Hawkmoon (The Hawkmoon Chronicles) (28 page)

References

Allatius, T. 31.4070. . The Great Tragedy: Elvish History and the Consequences of Expulsion.

Vol. 22 The Cenataur Chronicles. Centaur Press.  al Moon.

al Jidda.H.  31435. Thirty Years a Wanderer; In Search of  Lost Sciences.  Silverlode Press. Silverlode.

Blenkinskip. R.31,580. The Silent Curse; An Analysis of the Consequences of the  Existence of Vampires. Doctoral Dissertation submitted to the University of al Shatra. Al Shatra.

Chulgetei, R. 31,425.  Extracts from the Archives of the Northern Elves.. By Permission of the High Council. Translated from the Elvish by Blenkinskip and Chulgetei.

Marmaduke, U.31,588 New Weapons for Ancient Perils Centaur Press.  al Moon.

Roy, T  31,5002 The Chewing Dead. Different States of Vampirism. Karak University Press. Karak

al Jiddah. H. 31,5075  On the  Possibility of  Interdimensional Matrices.

The Journal of Anrcane Studies. (4) 22. pp 213-247.

A Study of the Science and Artefacts of the Ancients.

Hattim Al Jiddah.

Introduction to Supplement.

My days are drawing down. I reflect on the achievements of my life and count them few enough. As a young man I made the lavish promises young men are apt to make. I dedicated my life to the pursuit of knowledge. I   rejected security of tenure, preferring   to spend my years questing for the secrets of a people who had constructed mysterious and wonderful devices. They had cured disease; they fed millions. They had flown in craft that exceeded the weight of a score of elephants. Look up at the second moon when next it rises. The lines you see were made  to transport the ore  which went to build the machines that were  their undoing

My success was based on the instincts of a forager. Where I exceeded my fellow academics was in an acceptance of discomfort and personal  risk . They say that the Spirit protects fools. Certainly it  would explain  how I could survive  in circumstances that would have killed others. I employed  the best trackers, men who knew the the Outlands. I made certain they were well paid and could keep their mouth shut. None of those I hired had dealings with the Free Cites, the Duchies, the Kingdom or the Imperium. I married a nomad woman and had two daughters. I loved them more than I thought possible. My friend Temujin was  a  Dog Soldier.  As a member of the tribe from which the Unifier had risen he had the privilege of riding  unmolested across  the territory of the Khan.  

In the spring of 15507 we rode north for six weeks following rumours of   strange objects being dug out of a hill, The hill was part of land belonging to a tribesman who had  ceased his nomadic existence to try his hand at farming. I am not disclosing the location. There is no point looking for it. It was the best time of year. The frightful cold of winter on the Steppes had given way to a cool, sunny spring. No mosquitoes yet and none of the baking heat that would come with summer. We left Shula and the children at the camp. The farmer had taken a liking to them.  He took us to the hill and went home.

After weeks of digging holes and poking about Temujin  found a  metal door Despite all our hammering it barely showed a scratch .. Temujin  suggested that if the door was invulnerable we might have success in other places.

Food was low and we needed certain tools. We packed  up and headed back for the settlement. Before riding in Temujin stopped his pony on a rise. The first lesson of the Steppe is caution. Borrowing my hand telescope he examined the buildings. He looked for a time before passing it to me. Vultures were feeding in the yard ... Something lay, huddled by the door of the yurt. I saw the yellow band that my wife used to tie her hair. I kneed the  pony to move but Temujin caught the reins.  I screamed at him and he punched me. He swung off and up back to the treeline on a circle that would take us in close.

The farm was deserted.  Rubi was dead. Two, maybe three days; it was hard to know with the heat. The children were gone. The farmer and his wife were dead. We burnt the bodies. Temujin said nothing, but a single word.

Wampyrhii.

Next morning we left with all the spare food and weapons the farmers’ ponies could carry. We cut their trail a week later, riding two hours before dawn .All I wanted was to find the children before anything happened.

It seems strange to think that anyone would track a group of vampires, particularly one man and a broken down academic. They never set an ambush. Who would follow vampires?  Those who live on the Steppe are fearless. Their lives require it of them. There was a time when the vampires ranged over the  Steppe with impunity. When the Unifier came  his first act was to send an army to decimate the Wampyrhii. The vampires slaughtered  thousands until  even they could not kill enough and then it was their turn  to die. 

We found them after sunset by the blaze from a  farm they  were attacking.  My time is short and I have no inclination to describe  the fighting. It was Temujin that did most of it.. We never found my children. I would rather believe they perished  on the return journey than consider their fate as thralls or slaves. As to how and what I found when we returned to the site a week late, that will have to wait for the translation .

The elves are the finest of people. I love and respect them but in a matter of this consequence there are no honest brokers. You must not carry this book with you. It must be protected. The knowledge is of such import that it would be better it were destroyed than allow  it fall into the wrong hands

Realm of Silverlode.

31,427.

To Mother Superior Falkenstone.

Matriarch of the Order of the Golden Dawn.

Witch’s Keep.

From: Regina, Queen Regent of the Realm of Siverlode.

To  Kerris.

Greetings.

