Blood of the Falcon, Volume 1 (The Falcons Saga)
Page 48
He proceeded to the room at the end of the corridor and, positioning the red ball of light under the low ceiling, stood with fists on hips, daring the tome to hide from him a moment longer. Maybe the spell he sought wasn’t here to be found. Maybe Aerdria had burnt it after Blackhand had made use of it. Maybe he ought to give up the plan and risk paying one of the Moon Guard to kill the avedrin and toss their bodies into the Alvávidan.
Crusty white niter collected more thickly on the walls and floor of the third room, the shelves were less densely packed, a couple completely bare. At least he hadn’t many volumes left to search. He chose a tome, any tome, and leafing through it, he shivered. Perhaps he had been underground too long, or perhaps this room was truly colder than the others. The cold, however, felt vaguely unnatural; Lothiar suspected that the forbidden knowledge within the tomes was seeping into the air around him.
He slid the present volume back into place and stepped back, looking for a more hopeful candidate. At the very end of the lower shelf, pressed against the cold stone wall, he saw a volume thinner and taller than its brethren. It appeared to be peeking at him from the livid shadow. He had difficulty tugging it free. When the book came loose, he found that the black cover had bonded to the niter and patches of leather were stuck to the wall. As far as Lothiar could see, the pages inside were still in good condition. But of all the tomes in the vault, only this one was sealed with a chain.
Without needing to peek inside, Lothiar knew this was the book he was looking for. He sat on the floor and propped the thin tome on his knees. Beckoning the red light closer, he examined the chain. No lock for a key, no latch to twist. The chain, fixed to the leather covers, was meant to keep the tome’s secrets locked up forever. The warning worried Lothiar. Whatever the tome contained, it might pose as much threat to himself as to the avedrin.
He almost returned the book to its place. Almost chose another course of action. But he debated a moment too long. He unsheathed a dagger and pried the chain from the disintegrating cover. The binding crackled as he peeled open the pages.
The first page was largely blank but for a single, simple design drawn in faded ink: a triangle’s three points touched an encompassing circle at equal intervals. A tiny arrow had been drawn below the circle, but didn’t seem to be an original part of the symbol. Along the top of the page, Lothiar read “Avarith.” Dragon! Turning carefully through the pages, he found dozens of designs with names of magical and celestial beings scribbled above them. On the verso side of the pages were lengthy instructions or the stanzas of spells written in countless hands. Lothiar’s excitement clogged in his throat.
This was the legendary Book of Sigils.
Every magical entity had its natural symbol that illustrated the essence of the energy converging about it, and supposedly these sigils could be used to find or even summon a creature from across great distances. According to the tome, Elarion, too, had a sigil; it was an elegant design of curves and symmetrical angles.
Searching feverishly, Lothiar passed up the sigils of fairies, ogres, giants, various nymphs, even a sigil for Ana-Forah, before finding the page he needed. More worn than the others, darker with the oil and grime from hands of many ages, the page read “Rágazeth.” The sigil clearly revealed the nature of the creature. The line shaped a pair of curves and intertwined jagged angles. No symmetry, no pattern. Chaos.
The tiny arrow showed Lothiar the direction in which he was to trace the design, and on the verso side, he found the results of years of trial and error, disaster and success, scribbled in several colors of ink by half-a-dozen hands. In red was written, “Whereas the dragon be summoned with fire and the fairy with light, the Demon be called by the blood of the Master.” Lothiar cringed. Further along, he read, “Six times traced upon the windless air, beginning with and following Mistress Sythea’s arrow.”
Below this, in faded gray ink, was what some sorcerer had called a ‘coaxing spell’:
Thief of Souls
Demon of Darkness
Banished of Mother-Father,
Hear your Master’s voice
And answer.
Demon of Darkness
Soul of Shadow,
Return to Light
And obey.
In the dull red light of the orb, Lothiar felt himself smiling. The cold of the vault had seeped into his bones, but he was no longer aware of it. His doubts were resolved. Everything he needed was laid out nicely for him. All he had to do was practice the design, rehearse the incantation, and in a few days he would summon an assassin, the likes of which no one would expect. And then, yes, then Kieryn’s soul would spin for all eternity, lightless, in the Abyss.
~~~~
Blood of the Falcon continues in
Volume 2
Pronunciation Guide
Consonants:
C, rarely used, as K is preferred; when C is used, it is always pronounced as K
CH/KH, in Elaran and the common human tongue usually pronounced as ‘loch’ and ‘Bach’ (example: Cheriam). CH pronounced as in ‘church’ is a rare occurrence, as in Chaya.
G, always hard as in ‘goddess.’
P, an unused sound in Elaran; of human, dwarven, and na’in speech only
Q, when found without U, pronounced as K
RH, voiceless R, almost breathed rather than spoken. (e.g. Rhithio)
Vowels:
A, usually as in ‘father’ (examples: Arryk, Dathiel). Sometimes short, as in ‘apple’ (e.g. Laniel, Alovi)
E, most often short, as in ‘get’ (examples: Kelyn, Elari, Lyrienn, eshel,); rarely long, as in ‘teen.’ Sometimes as long A, as in ‘ate’ (e.g. Rashén)
Ë, falls at the end of Elaran verbs, to denote a command. The E is not silent, but pronounced as long A (e.g. mithilë)
I, almost always as long E
O, almost always long, as in ‘open’
U, sometimes as in ‘put’ (e.g. Ulna), sometimes long, as in ‘boot’ (e.g. Uthia )
Y, when not a consonant, pronounced almost always as short I, as in ‘sit’. (e.g. Lyrienn)
AI, long I, as in ‘kite’
AE, long A, as in ‘ate’ (e.g. Aerdria, naenion)
AU, as in ‘ouch’
AY, long I
EI, long A
When two adjacent vowels are pronounced separately, they are usually divided by an apostrophe mark (‘), as in “na’in,” or denoted by two dots above the second vowel (EÄ, EÖ, OÄ, IË). The use of the apostrophe is especially prevalent in Leanian spelling preference; this practice, however, is neglected by the Pearl Islanders (example: Bano’en, Naovhan).
Stress
Elaran words are naturally stressed in the syllable first from last. If a word is stressed otherwise, the stressed vowel is marked with an accent (´); for example: rágazeth. Words of purely human origin (or Elaran words corrupted by human pronunciation habits) may be stressed in odd places and not marked with accents (e.g. Alovi=Ál-ov-ee; Allaran= Ál-lar-än.)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Court Ellyn began writing historical fiction when she was fourteen, but her preference slowly gravitated toward the fantastical. Now, somewhere between dragon dens, haunted forests, and battlefields strewn with otherworldly foes, she moderates the LegendFire Creative Writing Community at www.legendfire.com
Connect with Ms. Ellyn:
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