A Solitary Journey

by Tony Shillitoe

  The Royal influence as a physical presence seldom extends beyond ten days’ travel from Port of Joy, so many of the outlying farming districts and villages are not directly affected by the laws and edicts enforced in the city and close towns. Many of the distant villages are operated communally or in loose democratic ways, and taxes are paid, sometimes irregularly, as tithes to representatives of the local Tithe Lord.

  WESTERN SHESS NAMES

  The naming tradition has always centred on people being identified with their employment or place where they were born. Before the rise and fall of the Ashuak Empire, Shessian inhabitants had single names, but the Ashuak use of surnames was adopted and retained after the Empire collapsed. A woodcutter or butcher would be called Woodcutter or Butcher as the surname and then words commonly used in the trade were often used as first names. Hence there might be a family of three boys named Log, Crossgrain and Handsaw Woodcutter. Children born into the Butcher family might be named according to cuts of meat or implements or even animals.

  Surnames do not automatically identify related families. Farmer is a common surname, for example, and there would be unrelated Farmers in the same village and across the entire kingdom. Of course, descendants of a family of Sailors can move into other working industries, in which case someone named Hawser Sailor could well be the bartender in a local tavern, while Seam Clothmaker could be a farmer. Sometimes people also change their surnames when they change work. So Labourer Pullman, whose father was working on the wharves, could join the army and change his name to Labourer Onespear by choice. Western Shess has not yet conducted an official census or established a corporate identification system and so personal names are only useful for personal identity. Foreign names are evident in the cities and large towns, but the rural communities generally retain the traditional and simple name forms.

  WESTERN SHESS LANGUAGE

  Shessian language has specific grammatical rules. A sentence is organised with the verb, the subject and then the predicate. Common usage has reduced many sentences to phrases best understood in expression than in straight translation.

  The English sentence, ‘i am eating my food’ becomes approximately ‘Eating I am my food’—’Doshalinae emahdu mahdu shali’—although its more accurate expression would be ‘Doshalinae emahdu’ (‘I’m eating’). In common usage, however, it is expressed as ‘Doshemah’.

  Thus, ‘If you touch my wife, I will kill you’ becomes ‘Kill you I will, if touch my wife you do’—’Sunahso yahwu emah, ha kaso mahdoos yahwu.’

  Greeting is simple. ‘I’m pleased to meet you’ in formal form is ‘Jahn yahwu emahdu tessa’, but it’s common usage is a brief ‘Jahntess’, which serves as ‘hello’ does in English. The equivalent to ‘good day’ is ‘Jarubahn’, which originated from a very complicated ‘Umen emahdu ehae yahwu nena fueppo bahn t’Jarudha’, meaning ‘I am happy to see that God has given to you another day’.

  ‘I have planted the rain crop’ is expressed as ‘Nesoss emah epphanuhk’, and ‘Light the fire’ is ‘Ooh shah’, often expressed as a single word. The common soldier’s insult ‘Your mother fucks everyone!’ is ‘Hur yahwudo oyehn epyahn!’ although it’s generally expressed as ‘Hur epyahn!’

  The language has developed some pleasantries, so that the English ‘please’ is expressed as ‘tessa’ at the completion of a sentence, as in ‘May I please speak to you?’ – ‘Casan emah yahwu, tessa?’, and ‘Excuse me’, becomes ‘Mahni mah’. But Shessian is an abrupt, focussed language in the main, and niceties are generally reserved for the royal courts.

  Verbs are simplistically broken down into identified action, past (ne), present (du) and future (so) forms. For example:

  A SAMPLE OF WESTERN SHESS VOCABULARY

  English/Shessian

  afternoon fulanbahn

  air hor

  am du

  and ut

  another fueppo

  are hi

  army eppodofahmah

  big jasu

  by t

  chair doahpin

  crop epphanuhk

  cycle ejas

  day bahn

  death doyanah

  die yanah

  dying doyanahae

  early lan

  earth dun

  eat doshalin

  eight bada

  eighty-eight

  mekbadabada

  eleven tata

  evening lanfubahn

  excuse (verb) mahni

  farm shukoh

  father doshoh

  fifty-seven mekdenja

  fire shah

  first tay

  five den

  food shahlin

  four ay

  fuck hur

  give na

  grain/seed nuhk

  happy umen

  home dohahni

  house hahni

  husband doos

  I emah

  if ha

  jump naep

  kill sunah

  late fulan

  less enno

  light ooh

  little fujasu

  man dosh

  many ep

  me mah

  meet jahn

  men epdosh

  midday midbahn

  middle/between mid

  midnight midfubahn

  mine/my mahdo

  moon fubahnooh

  more eppo

  morning fujasubahn

  mother oyehn

  night fubahn

  nine lun

  no/not fu

  one ta

  own/belong do

  plant soss

  please tessa

  rain szash

  rebel nahsten

  rebellion dunahsten

  run ahfu

  see/look eh

  seven ja

  sit ahpin

  six net

  sleep ahnubi

  soldier dofahmah

  speak/talk casan

  sun horshah

  ten mek

  thirty mekest

  thirty-three mekestest

  three est

  touch ka

  twelve ota

  twenty mekot

  two ot

  unhappy/sad fu-umen

  walk ahfudhas

  war fahmah

  water ar

  wife mahdoos

  wine chen

  women epyehn

  woman yehn

  yes hah

  you yahwu

  your yahwudo

  WESTERN SHESS MILITARY DIVISIONS

  Army: usually a grouping of one hundred thousand soldiers, led by a Warmaster.

