Jack Vance - Elder Isles 0 - Suldrun's Garden

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- - - - Vance uses many footnotes in this volume

- - - - Vance uses many footnotes in this volume. I have

attempted to make these available - - - - -

- - - - to the e-book reader by setting them off with an asterixk

(*) and indenting them. - - - - -

PRELIMINARY

The Elder Isles and its peoples: a brief survey, which, while not

altogether tedious, may be neglected by the reader impatient with

facts.

The Elder Isles, now sunk beneath the Atlantic, in olden times

were located across the Cantabrian Gulf (now the Bay of Biscay)

from Old Gaul.

Christian chroniclers have little to say regarding the Elder

Isles. Gildas and Nennius both make references to Hybras, though

Bede is silent. Geoffrey of Monmouth alludes both to Lyonesse and

Avallon, and perhaps other places and events which can less

certainly be identified. Chretien of Troyes rhapsodizes upon Ys

and its pleasures; and Ys is also the frequent locale of early

Armorican folk-tales. Irish references are numerous but confusing

and contradictory. St. Bresabius of Cardiff propounds a rather

fanciful list of the Kings of Lyonesse; St. Columba inveighs

against the "heretics, witches, idolaters and Druids" of the

island he calls "Hy Brasill," the medieval term for "Hybras."

Otherwise the record is quiet.

Greeks and Phoenicians traded with the Elder Isles. Romans visited

Hybras and many settled there, leaving behind aqueducts, roads,

villas and temples. In the waning days of the Empire Christian

dignitaries landed at Avallon amid vast pomp and panoply. They

established bishoprics, appointed appropriate officials and spent

good Roman gold to build their basilicas, none of which prospered.

The bishops strove mightily against the olden gods, halflings and

magicians alike, but few dared enter the Forest of Tantrevalles.

Aspergillums, thuribles and curses proved futile against such as

Dankvin the giant, Taudry the Weasoning, the fairies of Pithpenny

Shee. Dozens of missionaries, exalted through faith, paid terrible

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prices for their zeal. Saint Elric marched barefoot to Smoorish

Rock where he intended to subdue the ogre Magre and bring him to

the Faith. According to subsequent tale-tellers, Saint Elric

arrived at noon and Magre politely agreed to hear his declaration.

Elric spoke a mighty sermon, while Magre started the fire in his

pit. Elric expounded, recited Scripture and sang the glories of

the Faith. When he came to an end and declared his final

"Hallelujah!," Magre gave him a stoup of ale to ease his throat.

Sharpening a knife he complimented Elric upon the fervor of his

rhetoric. Then he smote off Elric's head, cut, drew, spitted,

cooked and devoured the sanctified morsel with a garnish of leeks

and cabbages. Saint Uldine attempted the baptism of a troll in the

waters of Black Meira Tarn. She was indefatigable; he raped her

four times during her efforts, until at last she despaired. In due

course she gave birth to four imps. The first of these, Ignaldus,

became father to the eery knight Sir Sacrontine who could not

sleep of nights until he had killed a Christian. Saint Uldine's

other children were Drathe, Alleia and Bazille.* In Godelia Druids

never paused in the worship of Lug the Sun, Matrona the Moon,

Adonis the Beautiful, Kernuun the Stag, Mokous the Boar, Kai the

Dark, Sheah the Graceful, and innumerable local half-gods. During

this period Olam Magnus of Lyonesse, aided by Per-silian, his so-

called "Magic Mirror," brought all the Elder Isles (excepting

Skaghane and Godelia) under his rule. Styling himself Olam I, he

enjoyed a long and prosperous reign and was succeeded by Rordec I,

Olam II, then, briefly, by the "Galician Cuckoos," Quarnitz I and

Niffith I. Then Fafhion Long-nose reasserted the old blood line.

