Throughout the plague, my father honored his promise to care for his people. With ward leaders, Guardians, and advisers at his side, he traveled to share their counsel with other kingdoms. I was told by many, during my own goodwill visits, what a gentle, centered man he was. “Strong in the way a tree is strong, not as a storm,” someone remarked to me once.
Given the proximity of hollow trees, my father and the woman he loved lived only minutes apart and saw one another periodically those seven years. They exchanged letters, in which they chronicled their respective work and often struggled with what would become of the two of them as a couple.
The plague ended in the spring of 3245. Even though her work was done, she didn’t return to Ailliath. She traveled to lecture on Aoife’s writings and to witness for herself how quickly the world was changing.
In 3247, my father chose a surname to mark a transition for himself. In September of that year, Nikolas Hart voluntarily relinquished absolute rule to a prime minister and a representative assembly, gender equitable, elected by the people regardless of their occupations. This shift of government had been a matter of conversation for years, with guidance from his Guardian advisers, notably Dru Kai, and a group of citizens and open-minded Council members. He was the first king on our continent to abdicate power, although he retained his title and role of counsel.
Ailliath’s people adored and trusted him, but he refused to stand as a candidate. He understood the Old Ways were meant to die while “certain old men and their intractable sons,” he told me, tried in vain to keep what no longer belonged to them, and never had. There had been resistance. Not all plague survivors found the initial years of The Turn to their liking, especially not men accustomed to unquestioned power. On the very day the upcoming election was announced, my father lost his friend and most loyal guard, Hugh, who took an assassin’s blade through the chest.
On 1 May 3248, my parents, both thirty-one years old, married. Two chronoprints of their wedding day remain in my library because my heart lilts when I look at them. In the first, they’re in each other’s arms, resplendent in the suit and gown Margana designed, looking into the other’s eyes with an intimacy unmeasurable, which bound them until the end of their lives. The second is posed but playful. My mother stands behind my seated father and grandfather, her arms around them, their hands clutching hers. Twined in my grandfather’s fingers, dangling from his knee, is an amulet. Harmyn’s. The member of my family I never met, I feel.
Two years later, my twin, Duncan, and I were born; four years after that, our brother, Riley. We spent our infancies in the settlement where Ahma had lived and visited often when we were children. When they joined us, my affectionate Ahpa and my beloved Grandahpa, who died when I was eight, found it to be as much of a second home as Ahma did.
Once we were old enough to hear of certain matters, Ahma spoke of them. She hid nothing from us, not the fact she released the plague, the legend which was Fewmany, the mystery which was Harmyn, the lovers she and Ahpa had during their tenuous years apart, or the complicated truth about her own mother. Because of the last, although this wasn’t the only reason, she had long refused to marry Ahpa. She feared her shadows, the legacy they bore, and how she might fail a child, if they agreed to have one.
After what you’ve read from her, I want to assure you I loved my mother, truly and deeply. She was not without flaws, but we never doubted her love. When dark moods overcame her, she sent us to our father or friends until she could quiet them again. Ahma found joy in our presence and delight in our learning. I knew the comfort of her arms and voice, often both at once when she told us stories. I was also in awe of her; only those closest to her knew the extent of her powers, no longer latent. My mythic mother could summon rain, flower valleys, move mountains, and turn tides—that, and more. In the instances when she revealed her gift, she did so to share power with, not over, this world.
From her, my brothers and I inherited a love of Nature and great tales. I received her passion for knowledge and two eyes the color of night; Duncan, her ability to speak to creatures and plants and two eyes the color of day; Riley, the gifts of a Voice and indigo eyes instead of violet.
Unlike our grandmother, Zavet, and Harmyn, Riley wasn’t alone. He was among the first Voices born after the plague. While Ahpa served on councils and boards, Ahma traveled with us to help other families with Voices and hosted gatherings twice a year for them. She had so loved Harmyn and my brother that she was determined no Voice would suffer from other people’s misunderstanding or fear.