  March: a grouping of twenty thousand soldiers, led by a Marchlord; an army consists of five Marches.

  Shield: a grouping of one thousand soldiers, led by a Shieldmaster; a March consists of twenty Shields.

  Group: a grouping of fifty soldiers under the command of a Leader; a Shield consists of twenty Groups.

  Party: a grouping of ten soldiers; a Group contains five Parties.

  TIME, MEASUREMENT AND TRAVEL

  Length measurement is a direct derivative of the human body. The smallest measuring unit is called a ‘width’, which is the original equivalent of an average person’s thumb width, although there is a standardised rule. Ten ‘widths’ makes a ‘hand’ length, and five ‘hands’ is the equivalent to an arm ‘length’. Thus for measuring purposes Shessian people talk of ‘widths’, ‘hands’ and ‘lengths’. They also link length measurements to travel distance measurements through ‘paces’ – the length of an average man’s stride when walking – with a ‘pace’ and a ‘length’ being accepted as an interchangeable measurement.

  Travel distance therefore begins with the smallest measurement being a ‘pace’. Ten ‘paces’ is called a ‘measure’. A hundred ‘measures’ is collectively called a ‘walk’. Thereafter, Shessian practices vary, but the most common measurements are ‘days’, ‘half-days’ and ‘quarters’. Forty ‘walks’ is gene
rally agreed as a ‘day’ travel measure; twenty ‘walks’ form a ‘half-day’; ten ‘walks’ is a ‘quarter’, or the equivalent to ten thousand ‘paces’. The increasingly wider spread of the use of horses, however, is slowly altering the view and terminology of travel measurements across the kingdoms and tribal areas.

  The determining time factors in most villages and towns throughout the lands are the obvious day and night, with a full day divided into pre-dawn, dawn/sunrise, early morning, midmorning, late morning, midday, early afternoon, midafternoon, late afternoon, dusk/sunset, early evening, late evening, midnight, post-midnight. Experimentation with timing devices is common in cities and larger towns. Ringed candles are usually divided into ten equidistant rings. The carefully measured and manufactured wax candle called Waxman’s Timer generally takes about half a day to burn down. A water-based dripping device called Fletcher’s Timer works on the principle that a specific-sized water container with a set hole size empties at the rate of eighty thousand drips per day. Fletcher, the inventor, divided the day into twenty ‘pails’, each ‘pail’ the product of four thousand ‘drips’. He further subdivided the ‘pails’ into forty ‘pots’, or one hundred ‘drips’. Thus his timing scheme became: one hundred ‘drips’ makes a ‘pot’. Forty ‘pots’ makes a ‘pail. Twenty ‘pails’ is the length of one full day. Cumbersome as it is, a host of professionals in the larger cities apply the system to enable them to accurately measure and complete a wide range of tasks. Some have chosen to combine Waxman’s and Fletcher’s systems and talk about a ‘pail’ also being a ‘ring’.

  WESTERN SHESS ANNUAL CYCLE

  Western Shess recognises nine cycles of forty days each cycle. In Shessian language, the English word ‘month’ translates to ‘ejas’, literally meaning ‘cycle’ and refers to the full passage of the phases of the single moon. The Shessian Year is divided into four distinct seasons: Akim (Rebirth), Fuar (Dry), Doyanah (Passing) and Shahk (Chill).

  Akim brings very pleasant, mild weather, with occasional rain and regular sunny days. Plants flower and the animals give birth to young in this season. Rebirth is the beginning of the Shessian yearly calendar, and represents the original time that the Shessian god, Jarudha, created the world. Rebirth runs for two cycles or eighty days.

  During Fuar, the temperature can rise up to 45°C and rain is scarce, especially along the plains. Drought is not an unusual phenomenon. Farmers traditionally harvest their crops in this season. Dry is the longest season of four cycles or ejas.

  Doyanah is a time of rain and dull days when deciduous plants lose their leaves. The temperature is variable, but often mild, thoughout the eighty-day period.

  Temperatures in Shahk, a forty-day period, can drop to 0°C on the plains, and, in the higher regions, particularly the mountains, snow will fall. Rain and storms are regular features of this season and flooding is also a common event around the main rivers. Shessian religious culture teaches that the world will end in a cold, freezing state.

