The Eternal Dungeon: a Turn-of-the-Century Toughs omnibus
Page 93
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
His mind was focussed, his goal clear. He no longer felt the fear that had torn at his soul the night before, weakening his body. Now he was driven, like a dagger finding its mark.
But he found, as he approached the cell, that his path was blocked by Clifford Crofford.
The young man said, “I was wondering . . .”
“Yes?” Barrett looked past him. The day guards had left, Mr. Phelps having arrived on duty. Mr. Phelps looked sleepy; for the past fortnight, all of the dungeon dwellers had spent long hours discussing what the High Seeker had done to Mr. Ferris.
“Would you like to come visit my parents tomorrow?” Mr. Crofford blurted out.
He turned his attention back to Clifford. The junior guard was staring at him with uncertainty, his cheeks pink. But his gaze did not waver from Barrett’s.
Barrett said, “I have extra duty tomorrow. I’m sorry.”
Clifford lowered his eyes and nodded, running the tip of his tongue nervously over his upper lip. Barrett glanced over his shoulder again. Mr. Phelps was looking curiously their way.
Barrett took hold of Clifford’s arm and pulled him into the nearest cell. The renovations of the breaking cells were completed now, but this one still lay empty, awaiting its next prisoner. Barrett closed the door and put his hands on Clifford’s shoulders. “You know I love you.”
Clifford’s eyes flashed up. A smile appeared on his face. He nodded.
Barrett tightened his grip on Clifford’s shoulders. “I want you to keep that thought present in your mind. Remember that I love you and will always love you.”
Clifford’s smile disappeared. He searched Barrett’s face with his eyes. Barrett braced himself to stave off the questions he could not answer.
But Clifford asked no questions. He simply pulled Barrett into a tight embrace.
They stood for a while like that, heart near heart, loin near loin, resting their heads on each other’s shoulders. Then Barrett turned his head and found Clifford’s lips. The junior guard’s mouth tasted sweeter than anything Barrett had ever known in his life.
He pulled himself away before he should lose courage. “I must go,” he said. “I’m on duty.”
Clifford said nothing. His expression was bleak, but he did not try to pull Barrett back as Barrett opened the cell door.
This time Barrett did look back. He gave Clifford a small smile. Clifford gave him a small smile in return. Then Barrett walked on to where Mr. Phelps was awaiting him in front of their prisoner’s cell.
Somewhere down at the end of the corridor, a prisoner was screaming. Barrett checked his step as he reached the door to his prisoner’s cell. The scream sounded as though it were coming, not from the breaking cells, but from the entry hall or one of the rooms surrounding it.
The scream halted abruptly. Most likely it came from another Seeker or guard who was enduring the High Seeker’s discipline under Mr. Sobel’s lash, Barrett decided. Still, it gave him the excuse he needed.
“Go find out what that sound is,” Barrett told Mr. Phelps, who had been standing next to their prisoner’s cell, looking uneasily in the direction of the scream.
Mr. Phelps needed no further encouragement; he raced off, in the direction of the entry hall. Barrett noticed that Mr. Crofford and several other guards had abandoned their posts as well, though at least one guard remained on duty in front of each occupied cell.
Barrett took a deep breath and unlocked the cell door. He was not surprised to find, when he entered, that the prisoner was curled up in a ball in the corner. Mr. Holloway lifted his face. Moisture ran from his eyes and from his nose, which was red.
“Have you come to . . . ?” the prisoner whispered.
Barrett shook his head as he closed the door behind him. He did not bother to lock the cell. “Your racking has been delayed until tomorrow. Mr. Taylor has work he needs to do for the High Seeker today.”
He walked forward. The hard, regular sound of his boots upon the paving stones was echoed by his heart. When he reached the prisoner, he squatted down beside him and offered him his handkerchief.
“Have you thought about what I said two weeks ago?” he asked softly as Mr. Holloway wiped his eyes and nose.
“I can’t,” sniffed the prisoner. “I don’t remember. If I remembered— But I don’t remember anything about that night.”
Would the mere absence of memory be considered a confession of guilt? wondered Barrett. But he knew the answer: The Code of Seeking required an explicit statement that the crime had been committed or not committed. Under normal circumstances, the High Seeker might be willing to bend the rule for this case, where the prisoner obviously had no choice but to say that he did not know whether he had committed the crime. But these were not normal circumstances.
“I think I did it,” whispered the prisoner. “It must have been me, mustn’t it?”
“Yes,” said Barrett. Like Elsdon Taylor, he had no doubt that this prisoner was the murderer.
“If I said I thought it was me . . .”
If he said he thought it was him but was not sure, it would not be a complete confession of guilt. The rack would be used to obtain that complete confession, a confession that the prisoner could not deliver.
Barrett did not know he had moved until he saw Mr. Holloway’s breath quicken. The prisoner stared down at the dagger in Barrett’s hand.
“Please,” Mr. Holloway pleaded, “put it away. I can’t . . . I mustn’t . . .”
Barrett pressed the hilt into the prisoner’s hand. Mr. Holloway stared at him, uncomprehending.
“Do you need my help?” Barrett asked softly.
Understanding entered Mr. Holloway’s eyes. He stared at the dagger again, curling his hand hard around the hilt. A faint smile touched his lips.
“No,” he said. “I don’t suppose I do, do I?”
His breath was coming faster now. Quickly, Barrett reached forward and traced the circle of rebirth on his forehead. Mr. Holloway looked up from the dagger, startled.
“You have made reparation,” Barrett explained as he rose. “You are transformed.”
“Oh,” said the prisoner, and he stared at the dagger with wonder in his eyes. Then his eyes grew unfocussed.
Mr. Holloway was right; he did not need help. He slid the dagger into his own heart with as much ease as though he had done it a dozen times – as he no doubt had. Barrett waited until the prisoner’s body was still, and then he knelt down and took the dagger back. The prisoner’s heart must have still been pumping faintly, for some blood spattered onto Barrett as he pulled the dagger out. Barrett reflected, with grim amusement, that it was just as well that he himself had not decided to take up the career of a secretive murderer, for he could never have carried off the deception.
He rose and remained staring down at the body, mentally lighting a flame of rebirth for the prisoner’s journey into his new life. As time passed, many other flames appeared in his mind, marking the deaths of prisoners he had racked.
Then he heard excited voices in the corridor: the guards who had gone to investigate the sound of the screaming had returned. Barrett sheathed the blade, not bothering to clean it of its blood. For a moment more, he stood in place, wiping the moisture from his face onto his sleeve. Then, in preparation for his own reparation, he made the sign of rebirth upon his forehead.
He turned and went to tell the High Seeker what he had done.
o—o—o
o—o—o
. . . It cannot be said, therefore, that these men were unaware of the consequences for disobedience; but Elsdon Taylor is a different matter.
Elsdon Taylor’s activities in 360 remain an enigma to scholars: to this day, historians disagree virulently as to what extent his ignorance of the military structure of the Eternal Dungeon led to the tragic fate of Barrett Boyd. It can be said with fairness that Elsdon Taylor exacerbated an already delicate situation by continually confronting Layle Smith in public with his opposition to the High Seeker’
s new policies. Under such circumstances, he made it impossible for Layle Smith to ameliorate the policies he had previously announced; the High Seeker was left with the choice of either admitting he was entirely wrong or enforcing his policies to the fullest extent. This would have been particularly the case in any situation involving Elsdon Taylor’s prisoner.
