Read the book: «The Gold Falcon»

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Author’s Note

The Poisoned Root Of It All

Arcodd Province Summer, 1159

Keep Reading

Glossary

Appendices

About the Author

Other Books By

About the Publisher

DEDICATION

For Peg Strub, M.D.,

whose sharp eyes saved my life.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

I seem to have inadvertently caused some confusion among readers of this series by my system of subtitles for the various volumes in it. All of the Deverry books are part of one long story, divided into four ‘acts’, as it were. Here’s the correct order:

Act One: Daggerspell, Darkspell, Dawnspell, Dragonspell.

Act Two, or ‘The Westlands’: A Time of Exile, A Time of Omens, A Time of War, A Time of Justice.

Act Three, or ‘The Dragon Mage’: The Red Wyvern, The Black Raven, The Fire Dragon, The Gold Falcon.

There will be two more books to be published soon: The Spirit Stone, The Shadow Isle.

THE POISONED ROOT OF IT ALL

In the year 643, deep in the Dark Ages of the kingdom of Deverry, a loose coalition of clans allied with the few merchants and craft guilds that existed at that time put a new and unstable dynasty on the throne of the high king. In those wars the Falcon clan lost most of its men, noble-born and commoners both. In gratitude the king betrothed his third son, Galrion, to the last daughter of the Falcon, Brangwen. But her brother, Lord Gerraent, loved her far more than a brother should, and Prince Galrion loved the magical dweomer power more than he did his betrothed. When Galrion broke off the betrothal, his father the king banished him from the royal line forever. The prince took the name of Nevyn, which means ‘no one’ in the Deverrian tongue, and went off to study the dweomer with the master who had hoped to teach his craft to Galrion and Brangwen both.

As for Brangwen, left heartsick and shamed, she fell into her brother’s arms and bed. Soon enough, she was with child. Only then did Nevyn realize how greatly he loved her and how badly he’d failed her. Although he tried to get her away from her brother, he failed to stop the inevitable tragedy. When she drowned herself in shame, at her grave he swore a rash vow. Once she was reborn again on the wheel of life and death, he ‘would never rest’ until he put right the evil he’d done, by bringing her to the dweomer power which should have been hers. Little did he realize that fulfilling this vow would take him four hundred years of a single dweomer-touched lifetime, while the other actors in their tragedy were reborn and died again and again.

During his long life other souls would find themselves tangled in the chains of his and Brangwen’s wyrd (fate or karma). Some were people he helped; others became his enemies. Nevyn took apprentices, such as Aderyn and Lilli, and made contact with other masters of the dweomer, such as Dallandra, one of the Westfolk, elven nomads who wander the plains to the west of Deverry proper.

Eventually Brangwen was reborn as Jill, the daughter of a mercenary soldier named Cullyn of Cerrmor and of Seryan, a tavern lass. After more than a few adventures she finally saw her true destiny and went with Nevyn to study the dweomer as she should have done all those years before. Only then could Nevyn die.

Jill outlived him by many years. With the help of the elven dweomermaster, Dallandra, and her bizarre lover, Evandar, a powerful soul who had never been incarnated at all, Jill captained the first war against the savage Horsekin and their so-called goddess, Alshandra. In truth, Alshandra was a mortal spirit, though one of immense magical power, and in the end Jill managed to kill her, though she went to her death as well. One of those Jill left behind was the man she’d loved in her youth, the half-mad berserker Rhodry Maelwaedd, whose wyrd turned out to be something stranger than even a great master of the dweomer could have imagined.

For over fifty years, Dallandra and the Westfolk have stayed on guard against the Horsekin and the cult of their false goddess. Although Alshandra is dead, the religion she left behind lives on. Dallandra has also been doing her best to shepherd the other souls bound by wyrd to her, and ultimately to Jill and Nevyn, while she continues her own dweomerwork and serving her people. But now, on the border between Deverry and the Westfolk lands, the winds of change are blowing, and they are ill winds indeed …

Arcodd Province Summer, 1159

The ancient Greggyn sage, Heraclidd, tells us that no man steps in the same river twice. Time itself is a river. When a man dies, he leaves the river behind, only to cross it again at the moment of birth. But betwixt times, the river has flowed on.

