David Anthony Durham - The Sacred Band

A LSO BY D AVID A NTHONY D URHAM
The Other Lands: Book Two of the Acacia Trilogy
Acacia: The War with the Mein
Pride of Carthage: A Novel of Hannibal
Walk Through Darkness: A Novel
Gabriels Story: A Novel

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Copyright 2011 by David Anthony Durham

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

www.doubleday.com

DOUBLEDAY and the portrayal of an anchor with a dolphin are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Map illustration by David Cain
Jacket design by Michael J. Windsor
Jacket illustration by Torstein Nordstrand

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Durham, David Anthony, 1969
The sacred band / David Anthony Durham. 1st ed.
p. cm. (Acacia trilogy ; bk. 3)
I. Title.
PS3554.U677S24 2011
813.54dc22 2011006736

eISBN: 978-0-307-73969-8

v3.1

For Sorley, Beth, Gudrun, and Jamie

C ONTENTS

The Story So Far

T he Other Lands , the second book of the Acacia trilogy, begins with a prologue that dates back to the time of Hanish Meins rule. League slavers have caught the twins Mr and Ravi, in a mass roundup of quota children. On a remote beach in rural Candovia, Ravi tries to stir the other youths into rebellion. When he is captured, a leagueman spares his life, saying that a different fate awaits himand his soulin the Other Lands.

The story proper begins some nine years after the events in Acacia: The War with the Mein . Corinn Akaran, now the undisputed queen of Acacia, keeps tight control of her power. She trusts few people beyond her assistant, Rhrenna, a Meinish woman she had been friendly with during Hanish Meins reign. Corinn has commissioned experiments on a new distillation of the mistcalled the vintagethat can be added to wine. The vintage is being created in partnership with the league, which she appeased after Hanishs war. She has let them expand their operations on the Outer Isles. The league is now running those islands like a private fiefdom, with the aim of producing quota children on large plantations. Outside of the duties of her office, Corinn has a softer, more maternal side. She dotes on her eight-year-old son, Aaden. He is the only one who knows Corinn is studying The Song of Elenet .

Corinns two younger siblings are busy as well. Mena Akaran begins the novel on the plains of Talay, where she is in charge of exterminating the foulthings, the mutated creatures that resulted from the corrupted magic the Santoth unleashed when they destroyed the Meinish army after Alivers death. Foulthings vary in form, size, and dangerousness, but Menaalong with her husband, Melio, and Alivers friend Kelis Umaedefeats them one by one. Her brother, Dariel Akaran, has been assuaging the guilt he harbors about allowing Aliver to duel Hanish by overseeing reconstruction projects across the empire.

The main storyline begins with the arrival of Sire Dagon and Sire Neen with news for Corinn of a mishap in the Other Lands. The leaguemen explain that their trade has never exactly been with the Lothan Aklun. The Lothan Aklun are middlemen who cater to a larger population, the Auldek. Frustrated by years of knowing little about the Auldek, the league began seeking intelligence about them. Unfortunatelythey claimseveral league spies were found out. Fearing the blunder will interrupt the trade, the leaguemen request that Corinn sail to the Other Lands to renew the good faith of the trade agreements. She does not accept the offer, but she arranges for Dariel to go in her place. She sends Rialus Neptos along to keep an eye on things. The Numrek chieftain, Calrach, and several of his clan, including his son, Allek, are assigned to go, to serve as envoys to help convince the Auldek to continue the trade with the Acacians.

Several supporting characters introduce important narrative threads. Barad the Lesser, a battered laborer formerly of the Kidnaban mines, is now a social activist. He travels around the empire, making speeches, trying to build an organized resistance to the Akaran dynasty. He believes that the Known World can be governed with more equity. He comes to trust the Aushenian king, Grae, who wants to see Acacian power reduced. The dashing monarch agrees to visit the queens court to woo her and gain intelligence on how best to topple her.

Kelis, the Talayan who was Alivers close companion in his youth, leaves Menas service to answer a call from his chieftain. He learns that Aliver had fathered a daughter, Shen, with one of his lovers, Benabe. The child has dream conversations with the Santoth. They have been calling her to them. Since Kelis had helped Aliver find the sorcerers, he is chosen to escort Shen and Benabe to the Santoth. A young man, Naamen, goes with them. They trek into southern Talay on foot, a journey that becomes more magical the closer they get to the Santoth. Eventually they meet Leeka Alain, the old soldier who had killed the first Numrek. He has been living with the Santoth all these years. He leads them to the sorcerers, who snatch Shen away and disappear.

Delivegu Lemardine, a seedy agent Corinn uses for her more unsavory assignments, brings the queen information about Barad the Lesser, telling her there is a conspiracy afoot. He also discovers that Dariels lover, Wren, is pregnant with his child. Once Corinn finds out about this, she sends Wren to Calfa Ven, to keep her out of sight while she decides what to do about her.

Mena continues to hunt the foulthings, ranging all over Talay, thinking up ingenious ways to trap and kill the beasts. Eventually, she faces the last monster. It is supposed to be a dragon, but she finds that it is a fusion of reptile and bird, a strangely gentle, feathered beauty. Before she can stop them, Menas hunting party attacks it. The princess is snatched into the air by the injured creature as it flies away. The animal crashes in a remote region. The two heal from their wounds together, and form an affectionate bond. Mena names the animal Elya.

Dariel sees many wonders on his journey across the Gray Slopes, including mountainous waves and schools of angry sea wolves. What he does not know is that his host, Sire Neen, secretly hates all Akarans. He holds Dariel responsible for the death of many leaguemen on the platforms. Incredibly ambitious, Neen has embarked on a scheme to eliminate the Lothan Aklun and to monopolize the mist and quota trade. Arriving at the barrier isles of the Other LandsUshen Brae in the native tongueNeen imprisons Dariel and explains that the league has used the occasion of a Lothan Aklun ceremonial ritual to spread poison among them. The entire Lothan Aklun culture has been wiped out.

Neen arranges a meeting with the Auldek. He plans to hand Dariel over as a peace offering. But nothing about his meeting with the warlike Auldek goes as planned. The arrival of the Numrek throws the meeting into chaos. During it, Sire Neen is decapitated. Both Dariel and Rialus are captured, but by different factions. Dariel becomes a prisoner of the resistance movement of quota slaves, the Free People. He is treated harshly for a time, reviled for being a prince of the family that established the mist and slave trade. Despite this, he becomes fascinated by his captors: Mr, the beautiful, angry leader of the group; Skylene, her lover; and Tunnel, a hulk of a man made more impressive because his skin is tattooed gray and he sports golden tusks in his jaw. Many of the quota slaves have had extreme alterations made to their bodiestattoos, piercings, implantsto make them look like the totem animal deities of their Auldek masters. Tunnel and Skylene gradually tell him more and more about life in Ushen Brae.

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