Yet when all is said and done, it was Barrett Boyd alone who decided, on that autumn day in 360, to give Elsdon Taylor’s prisoner the means to kill himself – a capital crime by Yclau law (which, in the fourth century, still outlawed both suicide and assistance to suicide) and also by the Code of Seeking (which forbade prison workers from assisting prisoners in illegal activities).
However much one may fault the High Seeker for bringing matters to this pass, one can only view with sympathy the situation he found himself on that day not long after Antonius Ferris’s hanging: leaving the room where Elsdon Taylor barely clung to life, only to find himself confronted by Elsdon Taylor’s senior night guard, who proceeded to confess to a death-sentence crime.
It was at this point – and perhaps the only point in Layle Smith’s career – that his military origins showed itself. His next act, like that of Elsdon Taylor’s fierce opposition, remains an enigma to scholars who wish to provide easy answers as to whether Layle Smith was as brutal as the torture he sought to defend.
—Psychologists with Whips: A History of the Eternal Dungeon.
On Guard 10
CONSEQUENCES
Seward Sobel
The year 360, the eleventh month. (The year 1881 Fallow by the Old Calendar.)
The Old School, leader: See Smith, Layle.
The New School, leader: See Taylor, Elsdon.
—Glossary to Psychologists with Whips: A History of the Eternal Dungeon.
EPILOGUE
The entry hall was quiet and dark, except for the steady light of the electric lamps on the crowded tables where the guards worked, sorting documents or writing up reports. Several of the guards smiled or saluted their greetings as Seward Sobel reached the bottom step of the stairs leading down from the palace above. The three sets of guards on the stairs, who had not challenged his entrance, chatted lightly with each other.
Seward glanced in the direction of the Codifier’s office, but saw no sign that it had been re-opened since Elsdon Taylor’s mishap on the electric rack, ten days before. The Codifier was still on leave; so was Mr. Bergsen. Only one man was left to issue orders to the dungeon inhabitants, and he was nowhere to be seen in the entry hall. No guard stood in front of his office.
Seward made his way through the pool of darkness in the middle of the entry hall. Directly ahead of him, the last of the renovation laborers were making an attempt to remove the filing cabinet next to the Record-keeper’s desk. They were being foiled by the Record-keeper.
“No, no, no!” Mr. Aaron stood frowning in front of the cabinet, his arms folded. “Don’t you dare touch this!”
The laborer in charge raised his cap to scratch his head. “Sir, we have orders from the Queen to haul away anything that the dungeon inhabitants don’t want. You told us when we first installed this—”
“I’ve just spent four months having the guards here take our documents out of boxes, remove the ribbons, add paper clips, and alphabetize the documents by drawer – am I to have them undo all that work? I will have you racked if you touch this cabinet!”
Seward did not wait to see how the laborers would react to this threat. He had reached the entrance to the corridor to the Seekers’ cells; he nodded to one of the guards there, who greeted him with a smile and courteously held the door open. Seward made his way through the doorway and up the steps.
The corridor was silent and smoke-free. The furnace-doors on the left-hand wall were gone, replaced by smooth plaster. Unwavering light came from the electric lamps bracketed to the walls, each Seeker’s cell lit by its own lamp.
Only one lamp was flickering and sputtering. It cast uneven sparks of light onto the guard standing there, looking uneasily over his shoulder at the shut door he guarded. His hand was resting on the coiled whip at his belt, as though he expected to have to use it. Seward, coming closer, heard muffled voices from behind the door. He could not immediately identify the voices, but the tone was clearly of anger.
Mr. Urman caught sight of Seward when he reached within whipping range of the junior guard. With a look of relief, Mr. Urman dropped his hand from his whip, but his voice was defensive as he said, “The High Seeker ordered me to stay outside.”
“Oh?” Seward reached the doorway. He could identify the voices now; one of them appeared to be shouting. “It sounds as though Mr. Taylor is feeling better,” he said, gesturing toward the door.
Mr. Urman’s mouth twisted. “Still halfway to death, according to the healer; I heard the High Seeker say so. Not that that would stop the High Seeker from mutilating Elsdon Taylor.”
From what Seward could hear, it sounded as though the mutilation was mutual. Well, at least Elsdon appeared unlikely to die. That was something.
“Speaking of halfway to death . . .” Mr. Urman’s hand twitched in a nervous fashion on his belt. “Do you know whether the High Seeker has made any decision about Barrett Boyd’s case? Clifford Crofford has been badgering me for information.”
From the look in Mr. Urman’s eyes, Seward guessed that the junior guard’s concern was not merely on behalf of Mr. Crofford. Seward spent a moment readjusting the sheathed dagger at his belt, to give himself time to think. The moment he gave Mr. Urman the news, he knew, Mr. Urman would want to spread it all over the dungeon. That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. The High Seeker had already granted Mr. Sobel permission to make the announcement; Mr. Smith knew that the dungeon would not tolerate another hide-in-the-corner disciplinary case. Better, perhaps, that the announcement should come from Mr. Urman. The junior guard might be able to think of a way to make the news more palatable.
“He’s not going to send Mr. Boyd to the hangman,” Seward replied.
Mr. Urman’s breath emerged in as big a puff as if the dungeon’s Lungs had released it. “So the High Seeker is finally showing sense. He has decided not to enforce the Code strictly from this point forward?”
Seward hesitated. “No, the policy of strict enforcement is still in force.”
“How could that be?” asked Mr. Urman crossly. “Mr. Boyd helped a prisoner to commit suicide. The Code declares the penalty for that to be death. Or wait – the High Seeker isn’t simply dismissing Mr. Boyd from employment, is he? If he does, one of the city prisons could arrest Mr. Boyd under civil charges—”
“No, no.” Seward passed his hand over his face. This conversation was not going well. The support he had hoped for was looking increasingly unlikely. “He’s sticking to the Code. There’s a passage in the Code of Seeking – I’d forgotten it until the High Seeker mentioned it – that allows any dungeon resident who has held a position in a previous army division to be sentenced under that division’s system of justice. The Code says ‘previous army division’ because—”
“Yes, yes, I know,” Mr. Urman said impatiently. “We’re the Queen’s soldiers, by law. And Mr. Boyd was previously in the Queen’s infantry. What is the infantry’s penalty for assistance in suicide?”
The junior guard’s hands were already in fists. Seward, abandoning the last of his hope, said quietly, “One hundred heavy lashes.”
Even in the flickering light, the change of color in Mr. Urman’s face was clear. He turned nearly purple with rage. “That’s murder!” he cried. “Mr. Sobel, you know it’s murder! The Code only allows us to beat prisoners for sixty heavy lashes at the most – anything higher isn’t permitted, because it would endanger the life of the prisoner! The healer—”
“Doesn’t have the ability to overrule sentences in disciplinary cases.” Seward thought again of the empty office adjoining the entry hall. The Codifier could have overruled the High Seeker’s decision, but Mr. Daniels remained on leav
e. And the Queen, from what Seward had seen, was oblivious to the horrible difference between sixty heavy lashes and one hundred heavy lashes.
Seward said, trying to keep his voice neutral, “The infantry has been issuing this sentence for centuries.”
He did not add that the infantry was considering abolishing the sentence, because it had led to so many deaths. And that was only when the sentence was carried out by an infantry soldier. . . .
“Who is to do the beating? You?” It seemed that Mr. Urman’s mind moved in the same patterns as Seward’s.