The Secret Book of Cadwallon the Druid

Neb strode across the kitchen and stood next to the window, no more than a hole cut in the wall, open to the smell of mud and cows. Still, he found the air cleaner than that inside. Smoke rose from damp wood at the hearth in the middle of the floor and swirled through the half-round of a room before it oozed out of the chinks and cracks in the walls. Aunt Mauva knelt at the hearth and slapped flat rounds of dough onto the griddle stone. The oatcakes puffed and steamed. Neb heard his stomach rumble, and Clae, his young brother, took a step towards their aunt-by-marriage.

‘Wait your turn!’ she snapped. Her blue eyes narrowed in her bony face, and strands of dirty red hair stuck to her cheeks with sweat. ‘Your uncle and me eats first.’

‘Give that batch to the lads.’ Uncle Brwn was sitting at the plank table, a tankard of ale in his hand. ‘They’ve been pulling stones out of the west field all day, and that watery porridge you dished out this morning was scant.’

‘Scant? Scant, was it?’ Mauva turned and rose in one smooth motion. ‘You’ve got your bloody gall! Dumping more mouths to feed into my lap –’

Brwn slammed the tankard down and lurched to his feet. ‘You miserly barren slut! You should thank the gods for sending you my nephews.’

Mauva squealed and charged, waving her fists in the air. Uncle Brwn grabbed her by the wrists and held on until she stopped squirming. He pushed her back, then set his thick and calloused hands on his hips, but before he could speak, she shoved her face up under his, and they were off again, screaming at each other, sometimes with curses, more often with meaningless grunts and squeals. Neb knelt down by the hearth, found a thin splint of wood, and flipped the oatcakes over before they burned.

‘Get somewhat to carry these,’ he hissed at Clae.

Clae glanced around the kitchen. On the sideboard stood an old flat basket; he grabbed it and held it up. Neb nodded, and Clae brought the basket over. Neb flipped the cooked cakes into the basket – three apiece. Little enough, but they would have to do. His screeching kin might quiet down before he could cook another batch. He stood up, grabbed the basket from Clae, and slipped out the back door. Clae followed, and together they slogged across the muddy farmyard and dodged around the dungheap. Skinny chickens came clucking, heads high and hopeful.

‘Forgive me,’ Neb said. ‘There’s barely enough for us.’

A packed earth wall surrounded house, barn, and farmyard. They hurried through the gate and trotted around the outside of the wall, where an apple tree stood to offer them some shade. They sat down, grabbed the still-warm cakes, and gobbled them before Mauva could come and take them back. Above them little apples bobbed among the leaves, still too green, no matter how hungry they were. Clae swallowed the last bit of cake and wiped his mouth on his sleeve.

‘Neb?’ he said. ‘I wish Mam hadn’t died.’

‘So do I, but wishing won’t bring her back.’

‘I know. Why does Uncle Brwn put up with Mauva?’

‘Because she lets him drink all the ale he wants. Are you still hungry?’

‘I am.’ Clae sounded on the edge of tears.

‘Down by the river we can find berries.’

‘If she finds us gone she’ll make Uncle beat us.’

‘I’ll think of some way to get out of it. If we get back late enough, they’ll both be drunk.’

Brwn’s farm, the last steading on the Great West Road, lay a mile beyond the last village. No one saw the boys as they hurried across the west field and jumped over the half-finished stone wall into the wild meadow. It was a lovely warm afternoon, and the slanted light lay as thick as honey on the green rolling pasture land. Tinged with yellow clay, the river Melyn churned and bubbled over boulders. All along its grassy banks stood mounds of redberry canes, heavy with fruit, sweet from a long hot day. The boys gorged themselves, drank river water, and stuffed in a few more handfuls of berries. Clae would have eaten still more, but Neb stopped him.

‘You don’t want the runs, do you?’

‘I don’t, truly, but oh, it’s so good not be hungry.’

They sat down in the warm grass and watched the river gleam like gold in the afternoon light, gliding along south to join the great rivers of the kingdom of Deverry – or so they’d always been told. They’d spent their entire lives here in Arcodd province. Off to their east stretched half-settled farmland; to the west and north, wild country. Far away south from their rough frontier lay the rich fields of the centre of the kingdom and the fabled city of Dun Deverry, where the high king lived in a reputedly splendid palace.