He sired Olam III, who moved his throne Evandig and that great

table known as Cairbra an Mead-han, the "Board of Notables,"* from

Lyonesse Town to Avallon in the Duchy of Dahaut. When Olam III's

grandson Uther II fled to Britain (there to sire Uther Pendragon,

father of Arthur, King f Cornwall), the land fragmented to become

ten kingdoms: Dahaut, Lyonesse, North Ulfland, South Ulfland,

Godelia, Blaloc, Caduz, Pomperol, Dascinet and Troicinet.

*The deeds of the four have been chronicled in a rare

volume, "Saint Uldine's Children."

*The Round Table of King Arthur was later inspired by

the Cairbra an Meadhan.

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The new kings found many pretexts for contention, and the Elder

Isles entered a time of trouble. North and South Ulfland, exposed

to the Ska,* became lawless wastes, occupied by robber knights and

dire beasts. Only the Vale Evander, guarded to the east by the

castle Tintzin Fyral and to the west by the city Ys, remained a

realm of tranquility.

*See Glossary, III.

King Audry I of Dahaut at last took a fateful step. He declared

that since he sat on the throne Evandig, he must be acknowledged

King of the Elder Isles.

King Phristan of Lyonesse at once challenged him. Audry assembled

a great army and marched down Icnield Way through Pomperol and

into Lyonesse. King Phristan led his army north. At the Battle of

Orm Hill the armies fought for two days and finally separated in

mutual exhaustion. Both Phristan and Audry died in combat and both

armies retired. Audry II failed to press his father's claim;

effectively Phristan had won the battle.

Twenty years pass. The Ska have made serious inroads into North

Ulfland and have taken to themselves a section known as the North

Foreshore. King Gax, old, half-blind and helpless has gone into

hiding. The Ska do not even trouble to search for him. The king of

South Ulfland is Oriante, who resides at Castle Sfan Sfeg near the

town Oaldes. His single son, Prince Quilcy, is feeble-minded and

spends his days playing with fanciful dolls and doll-houses. Audry

II is King of Dahaut and Casmir is King of Lyonesse, and both

intend to become King of the Elder Isles and sit rightfully on the

throne Evandig.

Chapter 1

ON A DREARY WINTER'S DAY, with rain sweeping across Lyonesse Town,

Queen Sollace went into labor. She was taken to the lying-in room

and attended by two midwives, four maids, Balhamel the physician

and the crone named Dyldra, who was profound in the lore of herbs,

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and by some considered a witch. Dyldra was present by the wish of

Queen Sollace, who found more comfort in faith than logic.

King Casmir made an appearance. Sollace's whimpers became moans

and she clawed at her thick blonde hair with clenched fingers.

Casmir watched from across the room. He wore a simple scarlet robe

with a purple sash; a gold coronet confined his ruddy blond hair.

He spoke to Balhamel. "What are the signs?"

"Sire, there are none as yet."

"There is no way to divine the sex?"

"To my knowledge, none."

Standing in the doorway, legs somewhat apart, hands behind his

back, Casmir seemed the very embodiment of stern and kingly

majesty. And, indeed, this was an attitude which accompanied him

everywhere, so that kitchen-maids, tittering and giggling, often

wondered if Casmir wore his crown to the nuptial bed. He inspected

Sollace from under frowning eyebrows. "It would seem that she

feels pain."

"Her pain is not so much, sire, as might be. Not yet, at any rate.

Remember, fear magnifies that pain which actually exists."

To this observation Casmir made no response. He noticed, in the

shadows to the side of the room, Dyldra the crone, where she

crouched over a brazier. He pointed with his finger: "Why is the

witch here?"

"Sire," whispered the chief midwife, "she came at the behest of

Queen Sollace!"

Casmir grunted. "She'll bring a wrack to the child."

Dyldra only crouched the lower over the brazier. She threw a

handful of herbs on the coals; a waft of acrid smoke drifted

across the room and touched Casmir's face; he coughed, backed

away, and departed the room.