There was no way to avoid a straight answer. “The High Seeker will carry out the sentence. He has more experience in such matters.”
“Bloody blades!” Mr. Urman’s shout was so loud that it overwhelmed the sound of the shouting within the High Seeker’s cell. “Of course he has more experience in this! He executed men in Vovim! Mr. Sobel, can’t you see that this is just a way for him to exercise his sadism on someone other than—”
He stopped. Not because of the shushing gestures that Seward had been making, but because one of the voices within the cell had grown so loud that the words could now be distinctly heard.
“Don’t try to pretend that you didn’t intend this. You may not have known how far it would go, but you guessed that you would end up harmed in some way. You let yourself be racked only in order to try to make me feel pity for the prisoners who are racked. Well, your manipulation of my feelings won’t work, Mr. Taylor. I am the High Seeker; I will not allow anyone to place himself between me and the proper exercise of the Code.”
The entire corridor vibrated as a door within the cell slammed. Almost immediately, the door to the corridor opened. Mr. Urman jumped aside as though a bird of prey had suddenly swooped down upon him.
Layle Smith seemed not to see him. He had just covered his face with his hood; his hand was still jerking down the cloth. Mr. Sobel – who had spent too many years witnessing Layle Smith’s unexpected moves to be unnerved by his sudden entrance – stood his ground, just opposite the doorway.
“Mr. Sobel.” The High Seeker’s voice was as deadly and controlled as a blade. “You were quite right to marry a woman of your own rank. The worst possible thing a man can do is to mate himself with someone who is his subordinate.”
Mr. Urman, perhaps fearing what revelation the High Seeker’s next words would bring, coughed into his fist. The High Seeker’s gaze flicked his way. “Ah, Mr. Urman. I fear that I will not be retiring to my cell this morning as early as I had planned. I need to work for a few more hours. If you wish to take a short break before—”
“Sir,” Seward interrupted softly, glancing in both directions to determine that the corridor was still empty. “The Queen has released us from bodyguard duty.”
“Oh?” The High Seeker said; there was a note in his tone that Seward could not read.
“Yes, sir,” Seward replied. “The latest news from Vovim is that matters have so much worsened between the King and his lords that the King has withdrawn all his agents from Yclau in order that they might protect him from assassins at home. The Queen and her advisers believe that you are in no further danger from a Vovimian assassin.”
“Ah.” The High Seeker was still for a long moment before adding, “Well, then, gentlemen, I will see you this evening, after the dusk shift. I understand from the Record-keeper that my day guards have delivered a new prisoner to the breaking cells. I trust that you will rest yourself well before the new searching begins.” Without a word, he turned and began walking down the corridor, in the direction of the inner dungeon.
Mr. Urman waited until the High Seeker was out of sight before sighing. “Back to normal – or what passes as normal in this dungeon. Come on. Let’s go see whether he has left any bit of Elsdon Taylor alive.”
His eye still on the path that the High Seeker had taken, Seward shook his head.
“Why not?” Mr. Urman demanded. “Taylor is your friend, isn’t he?”
“Yes.” Seward turned his head to look at Mr. Urman. “Mr. Taylor has many friends. I’ll check how he is later.”
“I see,” Mr. Urman said slowly. The expression on his face suggested that he had just sighted something in his path that he intensely disliked, and that he planned to grind it to death with his heel. “Well, then,” he said, “I’ll tell Taylor whose company you value most.”
Seward said nothing. From what he knew of Elsdon Taylor, he thought it unlikely that the junior Seeker would take offense at his action. Mr. Urman, on the other hand . . .
It was like seeing the shattering of a brief truce. Perhaps, in the future, terms of peace might be offered again. But for now . . .
Mr. Urman had already turned away in order to duck past the door that the High Seeker had left open. Seward swivelled on his heel and began walking in the direction that the High Seeker had gone.
The entry hall was still crowded with guards, except at one table, whose inhabitants had abandoned it. Only one man stood there. He was staring down at the machine attached to the end of the table by a small vise. In his hand was a pencil.
He looked up as Seward approached. There was disapproval in his voice as he said, “You are off-duty, Mr. Sobel.”
“Yes, sir.” Seward glanced down at the small pile of mangled pencils next to the pointer. Apparently the High Seeker had been undergoing yet another failure in getting machinery to work in his presence.
“Then why are you here?” Layle Smith’s voice was as sharp as an executioner’s lash.
“My place is by your side, sir.” Mr. Sobel took the pencil from him, stepped forward, and proceeded to sharpen it with the pointer. He was conscious of the whispers of the guards around him, accompanied by disapproving looks; he did his best to ignore them, though he felt as though he were being pelted by mud.
By the time he turned back, the High Seeker’s eyes had turned thoughtful. The tone of his voice was also contemplative as he said softly, “You are likely, Mr. Sobel, to become highly unpopular in certain quarters.”
“Not in the quarters that count most to me, sir.” He handed the pencil to the High Seeker.
“Well, then,” said the High Seeker, his eyes beginning to smile, “I would appreciate your help in my office. I need to submit a request for the purchase of a whip. You can help me fill out the form.”
He felt his stomach churn, a familiar sensation by now. “Certainly, sir,” he replied without hesitation; and then, as the High Seeker turned away, he took his place by Layle Smith’s side, as close as a shadow.
o—o—o
o—o—o
Battle between the Old School and the New School: See Codification Crisis, 360-364.
—Glossary to Psychologists with Whips: A History of the Eternal Dungeon.
On Guard
HISTORICAL NOTE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
With the sole exception of a certain instrument of torture, all the technology in this story existed in late Victorian times. The dramatic tale of how new forms of lighting and heating transformed home and business during this period has often overshadowed the equally dramatic tale of how office work was changed by new technology. But to the average office worker at that time, easier systems of document creation and filing were no doubt as revolutionary as electric lights.
I owe Part Eight to Parhelion and Elizabeth McCollum, who not only offered me advice on Victorian technology and clothes, but also helped me work out the logistics of the scene in their hotel room. (Their bed served as the rack.)
My thanks to the Early Office Museum (officemuseum.com) for information and images that would otherwise have been difficult to track down, and also to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, for displaying a perfectly lovely Victorian filing cabinet that simply cried out to have a story written round it.
o—o—o
o—o—o
o—o—o
=== More Eternal Dungeon fiction ==
Excerpt from the next volume in the Eternal Dungeon series
SWEET BLOOD
The main corridor in the Eternal Dungeon was cold. It was always cold; he had never known it to be otherwise. The prisoners received the comfort of heating in their cells, and presumably the Seekers did as well, though D. Urman had never lingered long enough in a Seeker’s cell to find out. Guards such as himself shivered in autumnal temperatures year-round.
The corridor was also dark, lit only by a minimum of electric lamps that cast shadow-palls over the prisoner they escorted. Few guards were present in the corridor; the High Seeker had stripped the inner dungeon of all but the skeleton crew of the dusk-shift guard, forcing every other guard and Seeker to watch the coming event.
Mr. Urman – addressed that way by friend and foe alike in the stiltedly formal setting of the Eternal Dungeon – would just as soon have taken his annual leave this week. It wasn’t as though he had never seen a punishment before. He had administered many himself, quelling murderous prisoners into obedience or brutalizing innocent prisoners – whatever his Seekers demanded of him, he had done. But today’s punishment, everyone agreed, would be like none that the dungeon had seen for many decades. Mr. Urman wished that he had his prisoner’s courage to rebel against orders.
