P. C. Hodgell - God Stalk

For Mike

With affection & gratitude

Tai-tastigon

The Eastern Lands

jame

tori: Jame's twin brother

marcarn (marc) of east kenshold: Jame's friend, an aging Kendar

ishtier: Highborn priest of the Three-Faced God in Tai-tastigon

anar: Jame's former tutor, a scrollsman and Ishtier's younger brother

ganth gray lord: Ganth of Knorth, once Highlord of the Kencyrath, who was forced into exile and supposedly died crossing the Ebonbane

torisen black lord: Ganth's son

gerridon, master of knorth: the arch-traitor who, some 3,000 years ago, sold himself to Perimal Darkling in return for immortality

jamethiel dream-weaver: Gerridon's sister and consort

anthrobar: the scholar who copied that portion of the Book Bound in Pale Leather which the Kencyrath used to reach Rathillien

tubain: the innkeeper

abernia: his wife

cleppetty: the Widow Cleppetania, cook and housekeeper

rothan: Tubain's nephew and heir

ghillie: Rothan's younger cousin, the inn's hostler and musician

taniscent: a dancer

kithra sen tenzi: a maid, formerly of the Skyrrman

sart nine-toes: a guard

marplet sen tenko: keeper of the Skyrrman inn

niggen: his son

bortis: a hill brigand in Marplet's pay, the sometime lover of Taniscent

harr sen tenko: the Skyrr representative on Tai-tastigon's governing council (the Five), Arribek sen Tenzi's political rival, Marplet's brother-in-law

arribek sen tenzi: the Archiem or ruler of Skyrr

king sellik XXI

prince ozymardien: Sellik's cousin, owner of Edor Thulig (the Tower of Demons)

thulig-sa: Ozymardien's pet demon, used to guard Edor Thulig

prince dandello: heir to the Throne of Clouds

sparrow: one of his attendents

dalis-sar: a Kendar drafted as the sun god of the New Pantheon; Men-dalis's father and Dally's foster-father

gorgo the lugubrious: once an Old Pantheon god of rain, now a New Pantheon god of lamentations.

loogan: Cargo's high priest

abarraden: a fertility goddess of the Old Pantheon whose eyes Penari stole

theocandi: the Sirdan or lord of the Guild

canden: his grandson

bane: his pupil

hangrell: a would-be follower of Bane

penari: Theocandi's older brother, Jame's master

men-dalis: leader of the New Faction, Theocandi's rival

dally: his half-brother

the creeper: his master spy

galishan: master of the Tynnet Branching District, Melissand's lover

darinby: a journeyman

raffing: an apprentice

scramp: an apprentice from the Lower Town

patches: his sister

tane: a former rival of Theocandi, the Shadow Thief's first victim

shadow thief: a temporarily detached soul used as a demon assassin by Theocandi

melissand: a famous courtesan

The hills rolled up to the moon on slopes of wind-bent grass, crested, swept down into tangled brier shadows. Then up again and down, over and over until only aching muscles distinguished between rise and descent, climb and fall. A night bird flitted overhead. Jame paused to watch it, thinking enviously of wings. For a moment it showed clearly against the moon-silvered clouds, and then the wall of mountains to the west swallowed it. How near the Ebonbane seemed now that night had fallen. The range loomed over her, an immense presence filling half the sky, blotting out the stars. Two weeks of walking had at last brought her out of the Haunted Lands into these foothills, but that in itself was no help. Clean earth or not, this was still a wilderness. What she needed now was civilizationeven a goatherd's hutbut something, and soon.

Thin, high voices called to each other behind her. Jame caught her breath, listening, counting. Seven. The haunts had found her trail again.

She tensed to run, then forced her weary muscles to relax. Flight would only weaken her. Besides, they seemed to be keeping their distance, an odd thing after so many days of close pursuit. Should she finally turn on them? They were well spread out, tempting targets for their wounded prey ah, but what good would it do to kill something already dead? She would make one last bid for life, then, Jame thought as she started up the next slope. If only she could reach shelter before her strength gave out and they overtook her.

Then, suddenly, there was the city.

Jame stared down at it from the hilltop, hardly trusting her eyes. It lay well below her, cradled in the curve of the foothills as they turned to the southeast. Even from this distance, it looked immense. The outer circle of its double curtain wall was miles from edge to edge; the inner seemed to strain under the pressure of the buildings it contained. Gray and silent it stood between mountain and plain, a stone city that appeared in the cold moonlight to be more the work of nature than of man.

"Tai-tastigon!" Jame said softly.

Behind her, the wailing began again, then faded away. In the silence that followed, a cricket chirped tentatively, then another and another. The haunts had withdrawn. Not surprising with the city so near, Jame thought, rubbing her bandaged forearm. They had followed her far beyond their own territory as it was, drawn on by the blood-scent. She shivered, remembering that first encounter in the Haunted Lands before the burning keep. Dazed by fire and smoke, she had turned to find a dark figure standing behind her. For a joyful moment, she had thought it was Tori. Then she was down with the foul thing on top of her, its fetid breath in her face.

Jame looked at her hands, at the long, slim fingers and at the gloves hanging in shreds from them. Each ivory white nail lay flush with the skin now, its sharp point curving halfway over the fingertip. They looked almost normal, she thought bitterly. Trinity knew what the haunt had thought when those same nails, fully extended, had ripped the rotting flesh from its face.

Not that that would stop such a creature for long. Even if she had killed it, nothing stayed dead forever in the Haunted Lands, just as no one could live there unprotected without changing as the haunts, once ordinary men, had changed. That was the curse that the Kencyrath, Jame's own people, had let fall on the region when their main host had withdrawn from it long ago. No longer maintained by their will, the Barrier between Rathillien and the shadows beyond had weakened. Perimal Darkling, ancient of enemies, now gnawed at the edges of yet another world, poisoning the land, sucking health from the air. Still, it would have been much worse if a handful of Kencyr defenders had not remained, Jame thought; it was worse now that they were all dead. She, the youngest and last, was getting out none too soon.