by Ian Irvine
In the middle of the night Karan gave a sharp cry and thrust herself up in bed.
Llian sleepily stroked her brow. “What’s the matter?”
“My bones hurt.”
“You’ve been lying in the same position too long.”
“You don’t understand! When I move it feels like my hips are made of broken glass.”
He turned her over, settled her with pillows and began to rub her back. It did not make things any better.
“I think…” Karan stopped, sweating and shivering at the same time. Giving birth was another of her nightmares. She imagined her pelvic bones splintering under the strain. But far worse, that terrifying craving had come back stronger than before. She wanted hrux. How she wanted the drug, but she was afraid of it too. Afraid she would never be free of it—afraid that if she did succumb it would damage her baby.
“What?” he cried.
“I think you’d better send for Idlis.”
“Right now?” Llian exclaimed, and had she not grabbed his wrist he would have fallen out of bed. “The baby’s not coming already?”
Karan found herself smiling. How ignorant he was. “Not for another six months, silly! Send for him in the morning! And ask… ask him to bring some hrux with him.
Llian took her hand. “Hrux!” he shivered. “Are you sure?”
She did not respond for a long time. “I’d forgotten it for months, but when I woke the craving was back again. I need it desperately, Llian.”
He held her. “Are you sure?”
She gave a great shudder. “No!” she raged. “No hrux!
“Karan?”
“I think I can manage it,” she said. He could feel her desire for it. Her whole body was trembling. “Hold me tightly, Llian. I need you more than I ever have.”
“I’ll always be here, Karan,” he said. “I’ll help you. Together we can overcome it.”
Karan lay back and closed her eyes. “Yes, Llian. Together we can do anything. And we will.”
The next day Karan, Maigraith, Llian and Shand were sitting together on the veranda enjoying the wintry sun. Llian turned to Maigraith, who was staring dreamily into space.
“Maigraith,” he said.
“Mmm?”
“I do so wonder about the Charon. When you were in Aachan… did you ever talk to Yalkara about her life? Or the other Charon?”
“Constantly.”
“What about the void. Did they mention that place?”
Karan looked up through half-closed eyelids. Llian was sitting forward as if about to spring from his chair in eagerness. His eyes were shining, a look she had not seen since Chanthed. She smiled to herself and closed her eyes again. It felt good in the sun today. She did not want hrux at all. And for once she had absolutely nothing to do. No one required anything of her.
“Enough to fill volumes,” said Maigraith. She rolled over, cow-like in her contentment.
“Do you think… you could tell me some of those tales?”
By the time the sun went down the floor around Llian was littered in papers covered in his fine script, and he was still writing furiously. He looked deliriously happy.
Maigraith held up her right hand, inspecting the strange ring, just four twisted wires and two blobs of gold.
“Maigraith, you look so fulfilled,” Karan observed.
“That’s funny, isn’t it,” Maigraith replied. “I never knew how to be happy before. I lacked the capacity for it.”
“But you’ve lost so much!”
“All I ever wanted was to know who I was.”
“What about Rulke?”
Maigraith smiled but said nothing at all.
“You loved him very deeply.”
“I do; and in my memories I will always have him. That is enough.” She paused. “There is one thing, though.”
“What?” asked Karan.
“If your daughter and my son were to mate,” said Maigraith, “triunes both—”
“Begone, serpent!” said Karan. “We have yet to deliver them, and we don’t know what we’ll deliver.”
“I know what I know,” said Maigraith complacently. “Who else can a triune’s son mate with but a triune’s daughter. From our loins spring a new people, a new species, perhaps with more of the strengths and fewer of the weaknesses than those that engendered us. Let us agree to pair them, now.”
Karan felt a stab of alarm. Had fate manipulated her all along to bring about this end? Or had her father, with his experiments up at Carcharon? She hastily swerved away from that thought.
This had to be stopped at once. She moved uncomfortably on her chair. Though her own pregnancy was not far advanced, her damaged bones ached all the time. Remembering Idlis’s warning, she did not even want to think about childbirth.