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The maid drew hangings across the wet landscape and set the bronze

lanterns alight. On the couch Sollace lay taut, legs outthrust,

head thrown back, her regal bulk fascinating the attention of

those who stood tending her.

The pangs became sharp; Sollace cried out, first for pain, then

for rage that she should suffer like a common woman.

Two hours later the child was born: a girl, of no great size.

Sollace closed her eyes and lay back. When the child was brought

to her she waved it away and presently relaxed into a stupor.

The celebration attendant upon the birth of Princess Suldrun was

muted. King Casmir issued no jubilant proclamation and Queen

Sollace refused audience to all save a certain Ewaldo Idra, Adept

of the Caucasian Mysteries. Finally, and only, so it seemed, that

he might not contravene custom, King Casmir ordained a gala

procession.

On a day of brittle white sunlight, cold wind and high hurrying

clouds, the gates before Castle Haidion opened. Four heralds in

white satin marched forth, at a stately step-halt-step. From their

clarions depended gonfalons of white silk, embroidered with the

emblem of Lyonesse: a black Tree of Life, on which grew twelve

scarlet pomegranates.* They marched forty yards, halted, raised

clarions and blew the "Gladsome Tidings" fanfare: From the palace

yard, on snorting white horses, rode four noblemen: Cypris, Duke

of Skroy; Bannoy, Duke of Tremblance; Odo, Duke of Folize and Sir

Garnel, Knight Banneret of Castle Swange, nephew to the King. Next

came the royal carriage, drawn by four white unicorns. Queen

Sollace sat swathed in green robes, holding Suldrun on a crimson

pillow: King Casmir rode his great black horse, Sheuvan, beside

the carriage. Behind marched the Elite Guard, each of noble blood,

carrying ceremonial silver halberds. At the rear rolled a wagon

from which a pair of maidens tossed handfuls of pennies into the

throng.

*The usages of heraldry, as well as the theory and

practice of chivalry, were still simple and

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fresh. They would not attain their full baroque

extravagance for centuries to come.

The procession descended the Sfer Arct, the central avenue of

Lyonesse Town, to the Chale, the road which followed the semi-

circle of the harbor. At the Chale, the procession circled the

fish market and returned up the Sfer Arct to Haidion. Outside the

gate, booths offered the king's pickled fish and biscuits to all

who hungered; and ale to those who might wish to drink health to

the new princess.

During the months of winter and spring King Casmir looked only

twice at the infant princess, in each case, standing back in cool

disinterest. She had thwarted his royal will by coming female into

the world. He could not immediately punish her for the act, no

more could he extend the full beneficence of his favor.

Sollace grew sulky because Casmir was displeased and, with a set

of petulant flourishes, banished the child from her sight.

Ehirme, a raw-boned peasant girl, and niece to an under-gardener,

had lost her own infant son to the yellow bloat. With an amplitude

of both milk and solicitude she became Suldrun's wet-nurse.

Centuries in the past, at that middle-distant time when legend and

history start to blur, Blausreddin the pirate built a fortress at

the back of a stony semi-circular harbor. His concern was not so

much assault from the sea, but surprise attacks down from the

pinnacles and gorges of the mountains, to the north of the harbor.

A century later the Danaan king, Tabbro, enclosed the harbor

behind a remarkable breakwater, and added the Old Hall, new

kitchens and a set of sleeping chambers to the fortress. His son,

Zoltra Bright Star, constructed a massive stone pier and dredged

the harbor so that any ship in the world might moor at the pier.*

*According to legend both Tabbro and Zoltra Bright Star

engaged loald, a submarine giant,

to aid in their undertakings, for an unknown

compensation.

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Zoltra further augmented the old fortress, adding the Great Hall

and the West Tower, though he died before completion of the work,

which continued through the reigns of Palaemon I, Edvarius I and

Palaemon II.