  The Shessian Year is divided as follows:

  SEASON: Akim – Rebirth

  CYCLE: Tayooh – first light

  MAJOR EVENT: Creation – this is a five-day celebration of Jarudha’s making of the world, marked by festive eating and drinking and prayer at the beginning of Tayooh. This is considered the holiest of Jarudhaism’s festivals.

  Alunsnight – Jarudhan faithful celebrate this night at the end of Tayooh as the birthday of Jarudha’s son, Alun (Alun is a Shessian corruption of Alwyn).

  CYCLE: Ejasot – second cycle

  MAJOR EVENT: Praiseday – a single day is set aside in the middle of Ejasot for all people to spend the day praying in thankfulness for Jarudha’s gifts. On this day, all institutions and shops are closed and people are not meant to work. Eating and drinking can only be done after sunset.

  SEASON: Fuar – Dry

  CYCLE: Varsoo – change

  MAJOR EVENT: The Changing – the beginning of Fuar is always marked with the gathering of water in preparation for the long dry spell. People give gifts of water and feast for three days.

  CYCLE: Ayanah – hot

  No celebrations are held in this period.

  CYCLE: Fuszash – no rain

  MAJOR EVENT: Rainday – in the middle of this cycle, people ritualistically throw a cupful of water at the sky to encourage rain to come again to the parched land. The ritual has shamanistic pagan origins, but the followers of Jarudha have incorporated it into their religious mythology as a day of prayer. People gather for feasting in the evening and share water as if it is a delicate item.

  CYCLE: Sun – prayer

  MAJOR EVENT: Royal’s Prayer: this day in mid-Sun celebrates the day that Strongarm Royal the Righteous prayed to Jarudha for help on the battlefield and the prayer was answered with a crushing victory against Strongarm’s enemies.

  SEASON: Doyanah – Passing

  CYCLE: Alun – deriv. Alwyn

  MAJOR EVENT: Alunsday: celebration of Alun’s (Jarudha’s son), rise to Paradise to work with his Father.

  CYCLE: Yanah – die

  MAJOR EVENT: Erinsday – named after Erin the Wise, one of the Immortals in Jarudhan mythology/history, this is a solemn late evening ceremony marked by the wearing of headbands made from dead leaves. Prayers are offered, and stories of the Immortals are told.

  SEASON: Shahk – Chill

  CYCLE: Shahk – chill or cold

  MAJOR EVENT: Midshahk: on the day designated as the middle of this season, people communally gather to share cooked meats and vegetables, and celebrate life.

  Acknowledgments

  A project is rarely possible without support, advice and encouragement so I would like to first thank Stephanie Smith, Linda Funnell and Robert Stephenson whose faith and professional input have steered this series.

  And I thank Meg for her love and constancy.

  About the Author

  ‘Writing is much more than storytelling, and much, much more than informing or teaching. Writing is the act of opening your heart in an attempt to touch the hearts of people you’ve never met.’

  Entering the professional writing field in the early 1990s as one of Australia’s first locally published fantasy novelists with the very successful Andrakis series, Tony Shillitoe has become a popular author in the adult fantasy and the adolescent fiction genres. He was shortlisted for the Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel award in 1995 for his standalone classic coming-of-age fantasy, The Last Wizard. He was subsequently shortlisted for the first book of the Ashuak Chronicles, Blood, in 2002.

  Currently a full-time educator at Concordia College in Adelaide, Tony has also, at various times, been a Board Member of the South Australian Writers Centre, a judge for literary awards, and he has conducted a host of workshops and been a guest speaker at many writing events.

  Between teaching and writing commitments Tony enjoys relaxing with Meg, rare moments of reading, making noises on his guitar and playing volleyball.

  Visit Tony at his website: www.tonyshillitoe.biz

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  Other books by Tony Shillitoe

  The Andrakis Series

  Guardians (1)

  Kingmaker (2)

  Dragonlords (3)

  The Last Wizard

  Joy Ride

  The Ashuak Chronicles

  Blood (1)

  Passion (2)

  Freedom (3)

  Caught in the Headlights

  Tales of the Dragon

  Dreaming in Amber

  The Amber Legacy (1)

  Copyright

  Voyager

  An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia

  First published in Australia in 2006

  This edition published in 2010

  by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited

  ABN 36 009 913 517

  www.harpereollins.com.au

  Copyright © Tony Shillitoe 2006

  The
right of Tony Shillitoe to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000 (Cth).

  This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

  HarperCollinsPublishers

  25 Ryde Road, Pymble, Sydney, NSW 2073, Australia

  31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 10, New Zealand

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road, London W6 8JB, United Kingdom

  2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada

  10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA

  National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

  Shillitoe, Tony, 1955- .

  A solitary journey.

  ISBN 0 7322 81725. (pbk.)

  ISBN 978 0 7322 8172 5. (pbk.)

  ISBN 978 0 7304 4455 8 (epub)

  I. Title. (Series : Shillitoe, Tony, 1955- .

  Dreaming in amber ; bk. 2).

  A823.3

  About the Publisher

  Australia

  HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

  25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)

  Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au

  Canada