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The Dark Shore (The Dominions of Irth Book 1)

Page 47

by A. A. Attanasio


  Key: Parentheticals are apocrypha that have entered common usage.

  SCROLL ONE (THE SACRED SCREED)

  1. Silence listens.

  2. Everything watches.

  3. (There is) No mystery between human beings.

  4. The past is always changed. (Always the past changes.)

  5. (Each of us is) A ritual sacrifice, a blood offering, made by the eternal urgency of the dream to the mortal powers of the world.

  6. Every (truly) sacred act is felt first in hell.

  7. The holy walk the killing floor of creation (and are) indistinguishable from the damned.

  8. (There are) No false stories on the killing floor.

  9. Scared is Sacred. (Scared Sacred.)

  / |

  SCROLL TWO (THE EMPTY SCREED)

  10. To the condemned there are no lies.

  11. Everything changes everything.

  12. It is big inside a human heart.

  13. Each horizon is a knife.

  14. Where do you think the sevens run when they break out of the circle?*

  15. The Goddess provides. Life sucks.

  16. (There is) No freedom from our freedom.

  17. Music is the judge of silence.

  18. Wisdom is not always wise.

  19. In the ancient theater of the night, every story is true.

  20. To survive, contain the counterflow.

  / |

  SCROLL THREE (THE TEMPORAL SCREED)

  21. Life shapes itself on the anvil of dreams—and the hammer is death.

  22. For the holy and the damned, time weighs a little less.

  23. Those who give light are received by darkness.

  24. Truth is the most necessary fiction.

  25. Does the stream own its water?

  26. For the lost and the hunted, time weighs a little more.

  27. Hope is sour destiny

  28. This is our curse: for every yes, a no.

  / |

  SCROLL FOUR (THE SCREE OF LOVE)

  29. Love makes a monkey out of a mirror.

  30. Love can neither be created nor destroyed.

  31. Love is its own justice.

  32. Love is the fullness of lack.

  33. Lovers await the tread of the Huntsman from whose hand they will feed.

  34. Love, and you will have many helpers.

  35. Love is a question.

  36. Love. Will it fly?

  / |

  SCROLL FIVE (THE COMMAND SCREED)

  37. To hold the scales refuse the journey

  38. Fulfill your limits.

  39. Know everything.

  40. All else is darkness.

  [*14. This adage arises from the perception that the 360 degrees of the circle can be divided evenly by all integers from 1 through 10 except 7; thus, 7 was considered by pre-talismanic witches and sages to “break out of the circle," because breaking the circle by 7 produces an irrational number, whose nonrepeating decimal sequence runs to infinity.]

  About The Gibbet Scrolls

  The forty aphorisms collectively known as The Gibbet Scrolls originated in pre-talismanic times. About 750,000 days before the Brood of Drozen’s One-Eyed Duke defeated the fierce realms and established the seven dominions of modern time, these adages were first collected. The original scrolls did not survive the razing of Keri during the Goblin Wars, however, numerous copies made over the ages assure that the version extant today agrees in every particular with the most ancient texts.

  In the aboriginal Kingdom of the Dog, a region comprising portions of modern-day Mirdath and Bryse, criminals and political prisoners condemned to death were required to write a complete sentence to prove their literacy and their subsequent right to execution by hanging. (The illiterate and recalcitrant were brutally hacked to pieces in a gruesome sacrificial ritual that prolonged death for several days.) The thin wood slats upon which the condemned wrote their last words were nailed to the brows of their corpses and ascended with them on the nocturnal tide.

  Turbulent air currents and frequent storms above the falls scattered many of the corpses across the mountain ranges, where they often became ensnared in the briar on the taiga slopes. Nameless sages and witches gathered their remains and launched them once again into the night. Legend decrees that the sage All Clouds collected the slat wood tags from the brows of the dead and culled from them the inscriptions that have come down to us as the Gibbet Scrolls, though modern scholarship indicates that this collation was almost certainly an effort of no one individual but a sect.