She accomplished still more.
Queen Evensong, spouse of Nikolas, mother of us three, was also Secret Riven, Keeper of Tales. In her lifetime, Ahma not only translated and distributed Aoife’s work but also collected an archive of the plague. With a staff of scholars, she gathered notebooks, diaries, and ephemera, amassing thousands of records. Beginning in 3269, using the first sound cylinders, she started to record interviews for the Plague of Silences Recollection Project. She was fifty-two years old.
My brothers and I didn’t know she’d written her own recollections until after she died in 3295, eight months after we lost Ahpa. As I sorted through her belongings, I found boxes of Zavet’s diaries, all of the letters Ahma and Ahpa had exchanged, as well as hundreds of letters, dozens of her diaries, and her plague notebooks.
In the old faded blue chest she kept in their bedroom, I discovered two typed manuscripts. She left them with a note: “To reveal at your discretion. I love you always, Ahma.” I’m uncertain when she wrote The Chronicle of Secret Riven or this text. I might have been able to discern the time periods if she’d left handwritten copies. When I discovered the manuscripts, they contained the same woodcut images which appear in various editions of The Mapmaker’s War as well as other illustrations done in her hand. She included the diary entries, letters, interviews, and additional relevant documentation seen here. The endnote references, however, are my own.
My brothers and I believe our parents would want descendants and survivors to know the truth, just as they learned the cause and consequences of The Mapmaker’s War. Their role in releasing the plague and Harmyn’s miraculous contribution perhaps couldn’t be told until now.
Mine is the first generation since The Turn. My children’s, the second. As I write this, the third is taking its first breaths as the remaining survivors begin their last. Each of us is witness to and a participant in an era many of our ancestors never believed could exist. Caught as they were in the shadows of the past, they could see no other way.
My parents sometimes wept together as they marveled over what emerged in their lifetime—peace and plenty enough, for all. However elated they were, they were pragmatic, too, telling my brothers and me that we weren’t free of the darkness. The old shadows linger within us, within everyone, as reminders, as a challenge. Ahma wrote in her diary on the tenth anniversary of the plague’s first day, “Our intricate nature continues to tilt its balance toward light. It could, again, turn the other way. I know too well the choice between good and evil, light and dark, is a precarious one. But now that we understand we’re guardians of one another, may we choose wisely. May we never forget we are all born made of gold.”
To the reign of love,
Aoife-Ianthe Riven Hart
Professor of Sociology, Erritas Academy
23 September 3298
Acknowledgments
To my family, thank you for your unwavering support and encouragement.
My heartfelt gratitude to those who know the whole story—Alison Aucoin, Madeleine Conger, Tameka Cage Conley, Penelope Dane, Mary McMyne, and Nancy Peacock.
Thank you to kind friends, some of whom were early readers—Nolde Alexius, Martin Arceneaux, Rick Blackwood, Tracey Bourgoyne, James Claffey, Jamey Hatley, Susan Henderson, Tai Anderson Istre, Judy Kahn, Karla King, Ben Lanier-Nabors, McHenry “Dub” Lee, Signe Pike, Ariana Wall Postlethwait, Kathleen Sarsfield, Emilie Staat, Kirsten Steintrager, Kate Suchanek, and Gary �
��Doc T” Taylor.
For typing the rewrites, thank you, Marianne Konikoff. For help with specific details, thank you, Mark Ensley, Sean Flory, Robert Forbes, Nat Missildine, Chris Odinet, Caroline and Lann Wolf, and Mary Erica Zimmer. For spelling assistance, thank you, Charlotte Alexander, Madison Layne Brown, Karleigh M. Cannon, Finnegan Collins, Harrison M. Conley, Sophia Delahoussaye, Madeleine A. Guidry, Parrish Johnson, Aidan Johnson, Vincent J. Pelletier, Ella Mae Pettyjohn, Kate Pettyjohn, and Kamryn Lacey Reed.
To readers who’ve embraced the people of these books and their world, thank you.