When Neb turned to the north, he could see, about half a mile away, the smooth rise of pale tan cliff that separated this valley from the high plateau beyond. The river tumbled down in a spray of white laced with rainbows. Above, the primeval forest, all tangled pines and scruffy underbrush, stood poised at the cliff edge like a green flood, ready to pour over the valley.

‘Neb?’ Clae said. ‘Can we go look at the waterfall? Can we go up to the top?’

‘I don’t think so. We don’t want to be caught up there in the dark.’

‘I guess not. Well, maybe Aunt Mauva will be drunk soon.’

Materializing as silently and suddenly as always, the Wildfolk appeared. Knee-high grey gnomes, all warts and spindly limbs, clustered around the two boys. In the air blue sprites flew back and forth, wringing their tiny hands, opening tiny mouths to reveal their needle-sharp fangs. At the river’s edge undines rose up, as sleek as otters but with silver fur. The gnomes grabbed the sleeves of Neb’s torn shirt and pulled on them while the sprites darted back and forth. They would start north towards the waterfall, then swoop back to buzz around the lads like flies. A big yellow gnome, Neb’s favourite, grabbed his hand and tugged.

Clae saw none of this, because he was pawing through the grass. Finally he picked out a bit of stick and began chewing on it.

‘Get that out of your mouth,’ Neb said. ‘And come on, we’re going to have a look at the waterfall after all.’

Clae grinned and tossed the stick into the river. An undine caught it, bowed, and disappeared into foam.

In a crowd of Wildfolk the two boys headed upstream, following a grassy path beside the noisy river. Now and then Clae seemed to feel the presence of the gnomes. When one of them brushed against him, he would look down, then shrug as if dismissing the sensation. For as long as he could remember Neb had seen the Wildfolk, but no one else in his family had the gift of the Sight. He’d learned early to keep his gifts to himself. Any mention of Wildfolk had exasperated his literal-minded mother and made the other children in town mock and tease him.

The two boys followed the river to the white water churning around fallen boulders. They panted up the steep path that zigzagged along the cliff face, then turned to look back. Under a black plume the distant village was burning. Neb stared, unable to comprehend, unable to scream, merely stared as the bright flower of flame poured black smoke into the sky. Little people, the size of red ants from their vantage point, scurried around and waved their arms. Larger ants chased them and waved things that winked metallic in the sun. A cluster of horses, the size of flies, stood on the far side of the village bridge. The farm – it too burned, a blossom of deadly gold among the green meadows. Two horses and riders circled the earthen wall.

‘Raiders!’ Clae’s voice was a breathy sob. ‘Oh Neb! Horsekin!’

Overhead a raven shrieked, as if answering him. The two riders suddenly turned their horses away from the farmstead. They broke into a gallop and headed upstream for the waterfall.

‘Into the forest!’ Neb said. ‘We’ve got to hide!’

They raced across the grassy cliff top, plunged into the forest, and ran panting and crashing through the underbrush among the pines and brambles. Twigs and thorns caught and tore his shirt and brigga, but Neb drove his brother before him like a frightened sheep until at last they could run no more. They burrowed into a thick patch of shrubs and clung together. If the slavers caught them, they would geld Clae like a steer. And they’d kill me, Neb thought. I’m old enough to cause trouble.

Neb could see nothing in the tangled mass of forest. He could hear only the waterfall, plunging down over rock. Had they run far enough? Voices – Neb thought he heard voices, deep ones, muttering in what sounded like anger, then a crash and a jingle, very faint, as if someone had dropped something metallic on to a rock. He heard a shout that turned to a scream. Clae stiffened and opened his mouth. Neb clapped a hand over it before he could speak.

Whether voices or not, the sounds died away, leaving only the chatter of the waterfall to disturb the silence. Slowly the normal noises of a forest picked up, the distant rustles of small animals, the chirping of birds. The yellow gnome appeared to perch in a nearby bush and grin. It patted its stomach as if pleased with itself, then disappeared. Slowly, too, the grey twilight deepened into a velvety night. They were safe for now, but on the morrow in the sunlight the Horsekin might return to search the woods. Neb realized that he and Clae had best be gone as soon as it was light enough to see.