They reached the closed door at the south end of the corridor, which lay closest to the great gates above the dungeon. The prisoner – walking unbound between his escorts – halted abruptly before the door. His breath and heartbeat were rapid; his skin was bleached clean of color. Mr. Sobel, senior night guard to the High Seeker, frowned on the other side of the prisoner. Like Mr. Urman, he had seen many a prisoner faint in his bonds. This prisoner looked as though he would not get as far as the place of his punishment before his knees gave way.
Mr. Urman thought this was eminently sensible of him. “Look,” he said roughly to the prisoner, keeping his voice low enough that he would not be overheard by any of the guards they had recently walked past, “you don’t have to go through with this. You can still ask for the other sentence to be passed.”
Mr. Boyd’s mouth twisted into something not quite a smile. He did not look in the direction of Mr. Urman; his attention was on the door. “Take the path of my late prisoner, you mean?”
“It’s suicide either way!” His voice was too loud; Mr. Sobel shot him a look, and Mr. Urman quickly lowered his tone. “Mr. Boyd, you know that you’re going to die either way. The High Seeker is determined to have his revenge on you for helping a prisoner escape from his cruelty. The only question is how long it will take you to die. Why let the High Seeker have his extra pleasure at your lingering death? Are you some sort of masochist?”
Mr. Sobel winced, but he made no effort to cut the conversation short. No doubt he had been making similar pleas to Mr. Boyd in the hours leading up to this moment; he and Mr. Boyd had been the closest of friends since Barrett Boyd was first appointed a guard in the Eternal Dungeon.
Mr. Urman half expected Mr. Boyd to make some joke, perhaps in reference to Elsdon Taylor. But Mr. Boyd, staring at the door, simply said, “No.”
“Then why satisfy his sadism?” Mr. Urman demanded. “For love of the Code, don’t you know what kind of flogging you’ll receive in there? By the time the High Seeker is through with you, your back will be nothing but strips of flesh hanging from bone, while your life’s blood puddles on the—”
“Mr. Urman.” Mr. Sobel’s quiet voice held a distinct note of warning. Mr. Urman shut his mouth. Too late, he saw that Mr. Boyd had paled to the color of curd.
The imprisoned guard turned his face slowly toward Mr. Urman. His face was slick with sweat. His eyes seemed glazed over, like a dead man’s. He said, in carefully spaced words, “If I allowed myself to be hanged quietly . . . If I allowed Layle Smith to take me discreetly away and execute me in a room far away from any eyewitness . . . How would matters change in the Eternal Dungeon?”
Mr. Urman started to speak, stopped, and tried to think of the right words to say.
“They would not change.” Mr. Boyd’s voice was unusually hard now. “Matters didn’t change after the High Seeker murdered Mr. Ferris through a sentence of hanging. The High Seeker executed the senior-most Seeker in this dungeon for a small disobedience, and nothing happened except that people here grumbled a bit for a day or two. If I allowed myself to be hanged – quickly, painlessly, privately – then the High Seeker would be free to continue on the murderous path he has chosen. Only by making this execution public – only by allowing the High Seeker to exercise his sadism on me in front of others – can I have any hope that the other inhabitants of this dungeon will be shocked into an awareness that they are being governed by a man who is engaging in behavior that is as vindictive and vicious as any of the criminals we are supposed to be guarding the Queendom of Yclau against.” Mr. Boyd took a deep breath before adding, “This is the only way in which I can make the High Seeker himself aware of what he has become. Mr. Urman, Layle Smith’s soul is as much in danger right now as that of any unrepentant criminal.”
Mr. Urman struggled for a reply, but Mr. Boyd had already turned away from him. “Let’s get this over with,” Mr. Boyd said in a flat voice, “while I still have enough courage left to do this.”
And with those words, he opened the door and walked into his execution chamber.
o—o—o
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o—o—o
o—o—o
Excerpt from the first volume in the Dark Light series
LOCKUP
During the dawn hours at the Eternal Dungeon, as the day shift yawned itself awake and the night shift yawned itself to bed, the talk turned, as it always did, to the injustices of being a guard.
“Half the crime in this queendom would be solved,” declared Barrett Boyd, “if the victims of crime would stop being so credulous.”
The four of them were sitting at a table in the dungeon’s entry hall: two senior guards and two junior guards, only lightly divided by their ranks. From nearby came the sound of a pen scratching as Elsdon Taylor, one of the junior Seekers, prepared a report about a prisoner’s beating that he had ordered. As always, his hood hid his face.
“You’re right, Mr. Boyd,” replied Seward Sobel, speaking with the formality that the Eternal Dungeon encouraged, even between close acquaintances. “Take this latest case of the High Seeker’s. If the victims hadn’t believed the patently transparent lies of the criminal . . .”
“The criminals are no wiser than their victims,” grumbled D. Urman, digging his dagger into the table, which had undergone similar abuse from many guards over the decades. “The Seekers tell them lies—”
“Not lies,” inserted Clifford Crofford, the youngest and most junior guard there. “It would be against the Code of Seeking for a Seeker to lie to his prisoner.”
Mr. Urman shrugged without letting go of the dagger he was drawing down the grain of the table. “Misleadings, then. The prisoners always believe what the Seekers tell them, even though it’s obvious that the Seekers aren’t telling the full truth. I vow, I could do as good a job as the Seekers at misleading prisoners.”
“I feel that way sometimes too,” confessed Mr. Boyd. “When I watch how the magistrates believe any small statement that a Seeker tells them about his prisoner, even if the Seeker is trying to pressure the magistrate to hang the prisoner—”
“Or release the prisoner,” interjected Mr. Crofford, always ready to defend the Seekers against unjust charges.
“The point is,” Mr. Urman emphasized by pounding the point of his dagger into the table, “we could do just as good a job as the Seekers do at their work, yet we get paid half of what they do.”
At this stage, when it looked as though the group would enter into a pleasant grumble about guards’ pay rates, th
e door closest to them crashed open. Everyone jerked, and not merely from the sound of the crash. The same look was on all the guards’ faces, expressing the same, unspoken question: Had they been overheard?
If the High Seeker of the Eternal Dungeon had heard their complaints against the Seekers, he chose to overlook their malefaction. “Mr. Sobel,” he said, stepping forward. “Take charge of this, please. It was seized as evidence, but it will not be needed at the trial after all. You may dispose of it in any manner you wish.”
Mr. Sobel, who had risen to his feet the moment he saw his Seeker, murmured an appropriate acknowledgment of the order. The High Seeker glanced around the table and caught sight of Mr. Crofford, who happened to be the High Seeker’s junior night guard that month. “Ah, Mr. Crofford,” he said, “I need you to pass on this note to Mr. Taylor. It contains information for an important case.”
Nobody at the table bothered to ask the High Seeker why he was having a note delivered to Elsdon Taylor, rather than stepping a few yards further in order to speak to the junior Seeker himself . . . or, for that matter, waiting an hour or two until they were both off-duty and sharing the same living quarters. The High Seeker’s deliberate, distant formality with Mr. Taylor, whenever they were in public, was well known.
“Yes, sir,” replied Mr. Crofford, adding characteristically, “and may I do anything else for you?”
“That will be sufficient,” replied the High Seeker brusquely and returned to his office. Mr. Crofford hurried off on his errand.