Our  labours  are all but concluded. In a short time  Silverlode will be a source of refuge and comfort to our people.  We acknowledge the  support of the Order of the Golden Dawn. Under previous Matriarchs and under your direction a task that might have taken fifty years has been accomplished in half that time. Your  support  has made much of our work possible. We have rebuilt Silverlode, not as it was but mightier, richer, and with access to wealth that, until your engineers arrived, we had neither the skills nor means to exploit. We have two great friends whom we are pleased to acknowledge. Yours is one and the Free Company of Rangers are the other.   All debts incurred by you in the reconstruction of Silverlode are  being repaid in full. All investments made in Silverlode will be honoured with interest paid... Silverlode has , once again, become an economic power in the Land.  We remember our friends and contrary to certain views expressed in our Councils, we do not forget our enemies. Now that our star has risen again we are receiving embassies from states that showed themselves laggard in friendship when such might have been welcomed and needed. When times were hard they impeded our efforts first to survive then to rebuild. We remember the White Winter of 31,322. after the Reiver had sacked and pillaged.  Torn by invasion and grief, we remember the trains of food and medicine sent by the Order, protected by the Rangers. We remember.

Research carried out by one of your sisters has confirmed what we had long suspected. Certain parties colluded in the invasion of Silverlode. They were paid in advance for stores, weapons and transport. Some of them were rewarded with a share of the plunder. The general feeling is that such approaches should be rejected. We ourselves consider this to be inadvisable. Difficult as it is we intend to draw these countries into bonds of friendship. In order to persuade the Council we would begin with those countries who profited least from our sufferings or who today show a more enlightened attitude to Silverlode. We  desire to hear you thoughts on this.You might begin with those that were least antagonistic or whose support it  would be profitable to enlist.

Our second request is to deploy your intelligence services to assess  the  consequences of another Reiver war . It is the dark cloud that looms in our future.

Our third request is to assist in the resolution of a question that  has lain at the root of previous invasions and may do so again in the future. The question is how does a small country protect itself from its enemies? Except for the Dasatii we have no true allies at our borders.The Parish folk are true friends and have long been close to us. They are a valiant but  hardly a martial race. To the west the King of Dasaria is a friend but our assessment is that  in the event of war they could not defend both themselves and  Shaleen’s Gate. We have rebuilt the gate in the Blue Mountains. It is defended by our small force and a Dasarian Army. However if Dasaria is attacked that army will be withdrawn. They will have no choice and we will not hold the Gate unaided.

Certain of our advisers have counselled that we enter into a Mutual Assistance Pact with the Orcs. In our view it t would be seen as an expression of weakness and hasten the  very war  we are seeking to avoid. It would be like feeding  a jackal next to the stock pen. How do we become a military power when the only advantage we possess is wealth? Mercenaries  would seem like an answer, however if history  has taught  any lessons it is  the  risks that attend the use of military hirelings

How odd that our  friends are not here, yet we are besieged by villains and malefactors. You must come with your husband to the Grand Opening. Enoch has long been a friend of our people The Commander of the Rangers will also attend and this may afford an opportunity for deliberation. We earnestly desire your presence, however, if you have previous commitments, we plan to  visit the Royal City  in the late Autumn .. We have been invited to stay with the King and that odious woman. We will be staying at the home of Elmund Dwarfdale.

Regina.

To Kerris..

31,424

Silverlode.

Greetings.

The Queen has consented to the inclusion of correspondence. The courier is about to leave so I will be as brief as possible. Hopefully I will not omit any matter of importance.

The progress that has been made in the last year is quite remarkable. You will have had reports on the more cosmetic matters to do with the appearance of the city. I will confine myself with more crucial concerns. Using their engineers and our expertise the dwarves have been successful in opening what amounts to a new mine. This has been a closely guarded secret but one that will be revealed once the dwarves start bringing up quantities of gold , silver and precious stones... A geologist reading this would wonder at the presence of such a variety in  the same location.. The truth is that they have accessed a Dragon’s hoard. The Dragon is not here and no one seems to know where he, or she, or they, have gone. The extent of the treasure is incomprehensible, even by dragon standards. If you were to store it at the Keep you would fill all the cellars and all the storerooms to the ceilings. The rest of it would fill the moat. I am writing with two purposes. The first is to ask you as Matriarch to speak to Regina and convince her of the problems she faces. The poor dear is so beset I am not sure how she will react .She has a High Council that, frankly, does more harm than good. If she were Queen in her own right she might be in a position to ignore their intransigence. But she is Regent until her son is of age, and bound to listen to the Council in the meantime. Dwarves are renowned for being stubborn but members on her Council take it beyond the point of obtuseness. Her new husband is the principle culprit and greatest mischief maker. She is quite infatuated with him.

They seem to believe that wealth can answer all their problems. Simply lavish gold and the problem will go away. The latest scheme is to placate the Orcs by buying them off. The Queen will tell you more. If they release too much wealth too quickly the price of everything will go up. Inflation will wreck economies and this will make the likelihood of invasion even greater. The other problem is that as soon as word gets out that they are sitting on a Dragon’s hoard  people will either start thinking, once again of invasion, or else they will insist on seeing it to look for pieces originally stolen by the Dragon. In my view the best measure for the queen to adopt would be to appoint a Royal Commission with scholars and researchers from across the Land who would inspect the hoard , identify the pieces and return them to their proper owners. This would have three advantages:

1. It would make friends,
   

2.   It would take years to accomplish.

3.   Most of it would remain their property.

. As well as a reputation for being stubborn they are also renowned for cupidity. I was actually punched when I made the suggestion. They are in the extraordinary position of being terribly vulnerable and either unwilling to admit their vulnerability or unable to do anything about it. Hence my letter to you. I hope you can post both of us somewhere else before the coming storm.

Regards.

Maria.