The Haidion of King Casmir held aloft five major towers: the East

Tower, the King's Tower, the Tall Tower (also known as the Eyrie),

the Tower of Palaemon and the West Tower. There were five major

halls: the Great Hall; the Hall of Honors; the Old Hall; the Clod

an Dach Nair, or the Banquet Hall; and the Small Refectory. Of

these, the Great Hall was remarkable for its ponderous majesty,

which seemed to transcend the scope of human effort. The

proportions, the spaces and masses, the contrasts of shadow and

light, which changed from morning to evening and again to the

moving illumination of flamboys, all acted together to awe the

senses. The entrances were almost afterthoughts; in any case no

one could achieve a dramatic entrance into the Great Hall. At one

end a portal entered upon a narrow stage from which six wide steps

descended into the hall, beside columns so massive that a pair of

men, arms outstretched, could not enclasp them. To one side a row

of high windows, glazed with thick glass now lavender with age,

admitted a watery half-light. At night, flamboys in iron brackets

seemed to cast as much black shadow as light. Twelve Mauretanian

rugs eased the harshness of the stone floor.

A pair of iron doors opened into the Hall of Honors, which in

scope and proportion resembled the nave of a cathedral. A heavy

dark red carpet ran down the center from entrance to royal throne.

Around the walls ranged fifty-four massive chairs, each signified

by an emblem of nobility hanging on the wall above. On these

chairs, for ceremonial occasions, sat the grandees of Lyonesse,

each under the emblem of his ancestors. The royal throne, had been

Evandig until Olam III moved it to Avalaon, along with the round

table Cairbra an Meadhan. The table where the noblest of the noble

might discover their named places, had occupied the center of the

hall.

The Hall of Honors had been added by King Carles, last of the

Methewen Dynasty. Chlowod the Red, first of the Tyrrhenians,*

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extended Haidion's precincts to the east of Zoltra's Wall. He

paved the Urquial, Zoltra's old parade ground, and to the back

built the massive Peinhador, in which were housed infirmary,

barracks and penitentiary. The dungeons under the old armory fell

into disuse, with the ancient cages, racks, griddles, wheels,

strappado lofts, presses, punches and twisting machines left to

molder in the damp.

*Chlowod's grandfather had been a Balearic Etruscan.

The kings proceeded to rule, one by one, and each augmented

Haidion's halls, passages, prospects, galleries, towers and

turrets, as if each, brooding on mortality, sought to make himself

part of ageless Haidion.

For those who lived there, Haidion was a small universe

indifferent to the events of elsewhere, though the membrane of

separation was not impermeable. There were rumors from abroad,

notices of the changing seasons, arrivals and excursions, an

occasional novelty or alarm; but these were muffled murmurs, dim

images, which barely stirred the organs of the palace. A comet

flaring across the sky? Marvelous!—but forgotten when Shilk the

pot-boy kicks the undercook's cat. The Ska have ravaged North

Ulfland? The Ska are like wild animals; but this morning, after

eating cream on hej porridge, the Duchess of Skroy found a dead

mouse in the cream jug, and here was emotion raw and stark, what

with her outcries and shoes thrown at the maids!

The laws which ruled the small universe were exact. Status was

graduated with the finest of discrimination, from high degree to

lowest of the low. Each knew his quality and understood the

delicate distinction between next highest (to be minimized) and

next lowest (to be enforced and emphasized). Some encroached

beyond their station, generating tension; the sharp stench of

rancor hung in the air. Each scrutinized the conduct of those

above, while concealing his own affairs from those below. The

royal personages were watched with care; their habits were

discussed and analyzed a dozen times a day. Queen Sollace showed

great cordiality to religious zealots and priests, and found much

of interest in their creeds. She was thought to be sexually cold

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and never took lovers. King Casmir made connubial visits to her

bed regularly, once each month, and they coupled with stately

ponderosity, like the mating of elephants.