Everyone else stared at what the High Seeker had placed upon the table. It was a pitcher consisting of two connected glass globes, like the top and bottom of a gas lamp. The liquid in the globes eddied like a whirlpool in the ocean. The liquid was green.
“What the bloody blades is that?” Mr. Boyd forgot himself so far as to swear on duty.
“It certainly is an intriguing mystery.” Mr. Sobel, who was in charge of reprimanding guards who disobeyed dungeon regulations, seemed too absorbed in the green liquid to notice Mr. Boyd’s infraction.
“Ask a Seeker,” Mr. Urman suggested in a sour voice. “They know everything, don’t they? That’s why they’re paid so much more than we are.”
This attempt to return the conversation to the guards’ ill fortunes failed; even Mr. Urman seemed more interested in staring at the hypnotically twisting green liquid. Nearby, Mr. Crofford, who had been returning to the guards’ table, paused to speak to one of the Queen’s messenger boys, who was only a few years younger than the junior guard. Elsdon Taylor, refolding the message he had just received from the High Seeker, rose from his seat and hurried toward the steps leading out of the Eternal Dungeon.
Nobody paid him any mind; though Seekers’ movements were restricted, all Seekers were permitted to visit a small stretch of the palace above the dungeon. That wing housed the magistrates’ judging rooms, the offices of the magistrates and their secretaries, and the Queen’s library.
Besides, the green liquid was too interesting.
o—o—o
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o—o—o
o—o—o
o—o—o
=== Turn-of-the-Century Toughs calendar systems ===
Two different calendars are used in the four Midcoast nations of the Turn-of-the-Century Toughs universe.
TRI-NATIONAL CALENDAR
The Tri-National Calendar is a reformed calendar system used by Yclau, Vovim, and Mip. The calendar was formulated by the Queendom of Yclau and the Kingdom of Vovim, which had originally used different calendars from one another. It counts their planet’s single circuit around the sun as a year, divides the year into four seasons of three months each, and uses numbers rather than names for the months, so as to avoid favoritism toward either Yclau or Vovim.
The four seasons are a concession to Vovim, which originally had a calendar based on its quaternary number system (base 4), while the three months are a concession to Yclau, which originally had a calendar based on its ternary number system (base 3). Both number systems were eliminated at the time of the calendar reform, replaced by a uniform duodecimal number system (base 12).
Three years in the Tri-National Calendar equal one year in our own world’s calendar. Thus, the years 355 to 453 cover the span of time that was covered in our own world between 1880 to 1912. However, because the equivalent historical events take three times longer in the Toughs universe, the dates of historical events in the Toughs world only approximately correspond with the dates of historical events in our world..
Holidays are left to the individual nations to decide, but by the fifth century, the tri-nations are all celebrating the traditional Yclau holidays of the Lords’ Spring Festival (moveable date: the day after the migrating birds return) and the Commoners’ Autumn Festival (moveable date: the day after the first night of frost or snowfall), as well as the traditional Vovimian holidays of Mercy’s Feast (midsummer) and Hell’s Fast (extending from midwinter to late winter).
OLD CALENDAR
The Old Calendar, used by the Dozen Landsteads, and originally by Yclau as well, is a tri-year calendar based on the Dozen Landsteads’ ternary number system. One tri-year in the Dozen Landsteads equals three years in Yclau, Mip, and Vovim. Each tri-year is divided into three sun-circuits of three seasons: autumn, spring, and summer. In turn, each season is divided into three months; each month contains three weeks.
There are 27 weeks in a sun-circuit (3 x 3 x 3). All months and weeks are named; the names repeat in each sun-circuit. Reflecting the traditional Landstead belief in death, transformation, and rebirth, the names of the weeks in the first season of the year are: Spring Waning, Spring Illness, Spring Dying, Spring Death, Spring Transformation, Spring Rebirth, Spring Childhood, Spring Youth, Spring Manhood. At that point, the cycle continues with Summer Waning.
Landsteaders label the three circuits of their tri-year according to their traditional three-field system of planting: barley, clover, and fallow. For example: 1895 Barley, 1895 Clover, and 1895 Fallow are the three sun-circuits (years) that make up the single tri-year of 1895. By contrast, under the Tri-National Calendar, the tri-year of 1895 is counted as three years: 400, 401, and 402.
Conveniently for the reader, one tri-year just happens to correspond to one Earth year. The Dozen Landsteads’ dating system therefore corresponds to the dating system of Earth’s, leaving aside minor details such as the fact that the Landsteaders’ planet travels around the sun three times during each equivalent of our year. Thus, the tri-years 1880 to 1912 in the Dozen Landsteads correspond to the years 1880 to 1912 in our own world.
The Dozen Landsteads celebrate the Lords’ Spring Festival and the Commoners’ Autumn Festival by the holidays’ original names: the Masters’ Spring Festival and the Slaves’ Autumn Festival. They do not celebrate the traditional Vovimian holidays.
For more about the Old Calendar, see: Landstead Ternary Symbols and Their Meaning.
o—o—o
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=== Turn-of-the-Century Toughs timeline ===
This timeline is a chronology of the stories, major characters’ birthdates, and political events in Turn-of-the-Century Toughs.
OC = Old Calendar.
TNC = Tri-National Calendar.
Dates unknown: Invaders from various continents of the Old World arrive at the North Continent of the New World, displacing and intermarrying with the natives. In the region that will later come to be known as the Midcoast nations, natives who refuse to adopt the newcomers’ ways of life fight the encroaching invaders.
0 OC: Remigius, founder of the Dozen Landsteads’ law system, is tortured to death. His death will later mark the start of the Dozen Landsteads’ dating system, originally known merely as The Calendar.
; 0–500 OC: Various invading nations gradually coalesce into the Kingdom of Vovim, which spans much of the Midcoast region. To the southeast of Vovim, a similar alliance takes place between twelve leaders of an invading nation, leading to the founding of the Dozen Landsteads. All other territories on the eastern coast of the North Continent remain under the control of native nations that have not yet formed alliances with one another. With one exception, all of these territories will eventually become small nations with less political influence than the three great nations of the eastern coast: Vovim, Yclau, and the Dozen Landsteads. The one exception is Mip, a disputed territory which will end up bounded by large nations on all three sides: by Vovim to the north and west, by Yclau to the south, and by the Dozen Landsteads to the east. As a result, Mip will play a pivotal role in trade and cultural exchange between its influential neighbors.
1199 OC: The First Landstead breaks with the other landsteads over the issue of female inheritance. It will eventually rename itself as the Queendom of Yclau and expand its territory westward and overseas.
1317 OC: The Celadon-Brun Act is passed in the Dozen Landsteads, making significant changes to that nation’s master/liegeman/slave social and political system. ¶ Master and Servant 2: The True Master (Waterman).
1508 OC: The master/liegeman/slave system in the Dozen Landsteads is eliminated in favor of a master/liegeman/servant system. ¶ Master’s Piece (Waterman).
1550 OC: The Thousand Years’ War begins between Vovim and Yclau, primarily over which nation will control the territory of Mip. Mip’s native people are not consulted on this matter.
0 TNC (1762 OC): In one of their periodic attempts at peace, Vovim and Yclau agree to adhere to a bi-national calendar. After the emancipation of Mip in 355 TNC, this is referred to as the Tri-National Calendar.