“We are the complement of each other,” Karan said. “Both orphaned, both shaped, both triune, but completely different. If you won’t learn from your own life, then at least listen to what I’ve learned from mine. There’s been more than enough manipulating of children in this tale. Give them the freedom of their own future. In any case, a new species will still be human—just as frail and just as foolish as the ones it sprang from. Just as good and just as evil. How can it differ in its humanity? That’s what makes us what we are.”
Maigraith was no longer listening. She closed her eyes, drawn far, far away. Distantly she heard the blatt of a hunting horn. Fare well! echoed in her mind. Then the whispery link between her and Yalkara was gone forever.
She looked up. Shand’s eyes were on her. His eyes were wet too. “Just you and me now,” he said.
“Just the three of us,” she replied, enfolding her glorious belly with her arms.
THE END
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The View from the Mirror, though published in four books, was conceived and written as a single novel. When I began it a dozen years ago, I intended to write a long epic fantasy with no objective other than to entertain as best as I could.
I did, however, want to create something distinct from the Eurocentric tradition of popular fantasy that has developed over the past few decades. Accordingly, the work is not medieval or feudal by any description of the terms. It is not set in a version of the Middle Ages, real or imaginary. There is no struggle of good versus evil. My women are not oppressed victims or marginalized figures, but real characters who get into as many difficulties as the men do, and get out of them by their own cleverness.
I also wanted to develop a world where the geography was realistic, and different, where culture and history were important, where people make mistakes and things don’t always work and everything, particularly magic, comes at a cost.
The story was written, and rewritten, continuously between September 1987 and March 1999, though its origins go back another decade. In the late 1970s, faced with the forbidding task of completing my doctoral thesis, I seized on any distraction to delay it. One of these was the creation of an alternative world, complete with maps large enough to cover walls, and all the details—human, geographical and biological—that go to make up such a world. This project continued for several years after the wretched thesis was finally submitted, and accepted, until in the early eighties the demands of family, house renovation and work extinguished my interest in world building.
A Shadow on the Glass, when I finally began it five years later, went through twenty very tough drafts, many written in hotel rooms across the eastern hemisphere. The other books took nearly as much work—an extended writing apprenticeship! No doubt the keen-eyed reader will pick up errors, for which I alone am responsible. With hindsight I find some aspects of the work dissatisfy me, and were I beginning the novel again would do it rather differently. But History is as it is written. It can’t be taken back.
Ian Irvine, 1999
GLOSSARY OF CHARACTERS, NAMES AND PLACES
Aachan: One of the Three Worlds, the world of the Aachim and, after its conquest, the Charon.
Aachim: The human spec
ies native to Aachan, who were conquered by the Charon. The Aachim are a clever people, great artisans and engineers, but melancholy and prone to hubris. After they were brought to Santhenar the Aachim flourished, but were betrayed and ruined in the Clysm, and withdrew from the world to their vast mountain fortress cities.
Aftersickness: Sickness that people suffer after using the Secret Art, or being close when someone else uses such power, or even after using a native talent. Sensitives are very prone to it.
Alcifer: The last and greatest of Rulke’s cities, designed by Pitlis the Aachim.
Asper: An Aachim healer, one of Tensor’s company.
Bannador: A long, narrow and hilly land on the western side of Iagador. Karan’s homeland. Bannador is the closest land to Shazmak and was ruined in the war between Yggur’s forces and the Ghâshâd’s.
Basitor: A bitter Aachim who survived the sacking of Shazmak and accompanied Tensor to Katazza.
Basunez: A distant ancestor of Karan’s. He built Carcharon, carrying out forbidden experiments there, and later went mad.
Benie: Cook’s boy at Gothryme Manor.
Blending: A child of the union between two of the four different human species. Blendings are rare, and often deranged, but can have remarkable talents.
Booreah Ngurle: The burning mountain, or fiery mountain, a volcanic peak in the forests east of Almadin. The Charon once had a stronghold there.