Eventually Clae squirmed into his brother’s lap like a child half his size and fell asleep. Neb drowsed, but every snap of a twig, cry of an owl, or rustle of wind woke him in startled terror. When at last the grey dawn came, he felt as stiff and cold as an old man. Clae woke in tears, crying out at his memories.

‘Hush, hush,’ Neb said, but he felt like weeping himself. ‘Now we have to think. We don’t have a cursed bite to eat, and we’d best find something.’

‘We can’t go down to the river. If the Horsekin are still there, they’ll smell us out.’

‘They’ll what?’

‘Smell us out. They can do that.’

‘How do you know?’

Clae started to answer, then looked away, visibly puzzled. ‘Someone must have told me,’ he said at last.

‘Well, we’ve heard plenty of tales about the Horsekin, sure enough. Speaking of noses, wipe yours on your sleeve, will you?’

Clae obliged. ‘I never thought I’d miss Uncle Brwn,’ he said, then began to weep in a silent trickle of tears. Our uncle’s dead, Neb thought. The last person who would take us in, even if he was a sot.

‘We’re going to walk east,’ Neb said. ‘We’ll follow the rising sun so we won’t get lost. On the other side of the forest, we’ll find a village. It’s a long way, so you’ll have to be brave.’

‘But Neb?’ Clae said. ‘What will we eat?’

‘Oh, berries and birds’ eggs and herbs.’ Neb made his voice as strong and cheery as he could. ‘There’s always lots to eat in summer.’

He was, of course, being ridiculously optimistic. The birds’ eggs had long since hatched; few berry bushes grew in forest shade. At every step the forest itself blocked their way with ferns and shrubs, tangled between the trees. They had to push their way through, creeping uphill and hurrying down as they searched for the few herbs that would feed, not poison them. Water at least they had; they came across a good many rivulets trickling down to join the Melyn. By sundown, Clae could not make himself stop weeping. They made a nest among low-growing shrubs, where Neb rocked him to sleep like a baby.

As he watched the shadows darken around them, Neb realized that they were going to die. He had no idea of how far the forest stretched. Were they going straight east? Trying to follow the sun among trees might have them wandering around in circles. You can’t give up, he told himself. He’d promised his dying mother that he’d keep Clae safe. The one concern he could allow himself now was keeping them both alive. He fell asleep to dream of sitting at his mother’s table and watching her pile bread and beef onto the trencher he shared with Clae.

In the morning, Neb woke with a start. A gaggle of gnomes stood around them as if they were standing guard, while sprites floated overhead. The yellow gnome materialized and stood pointing to its stomach.

‘Do you know where there’s food?’ Neb whispered.

The gnome nodded and pointed off into the forest.

‘Can you show me where it is?’

Again the gnome nodded. When Neb shook him, Clae woke with a howl and a scatter of tears. He slid off Neb’s lap and screwed his fists into his eyes.

‘Time to get on the road,’ Neb said with as much cheer as he could muster. ‘I’ve got the feeling we’re going to be lucky today.’

‘My feet hurt. I can’t walk any more.’ Clae lowered his hands. ‘I’ll just die here.’

‘You won’t do any such thing. Here, stick out your legs. One at a time! I’ll wrap the swaddling for you.’

With the rags bound tight against his feet, Clae managed to keep walking. As they beat their way through fern and thistle, the Wildfolk led the boys straight into the forest, dodging around the black-barked pines and trampling through green ferns. Neb was beginning to wonder if the gnomes knew where they were going when he realized that up ahead the light was growing brighter. The trees grew farther apart, and the underbrush thinned. A few more yards, and they stepped out into a clearing, where a mass of redberry canes grew in a mound. Clae rushed forward and was already stuffing his mouth when Neb caught up with him. Neb mumbled a prayer of thanks to the gods, then began plucking every berry he could reach.

Red juice like gore stained their hands and faces by the time they forced themselves to stop. Neb was considering finding a stream to wash in when the yellow gnome appeared again. It grabbed his shirt with one little hand and with the other pointed to the far side of the clearing. When Neb took a few steps that way, he realized that he could hear running water.