0–201 TNC (1762 to 1829 OC): In both Yclau and Vovim, ancient systems of government, law-keeping, and class structure continue, epitomized by the use of torture in the royal dungeons of both lands. In Yclau, however, a small number of torturers begin to discuss innovative ways to break prisoners.
202 TNC (1829 OC): Yclau’s royal dungeon is destroyed by a cave-in. It is refounded as the Eternal Dungeon, and the dungeon’s first ethical code book is issued by the surviving torturers. Debates with other nations over the effectiveness of the Eternal Dungeon’s techniques will eventually result in the creation of an international prison reform body, the United Order of Prisons.
The 300s to the 340s (1861–1878)
Events in the Midcoast nations: At the start of this century, an industrial revolution is sweeping Yclau. Yclau and Vovim sporadically continue the Thousand Years’ War. Watermen begin to battle one another in the Dozen Landsteads.
309 (1864 Fallow): Yclau regains control of the territory of Mip, intensifying the Thousand Years’ War.
310 (1865 Barley): Weldon Chapman is born (The Eternal Dungeon).
312 (1865 Fallow): Seward Sobel and Howard Yates are born (The Eternal Dungeon).
320, the second month (1868 Clover): Layle Smith is born (The Eternal Dungeon).
327 (1870 Fallow): Birdesmond Manx is born (The Eternal Dungeon).
328 (1871 Barley): Barrett Boyd is born (The Eternal Dungeon).
330, the eleventh month (1871 Fallow): Rain: Beauty (The Eternal Dungeon).
333 (1872 Fallow): Vito de Vere is born (The Eternal Dungeon).
333, the fourth month (1872 Fallow): Never (The Eternal Dungeon).
334 (1873 Barley): D. Urman is born (The Eternal Dungeon). Harrow, FitzGerald, and Walker are born (Life Prison).
337, the first month (1874 Barley): Elsdon Taylor is born (The Eternal Dungeon).
338 (1874 Clover): Clifford Crofford is born (The Eternal Dungeon).
338, the tenth month (1874 Fallow): Layle Smith becomes a torturer in the Eternal Dungeon. ¶ The Unanswered Question (The Eternal Dungeon).
339 (1874 Fallow): In Yclau, the Commoners’ Bread Riot takes place (The Eternal Dungeon).
341 (1875 Clover): Bainbridge – as he would be commonly termed in later years – is born.
343, the seventh month (1876 Barley): Sweet Blood 2: Searching (The Eternal Dungeon), flashbacks only.
343, the ninth month (1876 Barley): New-Fashioned (The Eternal Dungeon).
344 (1876 Clover): The fifth revision of the Code of Seeking is issued, spurring a prison reform movement within Yclau and increasing the power of the United Order of Prisons. The Eternal Dungeon enters its Golden Age.
345, the seventh month (1876 Fallow): Gurth is born (The Eternal Dungeon). The first High Seeker of the Eternal Dungeon assumes power.
346 (1877 Barley): Zenas is born (The Eternal Dungeon). Lord Vere (a distant relation of Vito de Vere) and Valdis are born (Life Prison).
The 350s (1878–1881)
Events in the Midcoast nations: The fourth of the Midcoast nations is founded as a result of a bloodless rebellion by its people against foreign rule.
350 (1878 Clover): Dick Pickens is born (Life Prison).
352 (1879 Barley): Merrick is born (Life Prison).
355 (1880 Barley): Mercy Prison is created in Mip by the Yclau government, which has control of the land at this time. It is the first of Mip’s life prisons and is a product of the prison reform movement. Later that year, Yclau frees Mip as part of a truce agreement with Vovim, which also agrees to release its claim on the territory. The Mippite government is given into the hands of its magistrates. Beginning of the main plotline of the Eternal Dungeon series, which is set in Yclau.
355, the fourth month (1880 Barley): Sedgewick Staunton is born (Life Prison). ¶ Rebirth 1: The Breaking (The Eternal Dungeon).
355, the seventh month (1880 Barley): Rebirth 2: Love and Betrayal (The Eternal Dungeon) and Rebirth 3: First Time (The Eternal Dungeon).
356 (1880 Clover): In response to pressure from the United Order of Prisons, Vovim’s King declares that some crimes that were previously punished by death will now be punished by life imprisonment. The conditions under which Vovim’s life prisoners are kept will eventually become the topic of heated international debate.
356, the second month (1880 Clover): In Hot Water (The Eternal Dungeon).
356, the fourth month (1880 Clover): Rebirth 4: In Training (The Eternal Dungeon).
356: the sixth month, but ending later than Rebirth 5 (1880 Clover): Rebirth 6: Tops and Sops (The Eternal Dungeon).
356, the tenth month (1880 Clover): Rebirth 5: As a Seeker (The Eternal Dungeon).
357, the sixth month (1880 Fallow): Transformation 1: Deception (The Eternal Dungeon).
357, the ninth month (1880 Fallow): Transformation 2: Twists and Turns (The Eternal Dungeon).
358 (1881 Barley): Tyrrell is born (Life Prison).
358, the sixth month (1881 Barley): Transformation 3: A Prisoner Has Need (The Eternal Dungeon) and Rain: Love (Life Prison).
358, the eighth month (1881 Barley): Prison Food and Fondness (The Eternal Dungeon).
359 (1881 Clover): Babaqi is born (Life Prison).
359, the third month (1881 Clover): Transformation 4: The Consultation (The Eternal Dungeon).
359, the fourth month (1881 Clover): The Balance 1: Truth and Lies (The Eternal Dungeon).
359, the sixth month (1881 Clover): The Balance 2: Barbarians (The Eternal Dungeon).
359, the eighth month (1881 Clover): Hunger (The Eternal Dungeon).
359, the tenth month (1881 Clover): Commoners’ Festival (The Eternal Dungeon).
359, the twelfth month (1881 Clover): The Balance 3: Hidden (The Eternal Dungeon).
The 360s (1881–1884)
Events in the Midcoast nations: Trouble arises in Vovim between its mentally unstable King and his lords.
360 (1881 Fallow): Bainbridge starts the Commoners’ Guild in Yclau. The guild becomes the focus of class unrest in that land. A dispute between the Vovimian King and the High Master of his Hidden Dungeon over prison reform issues causes political divisions in Vovim. The United Order
of Prisons condemns the use of torture in the Eternal Dungeon.
360, the first month (1881 Fallow): Green Ruin (The Eternal Dungeon).
360, the sixth month (1881 Fallow): The Balance 4: Death Watch (The Eternal Dungeon), The Balance 5: Balladeer (The Eternal Dungeon), and On Guard (The Eternal Dungeon).
360, the seventh month (1881 Fallow): Wax (The Eternal Dungeon).
360, the eleventh month (1881 Fallow): Sweet Blood 1: Bonds (The Eternal Dungeon), flashbacks only, and The Whipping Post (The Eternal Dungeon).
361 (1882 Barley): Aldred Starke is born (Life Prison).
363, the fourth month (1882 Fallow): Sweet Blood 1: Bonds (The Eternal Dungeon) and Sweet Blood 2: Searching (The Eternal Dungeon).
363, the tenth month (1882 Fallow): Sweet Blood 3: Split (The Eternal Dungeon).
364 (1883 Barley): Ahiga and Farnam are born (Life Prison).
364, the fifth month (1883 Barley): Sweet Blood 4: Checkmate (The Eternal Dungeon).
364, the seventh month (1883 Barley): The Shining Ones (The Eternal Dungeon).
