by Mary Gentle
SPRING SOLSTICE: festival of the Wells.
HANYS: 3 weeks. Spring ploughing and planting: busy time for the telestres. Prevailing westerly winds. Floods. Inner Sea liable to sudden storms.
DURESTHA: Early summer, 8 weeks. Long spells of hot weather. Travel possible, roads repaired. Guild ships leave for Desert Coast and Rainbow Cities.
SUMMER SOLSTICE: Naming day and midyear festival.
MERRUM: 9 weeks, high summer. Period of great administrative activity in the takshiriye, resident in Tathcaer. Favourite season for travel, trade, sea voyages, etc.
STATHERN: 2 weeks. Everything stops for the harvest. Culminates in
AUTUMN SOLSTICE: harvest festivals.
TORVERN: 4 weeks, early autumn hunting season; also the time for fairs and markets. The last season for travel before winter weather makes the Inner Sea impassable.
RIARDH: 7 weeks. Hunting season. The beginning of winter, preparation of provisions, storing food, weaving, etc. Some late autumn sowing. Usually includes First Snow Festival.
Note: the week consists of nine days, of which every Firstday is a feast-day, every Fiveday a holiday, and every Nineday a fast-day. The day has a length of 27 standard hours. With a 400-day year, this means that in practice the Orthean year is 85 days (12 weeks) longer than the Earth standard year.
APPENDIX 4
Maps
from PanOceania Company Records
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Also By Mary Gentle
Orthe
1. Golden Witchbreed (1983)
2. Ancient Light (1987)
White Crow
1. Rats and Gargoyles (1990)
2. The Architecture of Desire (1991)
3. Left to His Own Devices (1994)
Other Novels
A Hawk in Silver (1977)
Grunts! (1992)
Ash: A Secret History (2000)
1610: A Sundial in a Grave (2003)
Ilario (2006)
Collections
Cartomancy (2004)
Acknowledgements
Many people have contributed to the writing of this novel, but I would like to thank, individually, the following, without whom Ancient Light would not exist:
David V. Barrett, who provided the music (especially Redgum) and much else besides;
Eda Field, who sent me a portrait of the Orhlandis, from Australia, and who asked the right questions;
Liz Foulger, for allowing me the benefit of her extensive medical knowledge;
Daphne Watson and Tony Warren, for the inspiration of the chapel at Milton Abbas;
Sarah Watson, who read the earlier part of the novel aloud, and commented honestly;
Sylvia Witherington, for her friendship and support.
Mary Gentle (1956 – )
Mary Gentle is one of the world’s most acclaimed writers of fantasy and science fiction. Winner of the BSFA Award for Ash: A Secret History – the largest single fantasy work in the English language – and twice nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke Award, she has a number of academic degrees, including an MA in War Studies, and has hands-on experience of sword-fighting and armour, amongst many other useful talents. Mary Gentle lives in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.
Copyright
A Gollancz eBook
Copyright © Mary Gentle 1987
All rights reserved.
The right of Mary Gentle to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This eBook first published in Great Britain in 2013 by
Gollancz
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 0 575 12875 0
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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