‘There’s a stream or suchlike over yonder,’ Neb said to Clae. ‘We’ll go that way.’

The gnome smiled and nodded its head. Other Wildfolk appeared and surrounded them as they crossed the clearing. They worked their way through forest cover for about a hundred yards before they found the stream, and, just beyond that, a marvel: a dirt road, curving through the trees. When Neb sighted along it, it seemed to run roughly east.

‘I never knew this road was here,’ Clae said.

‘No more did I,’ Neb said.

‘I wonder where it goes to? There’s naught out to the west of here.’

‘Doesn’t matter. We can walk faster now, and a road means people must have made it.’

‘But what about the raiders?’ Clae looked nervously around him. ‘They’ll follow the road and get us.’

‘They won’t,’ Neb said firmly. ‘They’ve got those huge horses, so they can’t ride through the wild woods. They’ll never get as far as this road.’

Neb insisted they wash their hands before they scooped up drinking water in them. When they finished, he pulled up a handful of grass, soaked it, and cleaned the snot and berry juice off Clae’s face.

All that day they tried to ignore their hunger and make speed, but now and again the road dipped into shallow ravines or swung wide around a mound or spur of naked rock – no easy travelling. As far as Neb could tell, however, it continued to run east towards safety. Around noon, the forest thinned out along a stream, where they found a few more berries and a patch of wood sorrel they could graze like deer. Then it was back on the road to stumble along, exhausted. Neb began to lose hope, but the sprites fluttered ahead of them, and the yellow gnome kept beckoning them onward.

Towards sunset, Neb saw thin tendrils of pale blue smoke drifting far ahead. He froze and grabbed Clae’s arm.

‘Back into the trees,’ he whispered.

Clae took a deep breath and fought back tears. ‘Do we have to go back to the forest? I’m all scratched up from the thistles and suchlike.’

The yellow gnome hopped up and down, shaking its head.

‘We can’t stay on the road,’ Neb said.

‘Oh, please?’

The gnome nodded a violent yes.

‘Very well.’ Neb gave in to both of them. ‘We’ll stick to the road for a bit.’

‘My thanks,’ Clae said. ‘I’m so tired.’

The gnome smiled, then turned and danced along the road, leading the way. In about a quarter of a mile, off to the left of the road, the forest gave way to another clearing. In the tall grass two horses grazed at tether, a slender grey like a lady’s palfrey and a stocky dun packhorse. Beyond them the plume of smoke rose up. Neb hesitated, trying to decide whether to run or go forward. The wind shifted, bringing with it the smell of soda bread, baking on a griddle. Clae whimpered.

‘All right, we’ll go on,’ Neb said. ‘But carefully now. If I tell you to run, you head for the forest.’

A few yards more brought them close enough to hear a man singing, a pleasant tenor voice that picked up snatches of songs, then idly dropped them again.

‘No Horsekin would sing like that,’ Neb said.

The yellow gnome grinned and nodded his agreement.

Another turn of the road brought them to a camp and its owner. He was hunkering down beside the fire and baking bread on an iron griddle. On the tall side, but slender as a lad, he had hair so pale that it looked like moonlight and a face so handsome that it was almost girlish. He wore a shirt that once had been splendid, but now the bands of red and purple embroidery were worn and threadbare, and the yellow stain of old linen spread across the shoulders and back. His trousers, blue brigga cut from once-fine wool, were faded, stained, and patched here and there – a rough-looking fellow, but the gnomes rushed into his camp without a trace of fear. He stood up and looked around, saw Neb and Clae, and mugged amazement.

‘What’s all this?’ he said. ‘Come over here, you two! You look half-starved and scared to death. What’s happened?’

‘Raiders,’ Neb stammered. ‘Horsekin burned my uncle’s farm and the village. Me and my brother got away.’

‘By the gods! You’re safe now – I swear it. You’ve got naught to fear from me.’

The yellow gnome grinned, leapt into the air, and vanished. As the two boys walked over, the stranger knelt again at the fire, where an iron griddle balanced on rocks. Clae sat down nearby with a grunt of exhaustion, his eyes fixed on the soda bread, but Neb stood for a moment, looking around him. Scattered by the fire were saddlebags and pack panniers stuffed with gear and provisions.

