She put her arms around him and they kissed and touched and drew in the reality of each other. All the leagues, all the years, all the pain washed away. For an instant, she imagined that they stood once more beneath the forest trees, she playing the harp, he reciting poetry.
Ryckair took her hands in his as his face grew grim. “I have seen terrible things, Mirjel. Acts I never thought people capable of doing to each other. I questioned my destiny, the resolve of my friends, the strength of my enemies, even my own faith in the dragons. Yet, in all this time, I never once doubted my love for you. It is the only sanity I have known, the only thought that has never dimmed.”
Her jaw trembled. They wrapped their arms around each other again.
Batu approached and knelt. “Mother and Father of Dragons, I never thought to see this day.”
Ryckair laid his hand on Batu’s shoulder. “My dearest and truest friend. Never have you failed me. Serve now your king as you have served your prince.”
“My Liege.” Batu took Ryckair’s hand and kissed it.
Ryckair noticed that Petstra’s body was no longer on the tower roof. “It appears I vaporized Petstra along with Reshna. Good riddance.”
Arms linked, Ryckair and Mirjel walked to the western parapet. Batu stood next to them. By the light of the full moon Ryckair looked across the plain that was littered with dead men and horses. Pyres were being constructed to burn the bodies. Above them, stars shone brightly in the sky. He closed his eyes. “Batu, ask Mistress Telasec to prepare my brother’s body. He shall be laid to rest of the Valley of Remembrance with full honors.”
Batu bowed. “As you command, My Lord.” He left to make the preparations.
Ryckair opened his eyes. To the west, hills and valleys and dales stretched on seemingly forever in the moonlight. To the south, torches lit the city of Meth as celebrations commenced. He and Mirjel would go down to the city in the morning and hold open court to commend those who had fought against the Barasha.
Mirjel squeezed his hand. He turned and stared into her eyes. They reflected the hurt and fear she had lived with for so long. Yet, she was strong; a woman whose had overcome the Barasha and challenged Baras himself.
Ryckair took a step back. “On the day of my birth, our fathers laid a pact that bound you to marriage without your consent. As king of Carandir, I now revoke that pact and free you of all obligation therein.”
He dropped to one knee. “And now, as Ryckair Avar, I ask you to be my wife, to live with me until the end of our days, rejoicing with me in my victories and comforting me in my defeats. To be my queen and rule with me. To help me find the resolve to be stern when I must and to remind me of the times I need to be gentle. To do all this and remember that I will love you longer than the sun burns and the stars shine, and even when these lights fail you shall still warm me and bring me joy.”
She took his hand and raised him to his feet. “I will be your wife, if you will be my husband, to rejoice in my victories and comfort me in what defeats life delivers. To tell me the truth about myself, even when it is hard. To do all this and know that I love you to the root of my soul.”
“I so swear, My Lady.”
“And I, My Lord.”
They kissed. Then, hand in hand, Ryckair and Mirjel walked down the stairs to the palace below.
EPILOGUE
Far to the east, on a lonely, barren plane, a newborn child gave his first cry. His mother extended her arms. “Let me have him.” Zamalatha placed the baby boy into Shara’s grasp. She held the infant at arm’s length. “Ryckair Avar’s son.” She laughed. “I hold the heir to Carandir. Do you hear me, Ryckair? The heir to your throne!”
APPENDIX A
GUIDE TO PRONUNCIATIONS
This book translates the common speech of Carandir, as it was known at the time of this tale, into the reader’s language. Older dialects of Carandirian, as well as more ancient languages, are indicated in italics with archaic verbiage and sentence structure. The dragon tongue, however, remains as it was originally spoken. This includes the names of some people and places. The reader's alphabet has been used to approximate the sounds. This appendix provides a guide to proper pronunciation.
