“Not special enough,” said Ramachni. “None of us are, alone.”
HERE ENDS The Red Wolf Conspiracy,
BOOK ONE OF THE CHATHRAND VOYAGES.
THE STORY IS CONTINUED IN
The Rats and the Ruling Sea,
COMING FROM DEL REY BOOKS IN 2010.
Appendix
THE CHATHRAND
The IMS Chathrand has seven decks. From high to low, they are the topdeck (open to the sky), main deck, upper gun deck, lower gun deck, berth deck, orlop deck and mercy deck. Beneath the mercy deck is the hold.
Highest of all are the forecastle (at the bow or front of the ship) and quarterdeck (at the stern or rear), both of which are reached by ladders from the topdeck. Captain Rose's cabin is beneath the quarterdeck. The Isiqs' stateroom is located two decks directly below, at the stern of the upper gun deck.
The masts of the Chathrand, bow to stern, are the foremast, jiggermast, mainmast, mizzenmast and spankermast.
TIME IN ALIFROS
The twelve months of the Western Solar Year are Halar, Fuinar, Sultandre (the spring months); Vaqrin, Ilqrin, Modoli (summer); Teala, Freala and Norn (autumn); and Umbrin, Ilbrin and Cadobrin (winter).
Each month has exactly thirty days. New Year's Day is the first day of spring (i Halar). Once every seventeen years, a four day Baalfürun (“Carnival of Madness”) precedes the New Year. These four days are not part of any month.
KEY DATES IN THE HISTORY OF NORTHWEST ALIFROS:
—1231 Old Faith born when Mäsithe of Ullum builds the Black Casket.
—501 Shattering of the Black Casket.
—500-489 The Worldstorm rages throughout Alifros; most societies collapse; the Lost Age begins.
—220 Erithusmé takes the Nilstone from the Ice Caves of Nohirin, becomes the greatest mage in Alifros.
—167 Lost Age ends with the defeat of Hurgasc the Torturer.
1 Rinfaith born when the Ninety Rules are collected in a single tome. Empire of Arqual proclaimed after Battle of Ipulia. Shards of the Black Casket recovered and placed in the Towers of the Kings; birth of the Mzithrin Pentarchy.
755 Magad I crowned Emperor of Arqual. Year of Regicides in Dremland, Westfirth, Opalt, etc.
839 The Thirteenth Edition of The Merchant's Polylex published in Etherhorde.
860-867 First Sea War (Arqual vs. Mzithrin).
883-887 War of the Tsördon Mountains (Arqual vs. Mzithrin).
892-901 Second Sea War (Arqual vs. Mzithrin). Rise of the Shaggat Ness and the Heresy of Gurishal; civil war cripples the Mzithrin. The Shaggat, defeated, flees east. His ship the Lythra sunk by Arquali navy off the Haunted Coast, ending both wars.
898-899 Sugar War in the Nelu Rekere (Arqual vs. South Isles Alliance).
913 Magad V crowned Emperor of Arqual after strange death of Magad IV.
933 Assassination of Ulmurqat, one of the Five Mzithrin Kings, nearly triggers a fourth war between the empires.
936 “Rescue” (invasion) of Ormael. Pazel Pathkendle made a prisoner of Arqual.
941 Chathrand launched from Etherhorde on 9th day of summer (9 Vaqrin). 7 Teala chosen as date for signing of the Treaty of Simja and the start of the Great Peace.
Acknowledgments
John Jarrold and Simon Spanton, my agent and UK editor respectively, brought their great acumen and vision to this book from the start: thank you, gentlemen. My thanks as well to Gillian Redfearn, Susan Howe and the rest of the Gollancz team for their tireless help.
This American edition also benefits greatly from the keen editing of Kaitlin Heller and Betsy Mitchell at Del Rey; to both, my warmest thanks.
I thank my family, for love and support too immense to detail here; and particularly my mother, Jan A. Redick, for being the first, best reader of this novel. Stephen Klink, Tracy Winn, Tim Weed, Edmund Zavada, Jim Lowry, Hillary Nelson and Oliver Nelson also read early drafts, and shared insights for which I'm deeply grateful. Special thanks also to Katie Pugh, Veena Asher, Jim Shepard, Paul Park, Cindy Phoel, Amber Zavada, John Crowley, Karen Osborn, Corinne Demas, John Casey, Bruce Hemmer, Claire Kinney and Katheryn Sublette.
A full list of my benefactors, literary and personal, would rob this book of its svelte attractiveness. Many persons omitted here played indirect but essential roles in the birth of this novel. My debt to them is profound.
Above all, my partner Kiran Asher's love and creative brilliance kept this ship afloat. No one else could have: gracias, amor.
About the Author
ROBERT V. S. REDICK's unpublished first novel, Conquistadors, was a finalist for the AWP/Thomas Dunne Novel Award, and his essay “Uncrossed River” won the New Millennium Writings Award for nonfiction. A former theater critic and international development researcher, he worked most recently for the antipoverty organization Oxfam. He lives in western Massachusetts.
The Red Wolf Conspiracy is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2008 by Robert V. S. Redick
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Del Rey, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
DEL REY is a registered trademark and the Del Rey colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in hardcover and trade paperback in the United Kingdom by Gollancz, an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group Ltd., in 2008.
eISBN: 978-0-345-51502-5
www.delreybooks.com
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