365 (1883 Clover): Thomas and Dorn are born (Life Prison). The admonishments of a young Vovimian prophet against the King and his advisers spark civil war in Vovim, causing the unofficial end of the Thousand Years’ War between Vovim and Yclau. Major changes occur to life in the Eternal Dungeon.
365, the third month (1884 Clover): Sweet Blood 5: Truth and Trust (The Eternal Dungeon).
366 (1883 Fallow): Ulick and Shuji are born (Life Prison).
367 (1884 Barley): Hosobuchi is born (Life Prison).
368 (1884 Clover): Richard Medinger is born (Life Prison).
The 370s (1885–1888)
Events in the Midcoast nations: At the beginning of the decade, civil war continues to ravage Vovim. The Commoners’ Guild grows in power in Yclau, sparking attempts by the Queen’s government to oppress it. The guild spreads to Mip, whose democratic form of government encourages the commoners to demand equal rights. As a result of exciting events occurring in the surrounding nations, the Dozen Landsteads enter into a period of decline.
372, the sixth month (1885 Fallow): Torture (The Eternal Dungeon / Life Prison).
373 (1886 Barley): Gustav and Olumbo born (Life Prison).
375 (1886 Fallow): Llewellyn and Jahnsen are born (Life Prison). Partly in response to changes in the Eternal Dungeon, the Commoners’ Guild in Yclau begins pressing for a new era of prison reform that takes into account class oppression. Vovim’s civil war reaches its climax.
375, the third month (1886 Fallow): In the Silence (Life Prison).
376 (1887 Barley): After an initial period of anarchy that lasts into the following decade, the Vovimian government is gradually converted into an elective monarchy with a parliament. A period of peace begins in the Midcoast nations.
378, the fifth month (1887 Fallow): Rain: Hope (Life Prison / Commando).
The 380s (1888–1891 OC)
Events in the Midcoast nations: Crime increases throughout the Midcoast nations, resulting in a sharp increase in life prisoners.
381 (1888 Fallow): Davidson is born (Life Prison).
385 (1890 Barley): The public receives its first hint of troubles in Mip’s life prisons through an unsuccessful uprising at Compassion Prison. Beginning of the main plotline of the Life Prison series, which is set in Mip.
385, the third month (1890 Barley): Mercy’s Prisoner 1: Life Prison (Life Prison).
385, the sixth month (1890 Barley): Coded Messages (Life Prison).
385, the seventh month (1890 Barley): Cell-mates (Life Prison).
385, the eleventh month (1890 Barley): Mercy’s Prisoner 2: Men and Lads (Life Prison), flashbacks only.
The 390s (1891–1894)
Events in the Midcoast nations: As Vovim settles into peace, civil unrest increases in Yclau.
392 (1892 Clover): Yclau’s Guild of Healers issues a report suggesting that more mid-class folk than in the past are engaging in vice and crime. Mid-class folk begin to join the commoners in urging Yclau’s Queen to institute social reforms, particularly to the prison system.
393, the eleventh month (1892 Fallow): Mercy’s Prisoner 2: Men and Lads (Life Prison) and Lord and Servant (Life Prison).
394 (1893 Barley): Archy is born (Michael’s House).
395, the twelfth month (1893 Clover): Mercy’s Prisoner 3: Milord (Life Prison).
399, the tenth month (1894 Fallow): Mercy’s Prisoner 4: Isolation (Life Prison).
The 400s (1895–1898)
Events in the Midcoast nations: The Midcoast nations’ democratic revolution, which started in Mip and Vovim, spreads to Yclau. The Dozen Landsteads refuse to take part in the revolution, continuing to adhere to its time-honored master/liegeman/servant system.
400 (1895 Barley): The first High Seeker’s correspondence is published. The Commoners’ Guild and its mid-class allies rise against the Queen of Yclau. The Eternal Dungeon is raided as part of the rebels’ attack on the royal palace. The Yclau government is converted into a democracy. Yclau’s life prisons are shut down. In Mip, troubles in the life prisons reach their peak.
400, the third month (1895 Barley): Mercy’s Prisoner 5: Curious (Life Prison) and Hell’s Messenger (Life Prison).
402 (1895 Fallow): As a result of troubles in Mip’s life prisons that affect foreigners, the Dozen Landsteads declare war upon Mip. The Midcoast War begins, eventually involving all four of the Midcoast nations. The end of the war will cause increased ties between the three countries of the Tri-Nation area, to the exclusion of the Dozen Landsteads. Beginning of the main plotline of the Commando series, which is set in Mip and the Dozen Landsteads.
403, the seventh month (1896 Barley): Spy Hill (Commando).
The 410s to the 450s (1898–1915)
Events in the Midcoast nations: Vovim gradually accepts the industrial revolution that has already transformed life in Yclau and Mip. The slum problem that plagues those two countries spreads to Vovim. Social reformers turn their attention from the treatment of prisoners to the role of poverty in creating immorality and crime.
427, the fourth month (1904 Barley): Janus Roe is born (Michael’s House).
427, the eighth month (1904 Barley): Michael is born (Michael’s House).
428, the tenth month (1904 Clover): Hasan is born (Michael’s House).
432 (1905 Fallow): Wyll Hicks is born (Michael’s House).
434 (1906 Clover): Evan is born (Michael’s House).
435 (1906 Fallow): Lann is born (Michael’s House).
439, the fourth month (1908 Barley): Rain: Happiness (Michael’s House).
448 (1911 Barley): Michael’s House for Boys is founded in Vovim. It will soon attract the attention of social reformers in that land. Beginning of the main plotline of the Michael’s House series, which is set in Vovim.
448, the eighth month (1911 Barley): Whipster 1: The New Boy (Michael’s House).
449, the tenth month (1911 Clover): Whipster 2: Offstage (Michael’s House).
450, the fourth month (1911 Fallow): Whipster 3: Blurred Lines (Michael’s House).
451 (1912 Barley): Yclau, while retaining its democracy, restores its monarchy. In one of her first speeches, the new Queen proposes granting independence to the First Landstead, known by this time as the First District: the queendom’s founding district. Citizens of the First District have become increasingly restive over centuries as Yclau culture has gradually diverged from the culture of the Dozen Landsteads. Returning self-government to the First Landstead would allow the First Landstead’s government to re-ally itself with the Alliance of the Dozen Landsteads, the political body of the other eleven landsteads. The Queen’s proposal includes provisions requiring the retention of certain aspects of Yclau culture in that territory, such as the queendom’s advanced technology. The Dozen Landsteads react by forbidding nearly all cultural and technological imports from foreign nations, including the First Landstead. As a result, the society of the so-called upper landsteads is ef
fectively frozen in the year 1912.
The sixth century (1928–1961)
Events in the Midcoast nations: Life in the Midcoast region is transformed by the First Landstead’s development of the world’s first optical computers in the 1930s. The Dozen Landsteads continue to adhere to 1912-era technology and culture.
548 (1944 Clover): Geoffrey Gray is born (Waterman).
564 (1949 Fallow): Variel is born (Waterman).
566 (1950 Clover): Benjamin Carruthers and Geoffrey Gray’s youngest sister Candace (later nicknamed Daisy) are born (Waterman).
579 (1954 Fallow): The Lure (Young Toughs).
583 (1956 Barley): Geoffrey Gray becomes High Master of the Second Landstead (Waterman). ¶ Far Enough Away (Young Toughs).
