The Golden Sword

by Janet Morris

  “Just come with me,” he said. “I am sorry. I knew it would be that name they gave you.” And I looked at that man, trembling visibly in the corridor, and asked him his name. He spoke it. Tears filled my eyes for him, that he still carried such pain for his dead couchmate.

  “I did not realize,” I said touching his arm. “I did not mean to remind you.”

  “Let me take you back,” he said, disengaging my hand, propelling me forward.

  “Sereth,” I said.

  He closed his eyes, opened them. “What?”

  “You will find another.”

  And then it was he that halted. He left me and leaned on the corridor wall. I went and peered up into his face. I should not have. What was there was private grief. I put my hand upon his shoulder. He shivered. Not knowing anything else to do, I stood there with him.

  “Sometimes I get dizzy,” he said with a weak grin. “Too many blows to the head.” He pushed himself away from the wall. I let my hand fall.

  We walked the rest of the way in silence.

  He opened my chamber and stood back.

  “Go on,” he said, his lean form tense, his eyes watchful.

  “Carth comes in and sits with me. We talk. I am not sleepy.”

  “And I am not Carth. Have you no soul, woman? Leave me be. You will have your Carth back soon enough, from this timely emergency.” And before his fury I ran into my chamber, and turned and put my hand upon the door, so that he could not close it.

  “Why are you angry?” I asked him. “I have done nothing.”

  “I am not angry,” he said, running his hand over his eyes, as if to clear them. “I have matters pressing. Remove your hand, and I will go find Carth.”

  “I had a dream about you once,” I said softly.

  His face changed. He took my hand from the doorjamb. Then dropped it.

  His eyes searched mine. Whatever they sought there, they did not find.

  “You had best content yourself with dreams. I value my life. I must choose well the moment to spend it,” he said, and closed the door upon me. I heard the tumblers spin.

  It amuses me to forward this to you, that you may be apprised of the fate of your envoy. Your daughter will bear my son, and when he is grown, I may choose to set him against you.

  Be warned. Send no more manipulators into my domain.

  Khys

  Glossary

  (P) = Parset

  (S) = Silistran

  (ST) = Stothric

  (M) = Mi’ysten

  (MK) = M’ksakkan

  Amarsa: (S) The eighth pass of the Silistran calendar; the pass of summer solstice.

  aniet: (P) One of the seven interconnected underground life-support complexes that housed refugee Silistrans during the thousand-year period known as hide-days. The hide aniet lies under the dead sea in the Parset Desert; or the hide-name aniet, as Aknet aniet Beshost. Of all the hides of Silistra, the blood of aniet is the least common, being confined almost exclusively to the Parset Lands by an insular confederation of tribes who maintain there a strict autonomy. Almost one-half of aniet’s survivors were of gristasha tribesmen, and this strong infusion makes “aniet’s stamp” an easily recognizable Silistran type.

  apprei: (P) The tapestried, pyramidal tents of the nomadic desert cities of the Parse tribes.

  appreida: (P) The gathered appreis that constitute the Parset tribal unit; any group of appreis containing, representatives of the major facets of Parset life; the ground upon which rests the bulk of a given tribe.

  apth: (P) These large and ferocious tusked beasts roam the barrens and foothills of the Yaicas, even venturing into the desert itself. The ill-tempered, pugnacious apth has a disproportionately small head, from which jut its savage tusks, set upon a thick and muscular neck. Where neck meets shoulder, the apth boasts an exaggerated crest, which in times of drought “humps” full with stored water. Apths, though formidable opponents even of men and dorkats, are increasingly rare and are under the protection of the cahndors and the god Tar-Kesa.

  Arlet: (S) Well Arlet. Also, the lands controlled by her.

  Arletian: (S) Of or pertaining to Well Arlet. In couching, any coupling attended by bondage or containing elements of submission; as criticism, excessive vehemence, or roughness.

  arrar: (ST) The chald of the messenger, within which is woven every strand attainable on Silistra; the mark of the dharen’S personal service; one who bears such a chald.

  Astria: (S) Well Astria. The lands controlled by Well Astria, including Port Astrin, her dependent city. Sometimes, in colloquial speech, it may denote the Well Foundress: “By Astriar”

  Astria Barina diet Hadrath: (S) The Foundress of Well Astria, great-grandam of Estri Hadrath diet Estrazi.

  Baniese: (S) Of or pertaining to Baniev.