  Much research has gone into why these forty lines were selected and arranged in this specific sequence on five separate scrolls, and that will not be discussed here. More than five scrolls may well have existed in earlier times, and there are frequent claims throughout history of a sixth and even a seventh scroll being found. Yet none of these alleged discoveries has ever been corroborated.

  Since pre-talismanic time, the Gibbet Scrolls, also known as the Five Screeds, have been revered by numerous religious and sociopolitical groups. In modern times, the collection has fallen upon disrepute among the Peers in favor of the Talismanic Odes, the compilation of the spiritual and sociological insights from the workers of sorcery.

  Cast of Characters

  All Clouds—legendary priest of pre-talismanic times. She is reputed to have collected the adages that comprise the sacred text of the Gibbet Scrolls.

  The Bold Ones—murderous gang of scavengers who attempted an uprising against the Peers, the ruling class of Irth, and were defeated by Lord Drev.

  Cacodemons—phantoms from the Dark Shore that wield enormous power on Irth.

  Caval—retired weapons master for the Brood of Odawl; also, an acolyte in the Brother- and Sisterhood of Sorcerers and Witches, and a trespasser of the Dark Shore.

  The Council of Seven and One—Irth's ruling body, comprised of a regent from Ux and one representative from each of Irth's seven other dominions:

  Drev, regent, Duke of Ux

  Altha, Margravine of Zul

  Keon, Margrave of Odawl

  Lyna, enchantress of Mirdath

  Mac, Earl of Sharna-Bambara

  Ralli-Faj, warlock of the Spiderlands

  Rica, conjurer of Nhat

  Thylia, witch queen of the Malpais Highlands

  Crabhat—security agent for a factory complex in Saxar, Zul.

  Dogbrick—beastmarked thief from the industrial warrens of Saxar.

  Drev—wizarduke of Hoverness, duke of Ux, and regent of the Council of Seven and One, inherited his position after the assassination by the Bold Ones of the former regent, his sister, Duchess Mevea.

  Fakel—Baronet of Ux, widower of Duchess Mevea, father of the wizarduke's two nephews, who are the last of his bloodline.

  Falcon Guard—menace squad designed to protect the regent.

  Fallen Star—star-shaped entity indigenous to the sea of Charmed ethers in the mid-heaven above Irth.

  gremlin—an imp of the Dark Shore possessed of black magic and evil intelligence.

  Hazar—renowned patron of the arts, spouse of the sorceress Altha.

  Jyoti—daughter of Keon of Odawl.

  Lara—a witch murdered upon the Dark Shore.

  Lazor—virtuoso Charm master and early innovator of talismanic tools and weapons.

  Leboc—marshal of the Falcon Guard.

  Master Ah!—adept at the sanctuary of sages near the summit of Irth's most sacred mount, the Calendar of Eyes.

  Mevea—Duchess of Ux, regent, assassinated by the Bold Ones.

  Nette—mercenary from the Brood of Assassins.

  ogres—powerful and clever protohumans disdainful of Charm.

  One-Eyed Duke—great-grandfather of Duchess Mevea and Lord Drev; he defeated all the armies of his time and united Irth under seven dominions to be ruled by Ux.

  100 Wheels—security agent for the industrial magnates of Saxar.

  Owl Oil—the nom de guerre of Rica the conjurer.

&n
bsp; Phaz—father of Keon of Odawl, grandfather/mentor of the Margravine Jyoti.

  Poch—son of Keon.

  Ripcat—the beastmarked guise of Reece, a magus from the Dark Shore.

  Romut—half-gnome torturer for the Bold Ones; the only one of the gang to escape the wrath of Lord Drev.

  sibyls—sprites of the mid-heavens who occasionally roost on Irth - famous for their oracular powers and a tradition that they never lie.

  Sisterhood—witches, partners with sages in the religious applications of Charm.

  Three Blind Gods—Death, Chance, and Justice.

  trolls—fierce, necrophagous denizens of the Qaf, Irth's wasteland.

