Dave Duncan
Mother of Lies
THE GODS
Anziel, goddess of beauty
Cienu, god of mirth and chance
Demern, god of law and justice
Eriander, god-goddess of sex and madness
Hrada, goddess of crafts and skill
Mayn, goddess of wisdom
Nastrar, god of animals and nature
Nula, goddess of pity
Sinura, goddess of health
Ucr, god of prosperity and abundance
Veslih, goddess of the hearth and home
Weru, god of storm and battle
Xaran, goddess of death and evil (known as the Mother, the Old One, Mother of Lies, Womb of the World, amp;c.)
PRINCIPAL MORTALS
Most of the characters in the story are initiates of mystery cults, meaning each has sworn allegiance to a single god or goddess. They are listed here with their loyalties and their locations at the end of Children of Chaos:
On the Florengian Face
Doge Piero, ruler of the city of Celebre, is reported to be near death.
Dogaressa Oliva Assichie, his wife, is reported to be acting as his regent.
Marno Cavotti, a Hero of Weru, is leading the Florengian Resistance, from an unknown location.
Stralg Hragson, bloodlord of the Heroes of Weru (“the Fist of Weru”), location unknown, is still fighting a war he began fifteen years ago.
On the Vigaelian Face
The Children of Hrag:
Saltaja Hragsdor, Stralg Hragson’s sister and greatly feared regent-and a Chosen of Xaran, known as the Queen of Shadows-is asleep in the palace at Tryfors.
Horold Hragson, her youngest brother, a Hero of Weru and satrap of Kosord, is on his way to Tryfors to reclaim his fugitive wife, Ingeld Narsdor, because it is only his marriage to her that gives him legal claim to rule as consort of Kosord.
(Ingeld Narsdor, a Daughter of Veslih and hereditary dynast of Kosord, is in a boat heading downstream from Tryfors, but knows by pyromancy that Horold is heading in her direction.)
Cutrath Horoldson, son of Horold and Ingeld, a Hero of Weru, is in the fortress at Nardalborg, waiting to cross over the Edge to fight in the Florengian war.
Heth “Hethson,” a Hero of Weru and bastard son of Therek Hragson, is commandant of Nardalborg.
The children of Doge Piero:
Eldest son Dantio, who is also a Witness of Mayn known as Mist, is driving a chariot cross-country in the Tryfors area.
Son Benard, a Hand of Anziel, is fleeing Kosord in the same boat as his lover, Ingeld, knowing that he will die if Horold’s warbeasts catch him.
Son Orlad (formerly Orlando), a newly initiated Hero of Werist, is in the Tryfors area, having just killed Therek Hragson.
Daughter Fabia, a Chosen of Xaran, is traveling with Benard, fleeing a forced betrothal to Cutrath Horoldson.
Others:
Arbanerik Kranson, a Hero of Weru and hordeleader of “New Dawn,” the Vigaelian rebels, is believed to have his headquarters not far from Tryfors.
Horth Wigson, a Ucrist reputed to be the richest man in Vigaelia, and Fabia’s foster father, is with Fabia.
Deceased but relevant to the story:
Karvak Hragson, a Hero of Weru and satrap of Jat-Nogul, was slain in self-defense by Paola Apicella.
Paola Apicella, a Chosen of Xaran, originally Fabia’s wet nurse and later her foster mother and wife of Horth Wigson, was slain by Perag Hrothgatson on Saltaja’s orders in retribution for the death of her brother Karvak.
Perag Hrothgatson, a Hero of Weru, was slain by Fabia for murdering Paola.
Therek Hragson, a Hero of Weru and late satrap of Tryfors, lies dead on a hillside near the city, slain by Orlad Celebre.
Part I
MARNO CAVOTTI
was better known as the Mutineer. Bloodlord Stralg, the Fist of Weru, had promised years ago that he would buy the Mutineer’s corpse for its weight in gold or pay six times that much for the man alive and fit enough to be tortured. The offer still stood. Any hamlet or city that gave him refuge would be razed and all its inhabitants slain- this offer was still good, too. The Mutineer was coming home, to the city of his birth, which he had not seen since his childhood. It was entirely fitting that he travel under the shadow and protection of a storm.
The storm’s approach had been visible for days, for it was one of the great sea storms, born above the steamy waters of the Florengian Ocean. From there it had spun out edgeward, over coastal jungles and swamps, to wreak havoc in the Fertile Circle that made up most of the Face. Like most of its kind, it came at Celebre from the east. Day by day it rose higher over the hazy wall of the world, white at noon and black at dawn; bloodred at sunset, ruling the sky and looming above the landscape. By the time it reached the city walls its greatest violence was spent, but it could still lash with gales and drench with killer rains. It could lift roofs and fell trees, flood low areas, wash out bridges. Amid so much evil a little more would not be noticed, so the storm closed its black wings around the traveler and hid him from those who looked for him to slay him.
He splashed along the muddy track beside a small wagon laden with amphorae of wine, drawn by an ancient guanaco named Misery, whose persistent humming showed that it was, indeed, unhappy-justifiably so, although Cavotti was careful to stay on the upwind side, where he could protect the animal from flying branches and other debris. Delayed by fallen trees and swollen streams, he worried that he would not arrive before the gates closed at sunset. The day had already faded to a twilight gloom when the walls and towers of Celebre emerged from the mist, but the rules said that the gates must stay open until the curfew bell sounded, and rules were rules.
Head down, Cavotti plodded under the great archway into the narrow barbican, where the strident creak and rattle of his wheels reverberated from the walls and wind howled along the canyon, driving rain before it. This was the moment of greatest peril, when he must satisfy the guards, when the inner and outer gates could be swung