  Baniev: (S) Silistra’s most northeast coast port. Baniev’s major exports are: the famed northern, thala; danne, the yellow herb that grows high in the Sabembes; and the tri-sailed long ship whose fleetness has no equal even in the quays of Dritira.

  bast: (S) The hide bast, which lies under Well Arlet and is said to extend under the Sabembe range. The hide name “bast.”

  binnirin: (S) A high-protein, high-fat grain that grows in numerous varieties all over Silistra. Anything tannish-brown may be called binnirin. From the grain comes flour and the fermented beverage brin, as well as oil and stalk fodder for denter and parr.

  Bipedal Federate Standard Time: (MK) (BFST) Measured in hours, minutes, and seconds; an hour being equal to twenty-one twenty-seconds of an enth.

  Bipedal Federation: (MK) (B.F.) The M’ksakkan confederacy of worlds as a whole, including both the Bipedal Federate Trade Union (merchant arm), and the Bipedal Federate Group (the original fifty-five worlds, commonly referred to as the Inner Stars).

  Bipedal Standard: (MK) (B.S.) Universal mean weights and measures.

  bondrex: (S) A class of horned herbivores; any undomesticated grazer whose milk and meat are not coveted by man (except the steppe bondrex, prized and raised for its long, silky hair). There are nineteen species of bondrex cataloged on Silistra.

  brin: (S) A mild intoxicant drink fermented from the binnirin grain.

  brist: (S) A large and ferocious Silistran carnivore, hunted both for pelt and meat. Brist have a standing height of up to sixteen B.S. feet, a weight of up to twenty-five hundred pounds. Their appearance is generally manlike. The head is round, the jaw slung under and hinged below side-set ears. The whole body is covered with a thick hair coat, generally brown, much prized for its warmth and durability.

  cahndor: (P) “Will of the sand”; the warlord of a Parset tribe; in usage, one who commands the speaker’s allegiance and respect. The Silistran root word “chan” (“will of”) has been adopted into Parset, with only its division into gender to differentiate it from its usage in the north. Whether suffix or prefix, “chan” is always female, while “cahn” denotes a male.

  ca-nera: (S) Three-quarters of a nera.

  Cathe: (P) The mythological winged slitsa, guardian of the Spirit Gate that opens upon the twin rivers of Ascension and. Dissolution, and before whom every traveler freed of flesh must come in supplication, lest his journeys never end.

  chald: (S) (Stothric: spirit-bond.) A belt of chains commonly soldered around the waist.

  chalded: (S) Possessed of or wearing a chald.

  chaldless: (S) Possessing no chald; one who has been either unwilling or unable to acquire chaldra; an outlaw; one who has been stripped of his chald for iniquitous behavior, and so disbarred from Silistran society.

  chaldra: (S) Numerous volumes exist upon the subject of chaldra, first and foremost Ors Chaldra (the dharen Khys, hide-year sixty-three); Khys’s postulates of self-rule; the goal-seeking morality of Silistra in general, including both highchaldra (tasks and responsibilities undertaken to strengthen the spirit form and increase survival potential of the eternal particle, the individual consciousness, or the flesh race as a whole) and low-chaldra (pertaining
to the survival and betterment of the mundane individual, the acquiring of life skills of material import only); a trade or craft chain.

  chaldric: (S) Demanded by chaldra; the “chaldric strands” that make up a chald; duties or labors determined by the Laws of Chaldra.

  Clous: (S) The Silistran north star.

  coin girl: (S) A girl who couches for pay outside the Well system.

  Coseve: (P) The southeastern Parset Lands, holdings of the Cosever nation, whose color is green and whose device is a white sphere transfixed by lightning upon a beryl ground.

  couch: (S) (n.) A sleeping platform, any surface used for coupling.

  couch: (S) (v.t.) To copulate.

  couchbond: (S) A companionship agreement between two consenting adults. (Low-chaldra.) The titrium couchbond strand is issued to the male at puberty after potency has been determined. No Day-Keeper need officiate at such an enthalding, nor is a chalder demanded by custom. The titrium châin may be inwoven or removed from a chald at the discretion of the two .parties involved. There is no minimum or maximum time of couchbond.

  couch-gift: (S) The tokens exchanged upon the assumption of couchbond, forever after the property of the individual in receipt. Also, any gift of sentiment.

  couching: (S) (n.) Any single coupling; a style, as “an Astrian couching.”

