he had as a child, in the squat, hide tents of the nomad peoples of the High Plain, surrounded on three sides by the mountains of Tharsh, the Jaggers and Savus Ranges, and edged on the fourth side by the Rochagam, High River, which emptied into the lakelands of the south. Zunabat made forays into the far south – being soundly defeated at the delta of the Wal Thai, and into the far north – being as soundly victorious in the Fales.
It is thought that the people of the Fales are directly descended from the Axe King’s people, with some admixture of other peoples who invaded the Fales from islands in Wasnost, to the west. After the death of Zunabat, however, the tribes lost cohesive structure, the cities of the road became gradually autonomous, and the many of the D’Zunalor moved away to the northlands beyond Tranch. Gombator is now called Tanner.’ Tiles’ is the current name of Labat Ochor.
Sheri S. Tepper (1929 –)
Sheri Stewart Tepper was born in Colorado in 1929 and is the author of a larger number of novels in the areas of science fiction, fantasy, horror and mystery, and is particularly respected for her works of feminist science fiction. Her many acclaimed novels include The Margarets and Gibbon’s Decline And Fall, both shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, A Plague Of Angels, Sideshow and Beauty, which was voted Best Fantasy Novel Of The Year by readers of Locus magazine. Her versatility is illustrated by the fact that she is one of very few writers to have titles in both the Gollancz SF and Fantasy Masterworks lists. Sheri S. Tepper lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
Copyright
A Gollancz eBook
Copyright © Sheri S. Tepper 1984
All rights reserved.
The right of Sheri S. Tepper to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This eBook first published in Great Britain in 2011 by
Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane
London, WC2H 9EA
An Hachette UK Company
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 0 575 11619 1
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real
persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
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Table of 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:
