Sara Douglass - The Serpent Bride

SARA DOUGLASS

The Serpent Bride

Darkglass Mountain

Book 1

For Snow

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Map

The Legend of Chaos

Part One

1. Margalit, The Outlands

2. Serpent’s Nest, The Outlands

3. Serpent’s Nest, The Outlands

4. Serpent’s Nest, The Outlands

5. The Royal Palace, Ruen, Escator

6. The Royal Palace, Ruen, Escator

7. The Royal Palace, Ruen, Escator

8. Serpent’s Nest, and the Royal Palace at Ruen

Part Two

1. Lake Juit, Tyranny of Isembaard

2. Baron Lixel’s Residence, Margalit

3. Palace of Aqhat, Tyranny of Isembaard

4. Baron Lixel’s Residence, Margalit

5. Palace of Aqhat, Tyranny of Isembaard

6. Palace of Aqhat, Tyranny of Isembaard

7. The Royal Palace, Ruen, Escator

8. Palace of Aqhat, Tyranny of Isembaard

9. The Road East, Escator

10. Hairekeep, Tyranny of Isembaard

11. Palace of Aqhat, Tyranny of Isembaard

12. West of Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

13. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

14. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

15. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

Part Three

1. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

2. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

3. Margalit, The Outlands

4. Darkglass Mountain, Tyranny of Isembaard

5. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

6. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

7. Margalit, Central Kingdoms

8. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

9. Palace of Aqhat, Tyranny of Isembaard

10. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

11. Palace of Aqhat, Tyranny of Isembaard

12. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

13. Palace of Aqhat, Tyranny of Isembaard

Part Four

1. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

2. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

3. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

4. Pelemere, Central Kingdoms

5. The Road from Pelemere to Kyros, Central Kingdoms

6. Kyros, Central Kingdoms

7. Kyros, Central Kingdoms

8. The Road from Kyros to Escator, Central Kingdoms

9. The Road from Kyros to Escator, Central Kingdoms

10. The Road from Kyros to Escator, Central Kingdoms

11. The Road from Kyros to Deepend, Central Kingdoms

12. Aqhat and Crowhurst

13. Tyranny of Isembaard

14. The Road from Kyros to Escator, Central Kingdoms

Part Five

1. Palace of the First, Yoyette, Coroleas

2. Palace of the First, Yoyette, Coroleas

3. Farreach Mountains, and the Northern Reaches of the Ashdod Dependency

4. Palace of the First, Yoyette, Coroleas

5. The Farreach Mountains

6. Palace of the First, Yoyette, Coroleas

7. Southern Reaches of the Farreach Mountains

8. Southern Reaches of the Farreach Mountains

9. The Town of Torinox, Northern Borders of the Farreach Dependency

10. Palace of the First, Yoyette, Coroleas

11. The Town of Torinox, Northern Borders of the Farreach Dependency

12. Palace of the First, Yoyette, Coroleas

13. The Royal Palace, Ruen, Escator

14. The Royal Palace, Ruen, Escator

15. Palace of the First, Yoyette, Coroleas

Part Six

1. Northern Plains of Isembaard

2. Palace of the First, Yoyette, Coroleas

3. Northern Plains of Isembaard

4. Courtyard of the People, Yoyette, Coroleas

5. Widowmaker Sea, to The West of Escator

6. River Lhyl, Tyranny of Isembaard

7. Widowmaker Sea, to The West of Escator

8. The Marshlands Outside Narbon, Escator

9. Crowhurst, The Far North

10. Venetia’s Hut in the Marshlands, Escator

11. The Road Between Narbon And Deepend

12. Narbon, Escator

Part Seven

1. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

2. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

3. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

4. Deepend, and the Road from Deepend to the Farreach Mountains

5. At the Foot of the Farreach Mountains

6. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

7. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

8. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

9. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

10. Northern Isembaard

11. The Farreach Mountains, Southern Kyros

12. The Farreach Mountains, Southern Kyros

13. The Farreach Mountains, Southern Kyros

14. The Farreach Mountains, Southern Kyros

15. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

16. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

17. Darkglass Mountain, Isembaard

18. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

19. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

20. Palace of Aqhat, Isembaard

Part Eight

1. The Farreach Mountains

2. Palace of Aqhat, Tyranny of Isembaard

3. The Eastern Plains, Gershadi

4. Dependency of En-Dor, Tyranny of Isembaard

5. Sakkuth, Isembaard

6. Sakkuth, Isembaard

7. Sakkuth, Isembaard

8. Sakkuth, Isembaard

9. Sakkuth, Isembaard

10. Sakkuth, Isembaard

11. Sakkuth, Isembaard

12. The Borderlands of Hosea

Part Nine

1. Sakkuth, Isembaard

2. Salamaan Pass, Northern Kingdoms

3. Salamaan Pass, Northern Kingdoms

4. Saiamaan Pass, Northern Kingdoms

5. Pelemere, Northern Kingdoms

6. The Sky Peak Passes

7. The Sky Peak Passes

8. Entrance to the Sky Peak Passes, The Outlands

9. Entrance to the Sky Peak Pass, The Outlands

10. Entrance to the Sky Peak Passes, The Outlands

Keep Reading

Glossary

About the Author

Also by the Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

In the beginning and for an infinity of time there was nothing but the darkness of Chaos, who called himself Kanubai. After a time Kanubai grew weary of his lonely existence and so he invited Light and Water to be his companions. Kanubai and Light and Water co-existed harmoniously, but one day Light and Water merged, just for an instant of time, but in that instant they conceived a child — Life.

Kanubai was jealous of Life, for it was the child of the union of Light and Water and he had been excluded from that union. He set out to murder Life, to consume it with darkness, but Light and Water came to the defence of their child. Aided by a great mage, Light and Water defeated Kanubai in a terrible battle, and interred his remains in a deep abyss. They stoppered this abyss with a sparkling, life-giving river, which combined the best both of Light and of Water, and they hoped that Kanubai was trapped for all time.

Trapped, but not extinguished. Every day Life was reminded of Kanubai’s continuing malignant presence by the descent of the night, when for the space of some hours the dark memory of Kanubai blanketed the land.

Despite this daily sadness, Life prospered, and many creatures came into existence.

For aeons Kanubai lay trapped, able to do little more than darken each light-filled day with the reminder of his presence.

But then, one day, something remarkable happened.

Infinity visited.

The eight-year-old girl crouched by the stone column in the atrium of her parents’ house. Clad only in a stained linen shift, she hugged her thin arms tightly about herself, her eyes wide and darting under her bedraggled and grimy fair hair.

The house was cold and still, and the girl’s breath frosted as she hyperventilated.

The foul liquid of rotting cadavers streaked her face and arms. For many days now the girl had crept about the house, seeking out the bodies of her parents (almost unrecognisable, four weeks after their death), rubbing the stinking, viscous liquid that had leaked from their flesh over her body, sucking it from her fingers.

All she wanted was to die, too.

It had been a bad month. Four weeks ago everyone in the house — save the little girl — had died within a day of the first person falling sick. Thirty-four people — not just the girl’s parents and siblings, but her three aunts, their husbands, their children, her grandmother, and the household’s servants as well — all dead from the plague.