  couch-mate: (S) Persons bound together by love and/or issue; in usage, those in extended couch bond, those who consider their relationship more binding than simple couchbond. Couch-mate denotes responsibility of a high moral order between two people. Gifting between couch-mates is traditionally regulated; one gives either the gift of life (progeny, animal or human) or the gift of death (knife or sword).

  couch-met: (S) Met while performing well work; couching partners who have no previous acquaintance.

  couch-price: (S) The fee a woman demands for her sexual services. Fees may range from as low as a titrium half-well for a coin girl to as high as fifty gold dippars for a high-couch girl.

  couch-sisters: (S) Wellwornen; those of the same Well.

  crell: (P) A subhuman status awarded humans in the Parset Lands. Crells are bred, bought, and caught: a foreign chald is reason enough for such immurement and exploitation of an unwary stranger.

  crill: (S) The hide crill, under the city Nin Sihaen across the Karir-Thoss River, is the most westerly of all Silistran hides; the hide-name crill, as: Sereth crill Tyris.

  crux: (S) One of the major Weathers of Life; time within which only that preordained may be done. Time so obscured that no foreknowledge may be, gathered of what will occur therein. Colloquially, the abyss. Any time that spawns far-reaching changes whose effects and purposes are supernal in nature. Events that precipitate numinosity or nympholeptic response in the super-conscious.

  danne: (S) Psychotropic yellow herb that grows best at high altitudes in stony soil.

  Day-Keepers: (S) The guardians of Silistran history, past, present, and future. The Day-Keeper hierarschy as a whole is referred to as the Dharendiil, a High Day-Keeper as dharener. Over these presides the dharen, the spiritual guide of Silistra.

  Day-Keepers’ Clock: (S) A mythical gnomon upon whose face all that ever was, is, and will be is inscribed. Usually an oath, as “By the Day-Keepers’ Clock.”

  Day-Keepers’ Roll: (S) The records of the dead, the archives into which name and history are entered upon an individual’s death.

  deepIreader: (S) One whose skills allow access to the deeper consciousness of another, exempting thoughts framed for communication. The value of deep-reading is considered by many to be greater than that of surface reading, for thoughts upon the surface, like, the tip of an iceberg, give little and often faulty enlightenment as to what lurks beneath.

  denter: (S) A large-humped, nub-horned animal, passive and tractable, raised for meat and dairy, and often used as a draft beast. This single-hoofed animal ranges from ten to fourteen hands and may reach a weight of thirteen hundred B.S. pounds.

  deracou: (P) “The wind that devours”; most deadly of Parset sandstorms; the summer storms that yearly remake the desert’s topography, which once blew all the year round upon the desert lands, and against which the Parset nictitating membranes and contractible nostrils were developed as survival modifications by hide aniet’s Day-Keepers.

  dharen: (ST) The spiritual ruler of Silistra; the supreme authority of the Day-Keeper hierarchy.

  dharener: (ST) A high Day-keeper; one who holds the adminstrative rank of dharener; a hide council member. (In the Parset Lands, where the dhareners posture at autonomy, the hide council seeks no higher authority.)

  dhrouma: (S) A drum made from the hollowed-out elbow of the onaric tree’s branches. Once the curved, tube has been aged, both ends are covered with gaen hide.

  diet: (S) The hide diet, which extends under Well Astria, has her entrance on the banks of the Litess River, within the walls of the Day-Keepers’ School; the hide name diet.

  dippar: (S) Sillistran coinage. One gold dippar is equalled by fifty copper dippars. Dippars are minted only in independent cities, as opposed to titrium and gold half-wells and wells, minted by the Well system. They are round with octagonal holes punched in mid-disk, and are intaglioed with a representation of the city in which they were struck.

  Dordassa: (P) The land of the Dordassar tribesmen, which bisects the dead sea. Dordassa is bordered on the north by Nemar, on the east by the Embrodming Sea, on the south by Coseve, Menetph, and Itophe, and to the west by the tail of the Yaicas and the Opirian Sea. Her colors are cobalt and cinnabar, her, device the cobalt dorkat upon a cinnabar ground.