The letter “c” is always pronounced hard, as in cat, but not quite as hard as the letter “k”. In the original dragon tongue, “ch” was pronounced with the tongue pulled back in the throat and almost blocking off the air. Long before Ryckair’s time, this sound had moved to the front of the mouth and softened. The harsher sounds were preserved by the wizards in performing magic, as in Jarat’s use of the work “Hachana”, meaning “submit”, and by some creatures who still used a form of the dragon tongue, as in the Oola king’s use of “Harch”, meaning “you will”.
The letter “j” is always pronounced soft, as in the modern name Jacques.
The letter “r” has a slight trill. The Dharam “r” has a more pronounced trill. This is the product of their original eastern tongue merging with that of the people of Amblar. It also accounts for the way they draw out the pronunciation of vowels.
When the letter “y” precedes a consonant it is pronounced like a long “i” (ī). When it precedes a vowel, it is pronounced with a lilt.
Vowels in names are generally pronounced short, except for vowels that begin a name, such as Orane (Ō`-rān), or are preceded by another vowel where the second vowel is silent, as in Ryckair (Rī-ckār`).
The name of Baron Dek’s wife, Jea (Jě`-ă`) is an exception to this rule. Her name comes from the city state of Au to the east and means “brilliance”.
Two syllable names that end in a vowel have the accent on the first syllable, as in Craya (Cā`-yă) and Vara (Vă`-ră). Two syllable names in which the second syllable begins with a consonant have the accent on the second syllable, as in Ryckair, (Rī-ckār`) and Mirjel, pronounced (Měr-jěl`). Names that are more than two syllables long have the accent on the second to the last syllable, as in Telasec (Tĕ-lă`-sěc) and Zamalatha (Ză-mă-lă`-thă).
Some names from the dragon tongue seem to defy this rule, such as Catio (Kă`-tē-ō). It sounds like a three syllable name, even though the accent is on the first. Here, we see an example of the corruption of the language over time. The ē-ō sound was once made by a single vowel that was written as and pronounced yō. The sound lengthened over the centuries and the letter was lost and replaced with the letters and (ī ō). So, whereas the name Catio was written (Kăt`-ī-ō ) in Ryckair’s time, it was originally written (Kăt`-yō) and follows the rules for two syllable names that end in a vowel.
WORD ORIGINS
The dragon tongue was also called the wizard tongue. It influenced most early human languages and many of its root words can be found in almost every language even though each tribe created its own distinct dialect.
In those times, the roles of men and women were clearly and distinctly defined. Avar decreed parity between genders, but the language remained largely unchanged, partly because the origins of many words was corrupted or forgotten.
Words from the dragon tongue are most often preserved in the names of people and places, though the original meaning may have altered or been lost.
The name “Carandir” is not drawn directly from the dragon tongue. It comes from the language of a people known as the Laran who once lived around the Bay of Hasp. They were one of the original tribes of humankind and their ancestors learned at the feet of the dragons. They remained largely apart from other cultures and so preserved the ancient ways.
The lands of Carandir were given to Avar by the Laran for his help in driving out the Barasha during the Dragon Wars and subduing Baras. The Laran then moved west to live in the mountains by the ocean.
In Ryckair’s time, Carandir was thought to mean “deep forest”, which is close to the actual words used by the Laran whose meaning translated to “Tree place unending”. The first part of the name comes from their word “Khach”, or “tree”, where the ch was pronounced in the back of the throat. The second part is fro
m the word “ena” which means “place”. The final part came from the root word “eer” meaning “infinity” or “unending”. The name was originally “Khach ena eer”. The words ran together into a single name in the ears of the first explorers from the north continent.
At that time, the harsh “ch” sound had been replaced by a softer one in their home of Amblar that was pronounced in the front of the mouth. The explorers found the Laran word hard to pronounce and they quickly corrupted it into “Carandir” by changing the “ch” sound to “r”, the “ena” to “an” and the “eer” to “dir”.