  Tywi—orphan from the cliff streets of Saxar.

  Whipcrow—corrupt factory manager in Saxar.

  Wise Fish—reformed thief, philosopher, and proprietor of a fish grill on the wharves of Saxar.

  Wrat—leader of the Bold Ones and their betrayer to the gremlin of the Dark Shore for power over the cacodemons.

  eBooks Available from A. A. Attanasio

  (newly revised by the author)

  Killing with the Edge of the Moon

  Mama’s boy Chester Hubert drums up the courage to ask a witch’s granddaughter to the school dance – and finds himself hurtling through a modern, demonic fairy tale.

  Quiet, elfin Flannery is not like other kids. She has caught the attention of the faerie, beautiful evil creatures from a mysterious Otherworld. They seduce their victims at midnight raves, then feed them to a dragon. For sport, they hunt souls with a black dog of prodigious evil. And they have taken Flannery for one of their own.

  Thrust together in the Otherworld’s dark enchantment, Flannery and Chester discover they know each other better than they know their own hearts ... but can they sort things out before the black dog finds them?

  And what was that about a dragon?

  http://goo.gl/p4mEzc

  The audiobook edition of Killing with the Edge of the Moon narrated by Destiny Landon and Lee James available at Audible.com.

  http://goo.gl/VWhHKz

  /|

  Wyvern

  A bold escapade with a young soul-catcher from Borneo kidnapped by pirates in 1609.

  Headhunters, sorcerers, pirates and Indian princes thrive in this adventurous, poetic tale of a young outcast in Borneo. Born in 1609, son of a native woman and a Dutch sea captain he never knew, Jaki Gefjon grows up in the jungle as a sorcerer's apprentice. Later kidnapped by pirates, he befriends his captor, Trevor Pym, notorious for his dreaded man-of-war, Wyvern. The scientific marvels on the European privateer become the young soul-catcher’s passion—until he falls for Lucinda, the headstrong daughter of Pym's sworn enemy. Propelled by intrigue, pirates' battles, curses and visions, this seafaring saga takes Lucinda and Jaki from the South Seas to India—and to a bold, unforeseen destiny in the New World.

  http://goo.gl/QZBxHo

  /|

  Hunting the Ghost Dancer

  50,000 years ago, three young friends band together for a perilous journey to find a new home after plague devastates their coastal tribe. Accompanied by a blind horse and armed with meager weapons and their own elusive courage, Hamr, Timov and Duru defy savage odds to survive in the strange and brutal realm of Ice Age Europe. This incredible quest takes them through primeval forests stalked by cave lions and across vast glacial moraines of thundering woolly rhinoceros—to the Thundertree clan. These forest people accept Duru, the girl, for her magical powers. But the two young men must prove themselves worthy by hunting down a giant Neanderthal—the last of his line—who has been terrorizing the tribe.

  World Fantasy nominee.

  http://goo.gl/nNwOIy

  /|

  Servant of Birds

  This historical romance, set in the 1190s during the rule of England's Richard the Lion Heart, explores the raw experience of love: romantic, sexual and spiritual. The dramatic action moves from Wales to a tumultuous Europe unsettled by the Crusades to intensely colorful Palestine and back. Arrogant Guy Lanfranc assumes control of the family castle by sending his hated mother, the old baroness Ailena Valaise, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Wily Ailena vows revenge and finds the means in the person of Rachel Tibbon, a Jewish girl who survived the butchery of her family and other Jews after Crusader losses. Ailena's plot to regain the castle built by her father propels Rachel into a perilous adventure of vengeance, faith – and true love set against impossible odds.

  http://goo.gl/6Wpr2h

  /|

  The Radix Tetrad

  The volumes of this series can each be read independently of the others. The feature that unifies them is their individual adaptation of science fiction’s sub-genre: “space opera,” which the editors David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer define as "colorful, dramatic, large-scale science fiction adventure, competently and sometimes beautifully written, usually focused on a sympathetic, heroic central character and plot action, and usually set in the relatively distant future, and in space or on other worlds, characteristically optimistic in tone. It often deals with war, piracy, military virtues, and very large-scale action, large stakes."