Calendar: Santhenar’s year is roughly 395.7 days and contains twelve months, each of thirty-three days.
Calliat: A philosopher and mystic of ancient times. See Forty-Nine Chrighms.
Carcharon: A walled tower built on a rugged ridge high above Gothryme Forest. It was constructed by Karan’s mad ancestor Basunez at a node where the Secret Art was especially powerful.
Chacalot: A large water-dwelling reptile, somewhat resembling a crocodile.
Chanthed: A town in northern Meldorin, in the foothills of the mountains. The College of the Histories is situated there.
Chard: A kind of tea.
Charon: One of the four human species, the master people of the world of Aachan. They fled out of the void to take Aachan from the Aachim, and took their name from a frigid moonlet at the furthest extremity of the void. They have strange eyes, indigo or carmine, or sometimes both together, depending on the light.
Chronicler: A historian. A graduate in the art and science of recording and maintaining the Histories.
Citadel: The Magister’s palace in Thurkad, an enormous fortified building of baroque extravagance.
Clysm: A series of wars between the Charon and the Aachim beginning around 1500 years ago, resulting in the almost total devastation of Santhenar.
College of the Histories: The oldest of the colleges for the instruction of those who would be chroniclers or tellers of the Histories, or even lowly bards or king’s singers. It was set up at Chanthed soon after the time of the Forbidding.
Compulsion: A form of the Secret Art; a way of forcing someone to do something against their will.
Construct: A machine at least partly powered by the Secret Art.
Council; also Council of Iagador, Council of Santhenar, Great Council, High Council: An alliance of the powerful. With the Aachim it made the Nightland and cast Rulke into it. After that it had two purposes—to continue the great project and to maintain the watch upon Rulke.
Crandor: A rich, tropical land on the north-eastern side of Lauralin. Tallia’s homeland.
Dolodha: A timid messenger girl to Yggur, now promoted to adjutant.
Dunnet: A seeluded land within Elludore Forest, now Faelamor’s hideout.
Elienor: A great heroine of the Aachim from the time when the Charon invaded Aachan.
Ellami: A Faellem woman, Hallal’s sister.
Elludore: A large forested land, north and west of Thurkad.
Emmant: A half-Aachim, librarian at Shazmak, who conceived a violent lust for Karan and attacked her. She killed him in Thurkad.
Faelamor: Leader of the Faellem species who came to Santhenar soon after Rulke, to keep watch on the Charon and maintain the balance between the worlds. Maigraith’s liege.
Faellem: The human species who inhabit the world of Tallallame. They are a small, dour people who are forbidden to use machines and particularly magical devices, but are masters of disguise and illusion. Faelamor’s band were trapped on Santh by the Forbidding, and constantly search for a way home.
Festival of Chanthed: An annual festival held in Chanthed in the autumn, at which the Histories are told by the masters and students of the College.
Fiz Gorgo: A fortress city in Orist, flooded in ancient times, now restored; the stronghold of Yggur.
Flute; also golden flute: A device made in Aachan at the behest of Rulke, by the genius smith Shuthdar. It was subsequently stolen by him and taken back to Santhenar. When played by one who is sensitive, it could be used to open the Way between the Worlds. It was destroyed by Shuthdar at the time of the Forbidding.
Forbidding: See Tale of the Forbidding.
Fortress: Yggur’s headquarters in Thurkad, a plain old building which looks down on the Magister’s citadel.
Forty-Nine Chrighms of Calliat: A series of linked enigmas and paradoxes so complex that, thirteen hundred years after Calliat’s death, only one had been solved. Maigraith has recently solved many of them.
Fyrn: The family name of Karan of Bannador, from her mother’s side.
Galliad: Karan’s father, who was half-Aachim. He was killed when Karan was a child.
Gannel: A river beginning near Chanthed and flowing through the mountains to the sea at Ganport.
Garr, Garrflood: The largest river in Meldorin. It arises to the west of Shazmak and runs to the Sea of Thurkad east of Sith.