Some scholars have mistranslated the original meaning by mistaking “ena” in the Laran tongue with “enda”, meaning “human” in the dragon tongue. These scholars erroneously thought that the name Carandir meant “tree people” or “the people who dwell in trees.” As such, many pictorial representations of the Laran show them living in tree houses when, in fact, they built dwellings on the ground.
The language used by the Oola came from the dragon tongue through several sources, including the Barasha. The Oola were not themselves demons or spirits. They were, however, subverted by Baras during the Dragon Wars and sent to harass the men of Amblar on the north continent.
“Krash” means “Look here” or “Pay Heed” and is generally used in royal decrees. It comes from the root words “ra” meaning “message” and “sha” meaning “servant”. The placement of a “K” sound in front of the word has no linguistic basis and is most likely a guttural inflection resulting from the construction of the Oola mouth.
“Garack” could mean “Enemy”, “Not of us” or “Stranger”. It might have been drawn from the root word “geranel” meaning “dispute” or “disagreement”. It could also have been a word developed by the Oola.
“Harch” is a directive that means “Let us” or, from an official, “You will”. It comes from the root words “ha”, meaning “do”, and “che”, meaning “now”.
“Narack” means “burn with fire” or “destroy with fire”. It comes from the root word “Nara” meaning "fire" and “akie” or “akiety” meaning “ruin” or “obliterate”.
“Kalaketan” is the Oola word for “humans”. It translates literally as “Thieves of the Earth” in reference to the tunnels the humans dug through the Oola kingdom to mine silver, gold and iron. The root word “celec”, meaning “thief”, was changed, again by the Oola’s unique pronunciation. The root word “talan” originally meant “well”, as in a water well, but was later applied to any type of tunneling into the earth.
Therefore, the phrase “Krash. Garack. Harch Narack Kalaketan” means “Behold. Our enemies. Let us burn them.” Followed by the chant, “Burn them, burn them, burn them
COMMON ROOTS
All languages are descended from the Dragon tongue and were modified by different peoples. The following gives many common roots that still existed at the time of Ryckair and Mirjel, though their true meaning has sometimes changed over the millenniums.
“Ma” means “man”.
“Ra” means “woman”.
“Ne” means “light”.
“Nara”, which means “fire”, is related to “Ne” in that “Na” is the possessive form. In early times the tending of the fire was a job assigned to the women of the tribe. It was considered both their responsibility and their realm. Therefore, fire was thought of as “The light possessed by woman.” This is likely the origin of the Fadella tradition, practiced by other peoples as well, in which women took possession of the kill from a hunt and distributed the meat. As they owned the fire they also acquired the rights to what was cooked there.
“Nema” literally translates as “Man light”, but actually means “sun”. The sun was always associated with the energy of men. The sun’s short cycle was equated to the act of impregnating a woman, who then took on the longer cycle of bearing child conceived of this act.
“Nera” literally translates as “Woman light”, but actually means “Moon”. This tie comes from the cycle the moon’s phase being the same as a woman’s menstrual cycle. Here, there is no possession of the moon, as in “nara”. Still, women were thought to hold power over the moon and the cycles of planting they foretold.
“Kura” means “Song”.
“Kurama” means “Men’s song” and generally refers to work songs sung by men, such as sailor chanteys.
“Kurara” means “A Women’s song” and generally refers to work songs sung by women.
By the time of this tale, women and men in Carandir were considered to be equals and shared the same roles and duties, including child rearing, with the exception of the orders of the Daro and Kyar whose roles were monastic. Kurama and kurara fell from the common speech to be replaced with just kura and were largely found in older scholarly works.
“Sha” has come to mean “servant” in modern times, but originally it meant “strength” or “power”. The word began to be used to describe special supporters of powerful people, such as a king’s general. The general might be said to be the king’s power. This could be looked at in two ways. First, the general gave the king power out of devotion. Second, the general could be considered the king’s power base and without his “sha”, his servant, a king had no power. As such, a “sha” servant held great respect because the master owed his authority to that servant. Barasha means the servants of Baras. Only in later times did the term become associated with people who performed menial labor or who bowed to a master in fear.