  Radix

  A saga of a young man's odyssey of self-discovery on an eerily alien Earth thirteen centuries in the future.

  Rich in detail and filled with beings brought to life with intense energy, this strange and beautiful world reveals its secrets as Sumner Kagan changes from an adolescent outcast to a warrior with god-like powers. In the process, we accompany Sumner on an epic and transcendent journey.

  Nebula Award Nominee

  http://goo.gl/BhoIss

  The audiobook edition of Radix narrated by Sergei Burbank available at Audible.com

  http://goo.gl/ojf3qX

  In Other Worlds

  One star-chained evening in a Manhattan bathroom, Carl Schirmer, a sweet, slightly defeated bar manager, spontaneously transforms into energy and finds himself transported to the farthest extreme of the universe, 130 billion years in the future. Turned loose in time's last world, the strangest of all – the Werld – Carl discovers a domain of indescribably beautiful islands floating in a sky contoured by gravity lanes. These skyles are inhabited by the Foke, nomadic humans, who struggle for survival against the zōtl, a spidery intelligence that eats the pain of sentient beings. Among the Foke, Carl meets and wins the lovely Evoë, and their life together offers a blissful future in this kingdom that knows no aging or disease – until Evoë is captured by the zōtl. In order to save her life, Carl must return to Earth – 130 billion years earlier – where he is shocked to discover that the world he has come back to is not the one he left...

  http://goo.gl/FN37o9

  The audiobook edition of In Other Worlds narrated by David Gilmore available at Audible.com

  http://goo.gl/Ds6CPw

  Arc of the Dream

  An alien from a higher dimension has fallen to Earth, trapped within a continuum too small to contain it. In its quest for freedom, this hyperspatial being touches a handful of lives: Filling a frail Asian man with unimaginable energy. Freeing a middle-aged American from the chains of time. Wrenching a lonely French girl out of the depths of madness. Opening a bitter young Hawaiian punk to hope and love. Together, they join in a visionary quest to save the Earth from destruction.

  "A kaleidoscopic adventure, a potent piece of storytelling pulsing with menace, yet thoughtfully and gracefully rendered." -- Roger Zelazny

  "Arc of the Dream melds physics and metaphysics, adventure and speculation, intellectual entertainment and deeply felt emotion ... A step forward for a major writer." -- Norman Spinrad

  "A lovely book, full of poetry and wonder." -- New York Daily News

  http://goo.gl/cTqO2S

  /|

  The Last Legends of Earth

  Seven billion years from now, long after the Sun has died and human life has become extinct, alien beings reconstruct homo sapiens from our fossilized DNA drifting as debris in deep space. We are reborn to serve as b
ait in a battle to the death between the Rimstalker, humankind's re-animator, and the zōtl, horrific creatures who feed vampire-like on the suffering of intelligent lifeforms.

  The resurrected children of Earth are told: "You owe no debt to the being that roused you to this second life. Neither must you expect it to guide you or benefit you in any way." Yet, humans choose sides, as humans will, participating in the titanic struggle between Rimstalker and zōtl in ways strange and momentous.

  Set in the artificial planetary system of Chalco-Doror, which is no more and no less than an enormous cosmic machine, The Last Legends of Earth is a love story, a gripping saga of struggle against alien control, and an examination of the machinery of creation and destruction.

  Above all, it is world-building of the highest and grandest order, on a scale rarely seen in science fiction since the great works of Olaf Stapledon.

  “A wondrously complex novel.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

  “Few novels have ever had a broader scope.”—The Denver Post

  “A wonderfully realized, richly-detailed and cohesive novel.” —People

  The Last Legends of Earth is a magnificent, visionary epic of the far future.

  http://goo.gl/h7fTqZ

  The audiobook edition of The Last Legends of Earth narrated by David Gilmore available at Audible.com

  http://goo.gl/akxddK

  The Perilous Order of Camelot

 

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