‘I’m Neb and this is Clae,’ Neb said. ‘Who are you? What are you doing here?’

‘Well, you may call me Salamander,’ the stranger said. ‘My real name is so long that no one can ever say it properly. As to what I’m doing, I’m having dinner. Come join me.’

Shamelessly Neb and Clae wolfed down chunks of warm bread. Salamander rummaged through saddlebags of fine pale leather, found some cheese wrapped in clean cloth, and cut them slices with a dagger. While they ate the cheese, he bustled around, getting out a small sack of flour, a silver spoon, a little wooden box of the precious soda and a water-skin. He knelt down to mix up another batch of bread, kneading it in an iron pot, then slapped it into a thin cake right on the griddle with his oddly long and slender fingers.

‘Now, you two had best settle your stomachs before you eat anything more,’ he said. ‘You’ll only get sick if you eat too much after starving.’

‘True spoken,’ Neb said. ‘Oh ye gods, my thanks. May the gods give you every happiness in life for this.’

‘Nicely spoken, lad.’ Salamander looked up, glancing his way.

His eyes were grey, a common colour in this part of the country, and a perfectly ordinary shape, but all at once Neb couldn’t look away from them. I know him, he thought. I’ve met him – I couldn’t have met him. Salamander tilted his head to one side and returned the stare, then sat back on his heels, his smile gone. Neb could have sworn that Salamander recognized him as well. The silence held until Salamander looked away.

‘Tell me about the raid,’ he said abruptly. ‘Where are you from?’

‘The last farm on the Great West Road,’ Neb said, ‘but we’ve not lived there long. When our mam died, we had to go live with our uncle. Before that we lived in Trev Hael. My da was a scribe, but he died, too. Before Mam, I mean.’

‘Last year, was it? I heard that there was some sort of powerful illness in your town. An inflammation of the bowels, is what I heard, with fever.’

‘It was, and a terrible bad fever, too. I had a touch of it, but Da died of it, and our little sister did, too. Mam wore herself out, I think, nursing them, and then this spring, when it was so damp and chill –’ Neb felt tears welling in his voice.

‘You don’t need to say more,’ Salamander said. ‘That’s a sad thing all round. How old are you, lad? Do you know?’

‘I do. Da always kept count. I’m sixteen, and my brother is eight.’

‘Sixteen, is it? Huh.’ Salamander seemed to be counting something out in his mind. ‘I’m surprised your father didn’t marry you off years ago.’

‘It wasn’t for want of trying. He and the town matchmaker just never seemed to find the right lass.’

‘Ah, I see.’ Salamander pointed and smiled. ‘Look, your brother’s asleep.’

Clae had curled up right on the ground, and indeed he was asleep, open-mouthed and limp.

‘Just as well,’ Neb said. ‘He’ll not have to listen to the tale this way.’

Neb told the story of their last day on the farm and their escape as clearly as he could. When he rambled to a stop, Salamander said nothing for a long moment. He looked sad, and so deeply weary that Neb wondered how he could ever have thought him young.

‘What made you go look at the waterfall?’ Salamander asked.

‘Oh, just a whim.’

The yellow gnome materialized, gave Neb a sour look, then climbed into his lap like a cat. Salamander pointed to the gnome with his cooking spoon.

‘It’s more likely he warned you,’ Salamander said. ‘He led you here, after all.’

Neb found he couldn’t speak. Someone else with the Sight! He’d always hoped for such. The irony of the bitter circumstances in which he’d had his hope fulfilled struck him hard.

‘Did anyone see you up on the cliff?’ Salamander went on.

‘I think so. Two Horsekin rode our way, but they were too far away for me to see if they were pointing at us or suchlike. We ran into the forest and hid.’ Neb paused, remembering. ‘I thought I heard voices, but the waterfall was so loud, it was hard to tell. There was a scream, too. It almost sounded like someone fell off the cliff.’

The yellow gnome began to clap its hands and dance in a little circle.

‘Here!’ Salamander said to it. ‘You and your lads didn’t push that Horsekin down the cliff, did you?’

The gnome stopped dancing, grinned, and nodded. Salamander, however, looked grim.

‘Is he dead?’ Salamander said.

The gnome nodded yes, then disappeared.