Thank you to Kathryn Hunter for the illustrations, Jillian Manus for seeing me through, and Atria Books and Sarah Branham for their commitment to this uncanny little project.
Dr. Robin Roberts, thank you for the creative assignment option in your Spring 1990 Women & Literature course. The feminist fairy tale I wrote was the genesis for the trilogy. Dr. Randall Rogers, thank you for sparking my appreciation of history and inspiring my earliest research for this work.
At last, but not least, thank you to a man of integrity, loyalty, and devotion, my partner and my beloved, Todd.
About the Author
RONLYN DOMINGUE is the internationally published author of The Mercy of Thin Air and the Keeper of Tales Trilogy—The Mapmaker’s War, The Chronicle of Secret Riven, and The Plague Diaries. Her essays and short stories have appeared in several print and online publications, including New England Review, Shambhala Sun, and The Nervous Breakdown. Connect with her on RonlynDomingue.com, Facebook, and Twitter.
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ALSO BY RONLYN DOMINGUE
The Chronicle of Secret Riven
The Mapmaker’s War
The Mercy of Thin Air
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Notes
1. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXI, pp. 143–149
2. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XI, pp. 80–82
3. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter V, pp. 38–39
4. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXXVI, pp. 264–265
5. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XLIV, pp. 328–341
6. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XIV, pp. 101–103
7. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXII, pp. 155–158
8. Regarding Secret Riven’s first seven years, refer to The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter I, p. 1; Chapter II, pp. 5–14; Chapter V, pp. 38–39; Chapter VI, pp. 44–47; Chapter XV, pp. 105–108; Chapter XVI, pp. 110–111; and Chapter XVIII, pp. 116–119.
9. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXVIII pp. 207–210 and Chapter XXIX, pp. 211–216
10. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXII, pp. 155-57 and Chapter XXXIII, pp. 247-250
11. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXXVIII, pp. 279–280
12. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter I, p. 2
13. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XLI, p. 305
14. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXXIX, pp. 296–298
15. Regarding the first three encounters with Harmyn, refer to The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXXV, pp. 254–255; Chapter XXXIX, p. 289, and Chapter XLV, pp. 346–347.
16. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], pp. 10–11
17. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XLI, p. 309
18. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXXIX, p. 290
19. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], p. 8
20. References to another man with similar attributes, which Secret Riven did not specifically acknowledge, The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], pp. 3, 8, 13, 23, 26, 30, 45, and 53.
21. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXX, pp. 221–222
22. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXVI, p. 195
23. The Myths of the Four appear in The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Appendix II, pp. 363–385.
24. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], pp. 49–50
25. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], p. 85
26. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], p. 213
27. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], p. 77
28. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], p. 193
29. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], p. 111
30. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter IX, p. 64
31. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XIV, p. 104
32. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], p. 211
33. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XXXI, p. 229
34. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XVIII, p. 132
35. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], p. 216
36. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven], p. 103
37. The Mapmaker’s War [translation by (E.) S. Riven] pp. 106–108, pp. 111–113
38. The Chronicle of Secret Riven, Chapter XI, p. 77
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Domingue, Ronlyn, author.
Title: The plague diaries / Ronlyn Domingue.
Description: First Atria Books hardcover edition. | New York : Atria Books, 2017. | Series: The keeper of tales trilogy ; 3
Identifiers: LCCN 2016049056 (print) | LCCN 2016057440 (ebook) | ISBN 9781476774282 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781476774305 (e-book)
Subjects: | BISAC: FICTION / Fantasy / General. | FICTION / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology. | FICTION / General. | GSAFD: Fantasy fiction.
Classification: LCC PS3604.O457 P58 2017 (print) | LCC PS3604.O457 (ebook) | DDC 813/.6—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016049056
ISBN 978-1-4767-7428-2
ISBN 978-1-4767-7430-5 (ebook)
nbsp; Ronlyn Domingue, The Plague Diaries
The Plague Diaries Page 48