Brian Ruckley - Fall of Thanes

Orisian oc Lannis-Haig is now Thane of his Blood, but he is a Thane exiled from his lands, for the Glas Valley where he and his family dwelled lies under the brutal control of the Bloods of the Black Road.

Orisian has escaped from the pursuing forces of the Black Road to Kolkyre, the capital of the Kilkry Blood, long a close friend and ally to his own. With him have come Yvane and Hammarn, na’kyrim from the north, Ess’yr and Varryn, Kyrinin of the Fox clan, his shieldman Rothe and his sister Anyara.

Others have also converged upon Kolkyre, however, and Orisian finds himself the object of unwelcome attention from Mordyn Jerain, the Shadowhand, Chancellor to the Haig Blood, and Aewult, Bloodheir to the High Thane, Gryvan oc Haig. Their intent is to ensure the primacy of Haig in the efforts to turn back the Black Road. Frustrated by the machinations of these supposed allies, Orisian dispatches Taim Narran, his Blood’s most accomplished warrior, with their meagre remaining forces northwards, hoping to delay or turn back the Black Road’s advance. Orisian himself, concerned that a greater threat than even the armies of the Black Road is being overlooked, travels to Highfast, where a number of na’kyrim maintain a library.

The threat that so troubles Orisian is Aeglyss, a na’kyrim who has been crucified by the White Owl Kyrinin, but rather than dying, descends from their Breaking Stone imbued with a rare and powerful ability to make use of the powers some na’kyrim can draw from the Shared. Aeglyss first asserts control over the White Owl clan, and then the Black Road army itself. He is the first na’kyrim in centuries with the ability to bind another wholly and unreservedly to his will, and chooses to exercise this power over Wain nan Horin-Gyre, sister of the Thane Kanin, to Kanin’s increasingly desperate dismay.

In the course of his ascent, Aeglyss wins the allegiance of Shraeve, a Battle Inkallim. He completes his rise to power when Shraeve champions him in single combat against the senior war leader of the Battle Inkall, Fiallic. With Aeglyss’ subtle intervention, Shraeve is victorious, assumes command of the Battle Inkall’s army and immediately pledges it to Aeglyss.

At Highfast, Orisian discovers that many of the na’kyrim there can feel the alarming changes taking place in the Shared, and the stirring of the Anain. He also finds Eshenna, who tells him that Aeglyss is searching for a na’kyrim called K’rina, his foster mother in his childhood. Believing he can be of more use in such a task than trying to lead an army in the war, Orisian leaves Highfast with a small company of warriors led by Torcaill, crosses the Karkyre Peaks and descends into the Veiled Woods, where Eshenna is certain K’rina can be found. They do indeed discover the na’kyrim, but she has been mysteriously and disturbingly transformed by the Anain, and in the course of capturing her, Rothe, Orisian’s shieldman and in some ways his closest surviving friend, is slain in battle with White Owl Kyrinin.

Orisian and the other survivors are driven by pursuing White Owls back over the Karkyre Peaks. In their absence, Aeglyss invades Highfast by possessing the body of Tyn, a na’kyrim known as the Dreamer. When the other na’kyrim there refuse to offer him any aid, Aeglyss destroys their library and kills many of them. He also discovers Mordyn Jerain, the Shadowhand, who lies injured after being attacked while he travelled there in pursuit of Orisian. The Shadowhand is carried away by Aeglyss’ forces, and brought to Kan Avor in the Glas Valley, where the na’kyrim now resides. Aeglyss reluctantly resolves that the Shadowhand would be more valuable to him than Wain nan Horin-Gyre. He releases Wain from her binding, but has Shraeve kill her rather than let her go free. He then binds Mordyn Jerain, and sends him south to return to the Vaymouth, the capital of the Haig Bloods.

Taim Narran, leading the remaining forces of the Lannis Blood, is caught up in a great battle near Glasbridge. There, due to the pride and inexperience of Aewult nan Haig, the Black Road wins a major victory, and the armies of the True Bloods fall back in disarray to Kolkyre, where Aewult nan Haig accuses Taim Narran of treachery and imprisons him. He also takes hostage Anyara, Orisian’s sister. She reluctantly remains in Kolkyre when Orisian sets out for Highfast, and there witnesses the assassination of Lheanor, the Kilkry Thane, by a member of the Hunt Inkall. As a result, Lheanor’s son Roaric, a tempestuous young man, rises to the Thaneship of the Kilkry Blood. Aewult sends Anyara south to Vaymouth and the court of the Thane of Thanes.

The Black Road army descends upon Kolkyre and there, with the aid of Aeglyss’ immense power, inflicts a further crippling defeat upon Aewult’s forces. Escaping in the chaos, Taim Narran flees before the disaster now engulfing the lands of the Kilkry Blood. On the road to Ive, a small town south of Kolkyre, he is reunited with Orisian.

The movement of birds. That was what told Orisian oc Lannis-Haig that they were coming. Wood pigeons, half a dozen, took flight from the leafless treetops, their wingtips cracking like a rattle of drums. He saw them arrowing away over the canopy, and knew that in their flight they told a tale of what lay beneath. Somewhere there, down amidst the dank greys and browns of the tree trunks and undergrowth, the enemy were coming: men, and likely women, he meant to see dead before the pale, sinking sun touched the horizon.

The woodlands were not large, not compared to the great tracts of forest Orisian had seen on the flanks of the Car Criagar or beyond the Karkyre Peaks. He shied away from that latter thought. His mind refused to approach too closely any memory of the Veiled Woods, and of what had happened there. If once he turned over that rock, what he uncovered might break him.

These woods were tame, as docile as any horse broken to the saddle and bit. Their oaks grew straight and tall above thickets of coppiced hazel. They lay amidst vast swathes of farmland and pasture on the gentle slopes west of Ive, and were just as much shaped by human hand as were those surrounding fields. Charcoal burners and timber merchants had laid out nets of pathways and clearings and campsites through them. Now, Orisian knew, one of those trails was being followed not by woodsmen but by the wolves of the Black Road.

He glanced at the warrior Torcaill, who was crouched alongside him amongst the rocks at the top of the slope.

“You saw?”

“Yes, sire. It won’t be long. Will you come away now? Back behind the crest, at least?”

“No,” murmured Orisian. “I’ll see what’s done in my name.”

He looked up, briefly, towards the west. There were clouds there: great dark masses that would muffle the sun before it set. More snow to come. The last fall had been almost a week ago, and light enough that no trace of it now remained.

“Let me bring up your horse, at least, sire,” Torcaill said.

“So I can flee more easily? No. Leave it where it is.”

The warrior frowned, his displeasure unconcealed.

“Go to your men,” Orisian told him. “Make sure they’re mounted and ready. If Taim needs you, it’ll be soon.”

Torcaill went, scrambling back over the rocks. He had two dozen men waiting just out of sight. Orisian knew they would already be fully prepared. They were as eager as anyone to spill Black Road blood, and needed no encouragement from Torcaill to ready themselves for the task, but he found the warrior’s concern for his safety unsettling. Troubling.