  Dorkat: (P) Wingless cousin of the hulion, the dorkat has the same wedge-shaped head and pointed ears. The hind, musculature tends to be lighter, but the forequarters are as heavily developed. Although the cranial capacity is identical with the hulion’s, dorkats do not demonstrate more than half the intelligence of their winged brethren. The nocturnal dorkat is prevalent in all the wilderness areas of Silistra, and its prey is thusly varied, dependent upon what the area will provide. They are exclusively carnivores, with protruding incisors. Dorkats, unlike hulions, have been known to turn man-eater, and area often troublesome raiders to herders of domesticated beasts.

  draw: (S) Draw time, one of the Weathers of Life, recognizable by the acceleration of the procession of events, and to the individual by an increased sensitivity and awareness of proximity to crux. Draw time, when properly exploited, is said to be the most frUitful of all the Weathers.

  Dritira: (S) Fifth-largest Silistran city, largest southern port. Dritira receives goods overland from Stra and Galesh, and ships from every city with merchant fleets. The Embrodrning Inlet, which she shares with the city of the written word, Yardum-Or, is the most trafficked harbor upon Silistra. Dritira, as Yardurn-Or, is a dependent city to Well Oppiri, third most prestigious of the Silistran Wells.

  ebvrasea: (S) The largest of Silistra’s .omnivorous birds. Ebvraseas have been known to achieve a wingspread of sixteen feet or more. They are night hunters and seldom venture out of their craggy realms. Ebvraseas mate for life.

  ei-joss (P) The five-named human spirit as it is delineated by the religion of Tar-Kesa; folk representation of the Tar-Kesian tenet that man is never complete while enfleshed, and that human iniquity stems from this inherent knowledge of the flawed nature of mortality.

  enth: (S) One twenty-eighth of the Silistran day; each enth contains seventy-five iths.

  Falls of Santha: (S) The great cascades at the source of the Litess River, high on the Plateau of Santha in the Sabembe range.

  Feast of Conception: (S) The oldest performed ceremony upon Silistra, dating back into prehistory. Before Haroun-Vhass, the Fall of Man, Silistrans observed Feast of Conception ..

  fire gem: (P) A multihued precious stone mined exclusively in the Parset Lands, fire gems rival gol in hardness and durability and are much sought by gol-etchers.

  firstcome: (P) Any individual whose actions seem to fulfill prophecy; a catal
yst or agent of TarKesa, sent periodically into the world to purge and prepare his children before He makes his presence felt.

  forereaders: (S) Those females who have received training in the sorting of probability. Forereaders ai-e the most powerful and prestigious women on Silistra, those whom the Day-Keepers have chosen to share their work, those whose innate foreseeing ability is .88999 or better.

  forereader’s disease: (S) An inability to discern the relative likelihood of manifestation of what is seen in the sort, followed by the appearance in the forereader of doubt and fear. Once this negative patterning has become firmly established in the viewer’s conception, all incoming data are misread to accord with the interpretive viewpoint, a closed cycle of paranoia develops, wherein the forereader manufactures a false sort, reads it, reinforces the self-generated fear, brings into being that which is feared, is thusly upheld, and manufactures yet another false sort.

  forereading: (S) Stochastic processing, the sorting of probability.

  friysou: (P) A featherless, leather-winged scavenger common in the desert regions, the friysou’s wingspread may approach that of the mountain ebvrasea. The friysou is not an aggressive predator, however, preferring to pick the bones of other beasts’ kills.

  gaen: (S) Most common of southern draft beasts, the gaen is a distant relative of the northern denter. This straight-horned herbivore is readily domesticated, placid of temper, and can haul up to ten times its own weight for considerable distances. Its heavy musculature, although a benefit to those who use gaen for draft, yields up a tough and stringy meat which is barely palatable; “gaen-eater” is an epithet applicable to any so lacking in life skills as to be reduced to depending for sustenance upon this slow-moving, dull-witted, untasty beast.

  Gaes d’ar: (P) “You stand before me”; one of fifteen possible Parset greetings, the use of which is in a formal audience between two of markedly different stations.

  gaesh: (S) The hide gaesh, beneath the jungle city of Galesh on the Karir-Thoss River. The hide name gaesh.

  Galesh: (S) The city that feeds Silistra, Galesh lies in the most fertile Karir-Thoss Valley. The Galeshir swamps yield a number of medicinal herbs that cannot be found elsewhere, as well as the swamp kepher from whose scent glands come the base fixatives for: the much-sought Galeshir perfumes. In this tropical climate the. Silistran silkworm thrives; Galeshir carpets are second only to Parset rugs in their beauty and durability.