Gate: A structure controlled by the Secret Art, which permits people to move instantly from one place to another. Also called a portal.
Gellon: A fruit tasting something between a mango and a peach.
Gethren: A Faellem man.
Ghâshâd: The ancient, mortal enemies of the Aachim. They were corrupted and swore allegiance to Rulke after the Zain rebelled two thousand years ago, but when Rulke was put in the Nightland a thousand years later they forgot their destiny and took a new name, Whelm. Roused by Rulke through Karan’s link to Maigraith, they became Ghâshâd again and sacked Shazmak just before the Conclave.
Gift of Rulke; also Curse of Rulke: Knowledge given by Rulke to the Zain, enhancing their resistance to the mind-breaking potencies of the Aachim. It left stigmata that identified them as Zain.
Glass: Colloquial term for the Mirror of Aachan.
Gothryme: Karan’s impoverished manor near Tolryme in Bannador.
Great Betrayer: Rulke.
Great Library: Founded at Zile by the Zain in the time of the Empire of Zur. The library was sacked when the Zain were exiled, but was subsequently re-established. Its current librarian is Nadiril the Sage.
Great Mountains: The largest and highest belt of mountains on Santhenar, enclosing the south-eastern part of the continent of Lauralin.
Great Project: A way sought by the Council to banish the Charon from Santh forever.
Great Tales: The greatest stories from the Histories of Santhenar; traditionally told at the Festival of Chanthed and on important ceremonial occasions throughout Santhenar. A tale can become a Great Tale only by the unanimous decision of the master chroniclers. In four thousand years only twenty-two Great Tales have ever been made.
Grint: A copper coin of small value.
Gyllias: The Recorder.
Hakasha-ka-najisska: A forbidden potency (mind-blasting spell) developed by the Aachim against the Charon. Zain carrying the Gift of Rulke are immune to it.
Hallal: A Faellem woman, longtime rival to Faelamor.
Hana: Maigraith’s teacher when she was a child.
Havissard: Yalkara’s abandoned stronghold near Tar Gaarn. Faelamor found the Aachim gold hidden there; also a book which she recognized as dead
ly to the Faellem.
Histories, The: The vast collection of records which tell more than four thousand years of recorded history on Santhenar. The Histories consist of historical documents written or held by the chroniclers, as well as the tales, songs, legends and lore of the peoples of Santhenar and the invading peoples from the other worlds, told by the tellers. The culture of Santhenar is interwoven with and inseparable from the Histories and the most vital longing anyone can have is to be mentioned in them.
Hlune: The lanky people who rule the wharf city of Thurkad and control all ship-borne commerce there.
Huling’s Tower: The place where Shuthdar destroyed the golden flute and the crippled girl was murdered.
Human species: There are four distinct human species: the Aachim of Aachan, the Faellem of Tallallame, the old humans of Santhenar and the Charon who came out of the void. All but old humans can be very long-lived. Matings between the different species rarely produce children (see blending).
Hundred, the: The Charon who survived the taking of Aachan. Rulke is the greatest of them all.
Hythe: Mid-winter’s day, the fourth day of endre, mid-winter week. Hythe is a day of particular ill-omen.
Iagador: The land that lies between the mountains and the Sea of Thurkad.
Idlis: Formerly the least of the Whelm, also a healer and longtime hunter of Karan and the Mirror. Karan spared his life three times, a debt that must be repaid. He became Ghâshâd and served Rulke, though voting against him in the telling competititon.
Jark-un: The leader of a band of the Whelm, once rival to Vartila, but now a Ghâshâd. Unlike others of his kind, he is short and stout.
Jepperand: A province on the western side of the mountains of Crandor. Home to the Zain; Llian’s birthplace.
Jevi (Jevander): Lilis’s father, taken by a press-gang seven years ago.
Kandor: One of the three Charon who came to Santhenar. He was killed after the end of the Clysm, the only Charon to die on Santh.
Karama Malama: The Sea of Mists, south of the Sea of Thurkad.