Shara’s name could have two meanings. Her father intended it as an insult for not being the son he desired. He wanted to compare her to a serving woman of low stature, such as a scullery maid. In truth, the ancient roots of the base words mean “Powerful woman”.
Mirjel’s name comes from the base root “mija”, meaning “Trustworthy”. In the modern tongue, the name is usually thought of as meaning either “Having faith in the dragons” or “One who can be trusted.” The antonym of “mija” is “numij”, meaning “unfaithful” or “not trusted.” In the eastern language groups the suffix “el” makes a name feminine. The suffix “a”, or the lack of a suffix, makes the name masculine. So, a male named either “Mirja” or “Mirj” would have the same meaning.
“Del” is the word for “dragon”, as in Jorondel which takes the root “Joron” meaning “father” or “elder” and “del” meaning “dragon”. “Ili” has come to mean “mother” but its original meaning was “life”. Thus, the names literally translate as “dragon father” and “dragon mother”, but is known commonly as “Father of Dragons” and “Mother of Dragons”. “Magadel” uses the root word “Mag”, meaning “knowledge” or “understanding”, in the form of “Maga”, meaning “one who teaches” or “one who gives knowledge”. This, combined with “del”, means “dragon of knowledge”, though the literal translation is closer to “The dragon who teaches”. When it was learned that Magadel had given the doom of magic to humans, the other dragons accused him of being a betrayer, “Baras” in the dragon tongue. Because of the heinous nature of the act, the accusation became his name.
“Par” means “gift”. Some translate “Parili” as “Gift of Ilidel” for the mercy she showed the Fadella, but it is also thought of as “Gift of Life.”
The meaning of the place name The Dragons’ Mound, where Baras fell under the control of Avar’s crown, is the result of a mistranslation in later years. The name of the place in the original tongue was “Delava”. It drew from the root words “del” and “avan”. In Ryckair’s times, “avan” meant "mound" or "small hill", but, it was originally used to refer to a kind of tomb that was made by scooping out earth, placing the deceased inside, and building a mound of earth and stone above.
Over time, this type of burial fell out of favor and was replaced with mausoleums for the wealthy and simple structures for the common people. The name for this new type of tomb was “karakay”, taking the root words “kara” for "dead" and the possessive form of �
�kayning” meaning “building” or more precisely “dwelling”, so that “Karakay” meant, “Home of the dead” or “tomb”. As an aside, the name Karaken comes from the root words “kara” and “kanto” meaning “flesh”, usually human. This was used as an insult, insinuating that the people of the southern kingdom practiced cannibalism. When the name was first used, the Karakiens embraced it, feeling it added to their reputation as fierce warriors, even though there is no record of any Karakien practicing cannibalism. The actual meaning was forgotten over time and the Karakiens, being generally unschooled in the ancient tongues, thought the name means “Great Warriors”.
When Baras cries out “Nuava. Ata laney”, he is saying “Untombed. At last I am free.”
The prefix “nu” is used to indicate a negation, or “not”, as in “numij” for “unfaithful.”. “Ava” is the ancient word for tomb. Placing these together, “nuava” means "to be released from death", "to be reborn" or "to live again". Here, Baras uses the word with its literal meaning of "no longer being entombed".
“Ata” means “finally” or “at last”. It denotes something that is both long awaited for and greatly desired.
“Laney” comes from the root word “Lan” which means “free”. The suffix “ey” indicates possession, Laney means literally “I possess the state of being free” and translates as the word “Freedom”.
Craya draws it’s meaning from "hope". “Cray” itself means “hope”. The word “ya” means small and is often used as a diminutive or a sign of affection for a person. The double ‘Y’ is reduced to one when the two words are combined. As such, Craya’s name could be seen as being a familiar rendering of "hope" or as meaning “a little hope”.
Dragons Unremembered Page 30