584 (1956 Clover): A Concise History of the Dozen Landsteads is published (Waterman).
584, the fourth month (1956 Clover, Spring Childhood week): M. Carruthers – son of Benjamin and Daisy Carruthers, nicknamed Carr – and Bat are born (Waterman).
584, the ninth month (1956 Clover, Autumn Waning week): Meredith is born (Waterman).
585 (1956 Fallow): Sally is born (Waterman).
586 (1957 Barley): Honey Tillbury, Foster, and Pembroke are born (Waterman).
587 (1957 Clover): Kit Sutcliff is born (Waterman).
595, the sixth month (1960 Barley, Summer Transformation week): Rain: Joy (Waterman).
The seventh century (1961–1995)
Events in the Midcoast nations: Yclau, Vovim, and Mip have become scientifically advanced, drawing upon technology developed in the First Landstead. At the start of the century, the upper landsteads of the Dozen Landsteads remain culturally frozen in the year 451 (1912 Barley).
601 (1962 Barley, Spring Youth week): Survival School (Young Toughs).
601 (1962 Barley, Summer Transformation week): AI (Young Toughs).
602 (1962 Clover): The centuries-long battle between the watermen of the Dozen Landsteads intensifies, centering upon the rivalry between the Second Landstead (on the Western Shore) and the Third Landstead (on the Eastern Shore). Beginning of the main plotline of the Waterman series, which is set in the Dozen Landsteads.
602, the second month (1962 Clover, Spring Transformation week): Master and Servant 1: The Abolitionist (Waterman).
602, the ninth month (1962 Clover, Autumn Waning week): Master and Servant 3: Unmarked (Waterman).
603, the second month (1962 Fallow, Spring Death week): Queue (Young Toughs).
603, the fourth month (1967 Fallow, Spring Death week): Journey to Manhood (Young Toughs).
603, the fifth month (1962 Fallow, Summer Waning week): Lost Haven (Waterman).
The eighth century (1995–2029)
Events in the Midcoast nations: The unimaginable future.
723, the ninth month (2002 Fallow): Psychologists with Whips: A History of the Eternal Dungeon is published (The Eternal Dungeon).
748, the first month (2011 Barley): Broken (The Eternal Dungeon).
o—o—o
o—o—o
o—o—o
=== Back matter ===
AUTHOR’S WEBSITE, BLOG, E-MAIL LIST, AND CONTACT INFORMATION
For Dusk Peterson’s e-books, free fiction, and series resources, please visit:
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E-BOOKS BY DUSK PETERSON
All of the e-book series listed below are available at major e-bookstores and at:
duskpeterson.com
Turn-of-the-Century Toughs
Tough (noun): a tough and violent man; a street ruffian; a trouble-maker.
Turn-of-the-Century Toughs is a cycle of alternate history series about adults and youths on the margins of society, and the people who love them. Set in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the novels and stories take place in an alternative version of America that was settled by inhabitants of the Old World in ancient times. As a result, the New World retains certain classical and medieval customs.
Young Toughs. During the turbulent years between the cannonballs and the atom bomb, life is not easy for young people. ¶ Young Toughs is an alternate history series about the struggles of youths in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Waterman. How can a youth from a bay island boarding school survive when he is sent to a futuristic prison? ¶ Waterman is a speculative fiction series set in an alternative version of the Chesapeake Bay region during the 1910s and during the future as it was envisioned in the 1960s.
Life Prison. They are imprisoned until death, and their lives cannot get worse . . . or so they think. But when an unlikely alliance forms against their captors, the reformers risk losing what little comforts they possess. ¶ Life Prison is a speculative fiction series about male desire and determination in nineteenth-century prisons.
Commando. The nautical nation is backed by the military might of an empire. The mountainous republic is populated by farmers and shopkeepers, and it has no standing army. The nautical nation is about to make the mistake of attacking the mountainous republic. ¶ Commando is a speculative fiction series that imagines what the South African Boer War could have been like if it had been fought on American soil.
Michael’s House. In a world where temples are dying and sacred theaters have been replaced by brothels, what will happen when a hard-headed businessman joins forces with an idealist? ¶ Michael’s House is a speculative fiction series set in a Progressive Era slum.
The Eternal Dungeon. In a cool, dark cavern, guarded by men and by oaths, lies a dungeon in which prisoners fearfully await the inevitable. The inevitable will be replaced by the unexpected. ¶ The Eternal Dungeon is a speculative fiction series set in a nineteenth-century prison where the psychologists wield whips.
Dark Light. Only in the dark can one truly see the light. ¶ Dark Light presents short reads from Turn-of-the-Century Toughs.
Turn-of-the-Century Toughs series resources.
The Great Peninsula
Koretia, Emor, and Daxis were all founded on the same day, but as the centuries have passed, the Three Lands of the Great Peninsula have become increasingly divided by religion, government, and culture. Koretians worship many gods, Daxions worship one goddess, and Emorians revere only their law. Emorians claim that Koretians are vicious and superstitious, Koretians think that Daxions are vile oath-breakers, and Daxions charge that Emorians abuse their children and slaves.
If a god were to appear in the Three Lands, would his appearance bring an end to the fighting between nations? Or would he merely help to spark an inferno of war?
As the inhabitants of the Three Lands struggle to adjust to the appearance of an unexpected visitor into the human world, two people will play crucial roles in the conflict. One is a young Emorian – clever, courageous, and affectionate – who will come to understand the Koretians with a depth and intimacy that few others of his land can match. The second person is a young Koretian whom the Emorian will seek to destroy.
The Great Peninsula is a cycle of fantasy series about an epic battle between cultures, set at a time when a centuries-old civilization is in danger of being destroyed.
Young Spies. With the entire Great Peninsula at war, even the youngest inhabitants need to fight and spy against the enemies. Unfortunately, one of the youths is a god. ¶ Young Spies is a fantasy series about a world at war, in which young men and young women take part in warfare and espionage. The series is inspired by conflicts between nations during the Arthurian era.
The Three Lands. He vowed himself to his god. Now the god is growing impatient . . . ¶ The Three Lands is a fantasy series on friendship, romantic friendship, romance, and betrayal in times of war and peac
e. The series is inspired by conflicts between nations during the Roman Empire and the Dark Ages.
The Great Peninsula series resources.
CREDITS
Rebirth
Editors: K. M. Frontain and Tracy Shaw.
Editorial assistants: Kay Derwydd, Remy Hart, Kylara Ingress, Isha, Liz, and Ashley Luloff.
Proofreaders: Clare London, Sara Spenadel, and Jo/e Noakes.
Costume consultant: Elizabeth McCollum.
Transformation
Editors: Kadymae, Maureen Lycaon, and Parhelion.
Medical consultant: JW.
The Balance
Editors: Maureen Lycaon, Kadymae, and Tracy Shaw.
Editorial assistants: Anne Blue, CJ, and Jo/e Noakes.
On Guard
Editor: Hope of Dawn.
Editorial assistants: Rose Red and Jo/e Noakes.
Caving consultant: JW.
Costume consultant: Elizabeth McCollum.
Technology consultants: Parhelion and Jo/e Noakes.
Omnibus
Cover photography, cover design, and interior design: Dusk Peterson.
Bat icon: Trick or Treat 2.0 freeware font by Jess Latham. (c) 2009 Blue Vinyl Fonts (bvfonts.com).