Princess Suldrun occupied a peculiar place in the social structure

of the palace. The indifference of King Casmir and Queen Sollace

were duly noted; petty discourtesies therefore might be visited

upon Suldrun with impunity.

The years passed and, without any notice being taken, Suldrun

became a quiet child with long soft blonde hair. Because no one

saw fit to arrange otherwise, Ehirme made the leap in status from

wet-nurse to the private maid of the princess.

Ehirme, untrained in etiquette and not greatly gifted in other

ways, had assimilated lore from her Celtic grandfather, which

across the seasons and over the years she communicated to Suldrun:

tales and fables, the perils of far places, dints against the

mischief of fairies, the language of flowers, precautions while

walking out at midnight and the avoidance of ghosts, the knowledge

of good trees and bad trees.

Suldrun learned of lands which lay beyond the castle. "Two roads

lead from Lyonesse Town," said Ehirme. "You may go north through

the mountains along the Sfer Arct, or you go east through Zoltra's

Gate and across the Urquial. Presently you come to my little

cottage and our three fields where we grow cabbages, turnips and

hay for the beasts; then the road forks. To the right you follow

the shore of the Lir all the way to Slute Skeme. To the left you

fare north and join the Old Street which runs beside the Forest of

Tantrevalles where the fairies live. Two roads pass through the

forest, north to south and east to west." "Tell what happens where

they meet!" Suldrun already knew but she enjoyed the zest of

Ehirme's descriptions.

Ehirme warned her: "I've never fared so far, you understand! But

what grandfather says is this: in the old times the crossroads

would move about, because the place was enchanted and never knew

peace. This might be well enough for the traveler, because, after

all, he would put one foot ahead of him and then the other and the

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road would at last be won, and the traveler none the wiser that he

had seen twice as much forest as he had bargained for. The most

troubled were the folk who sold their goods each year at the

Goblin Fair, and where was that but at the crossroads! The folk

for the fair were most put out, because the fair should be at the

crossroads on Midsummer Night, but when they arrived at the

crossroads it had shifted two miles and a half, and nowhere a fair

to be seen.

"About this time the magicians vied in awful conflict. Murgen

proved the strongest and defeated Twitten, whose father was a

halfling, his mother a bald priestess at Kai Kang, under the Atlas

Mountains. What to do with the defeated magician, who seethed with

evil and hate? Murgen rolled him up and forged him into a stout

iron post, ten-foot long and thick as my leg. Then Murgen took

this enchanted post to the crossroads and waited till it shifted

to the proper place, then he drove the iron post down deep in the

center, fixing the crossroads so it no longer could move, and all

the folk at the Goblin Fair were glad, and spoke well of Murgen."

"Tell about Goblin Fair!"

"Well then, it's the place and time when the halflings and men can

meet and none will harm the other, so long as he stays polite. The

folk set up booths and sell all manner of fine things: cobweb

cloth and wine of violets in silver bottles, books of fairy-skein,

written with words that you can't get out of your head once

they're in. You'll see all kinds of halflings: fairies and

goblins, trolls and merrihews, and even an odd falloy, though they

show themselves seldom, out of shyness, despite being the most

beautiful of all. You'll hear songs and music and much chinking of

fairy-gold, which they squeeze from buttercups. Oh they're a rare

folk, the fairies!"

"Tell how you saw them!"

"Oh indeed! It was five years ago when I was with my sister who

married the cobbler in Frogmarsh Village. One time, just at

gloaming, I sat by the stile to rest my bones and watch while

evening came over the meadow. I heard tink-a-tink-tinkle, and I

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----Vanceusesmanyfootnotesinthisvolume----Vanceusesmanyfootnotesinthisvolume.Ihaveattemptedtomaketheseavailable---------tothee-bookreaderbysettingthemoffwithanasterixk(*)andindentingthem.-----PRELIMINARYTheElderIslesanditspeoples:abriefsurvey,which,whilenotaltogethertedious,maybeneglectedbythereader...

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