This journal is intended for readers who are permitted to read literature in the adult department of their public library. Feeds for this journal: Atom | RSS. You can find links to my free e-books at my website. You can read more about me and this journal at my profile.
Be sure to read my content warning before reading this blog or signing up for my newsletter.
NEWSLETTER
They are the elite unit of the Northern Army, and their power is growing. But what they need is more than power: they need wisdom. ¶ Novella chapter: 3,757 words. ¶ Tags: historical fantasy, soldiers, comradeship, ethics. ¶ Permalink.
CHAPTER ONE
The Koretian borderland, nine years after the beginning of the Marcadian rebellion.
There were eleven of them left by the time they reached the borderland.
( Read more... )
( Important changes to my story releases )
Free at my website.
Law of Vengeance (The Three Lands). For over twenty years, Lord Carle has told the heir to the Emorian throne that vengeance is only the other side of mercy, and that disobedience and treachery should never be forgiven. Finally it seems that his message has been received. Which makes it all the more unfortunate that Carle should have chosen this moment to break the law.
New installment:
Side story | Wait. How long is too long?
New omnibus:
Law of Vengeance: Novel and Side Stories.
Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.
New installment:
( News )
My fiction and fiction announcements are also available by e-mail and feeds. If you'd like to show your appreciation for my stories, you can share my stories, recommend my stories, comment on my stories, create a fanwork inspired by my stories, or give me a prompt for a story you'd like written. For those who are interested, I have accounts at Patreon and Ream.
How long is too long? ¶ Short story: 5800 words. ¶ Tags: mythic historical fantasy, romance, royalty, soldiers. ¶ Permalink.
War is the true test of a man's spirit. Or so Brendon thought, till the eve of war.
( Read more... )
For those of you who receive my posts by email: I'm switching my newsletter service to Buttondown, which is a nicer newsletter distribution service than the one I've been using. (Among Buttondown's other clients are OTW.) I'll be importing my current subscribers' email addresses into Buttondown; I don't think you'll need to reconfirm your subscription, but if I'm wrong about this, you'll know why you're receiving a confirmation request. If you decide to unsubscribe, now or later, you can do so at any time by clicking on the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the newsletter. If you decide to resubscribe at a later date, you can do so through my blog or website.
After this email, you'll no longer receive emails from me via follow.it. My future emails will come to you via Buttondown. If you don't receive any more emails from me by the beginning of next month, check your spam folder to see whether the Buttondown-distributed newsletter has ended up there.
Among the features of my new newsletter are the following:
If anyone has problems or questions concerning the new service, feel free to email me. If you're reading this on my blog and want to sign up to receive my blog entries by email, you can subscribe here.
The walls of Valouse are the thickest and highest in Koretia, surpassing even those of the capital. They were heightened in 940, after the Baron of Blackpass's young son and heir was kidnapped and tormented to death upon order of the King, who was in a blood feud at the time with the Baron of Blackpass. Since the King's own heir was living in Valouse, it was considered likely that Blackpass would try to take his own vengeance by killing the King's heir in Valouse. Records in my own family, however, indicate that the Baron of Blackpass deliberately chose not to follow this path.
Nearly all the towns in Koretia have allowed their town walls to crumble since the civil war, for there has been no civil unrest since that time. Valouse, however, is located next to the border with Daxis, which was at war with Koretia in 991. For that reason, Valouse has chosen to retain its walls. The walls remain a testimony to the bloody centuries when Koretia fought battles against other lands and against its own people.
[Translator's note: The Baron of Blackpass's difficult decision is depicted in Law Links.]
Free at my website.
The Motley Crew (The Thousand Nations). When a young man named Dolan flees from the north, he faces danger on all sides. The Northern Army wants him back. The Empire of Emor wants him dead. His native homeland of Koretia may not want him at all. And his only protection is a man with motives that are mysterious and possibly deadly.
New installment:
Side story | Hope Sprang. Hope is of no use if it lies dead.
Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.
New installments:
For those of you living in the Northern Hemisphere, a story featuring the heat of summer.
Spy Hill (Life Prison: Justice's Hammer side story).
On a hot summer's day, on a high hill surrounded by the enemy, the best battle-companion can turn out to be the truth.
Rook and Fairview have worked alongside each other for years, first as officers in the navy, then as officers on a steamship, and finally as colonels in an invading army. Members of a nation where tiny differences in rank are considered all-important, the two men defy convention by treating each other as equals.
But now their life-long bond is about to meet its greatest strain, when they are ordered to seize and defend a hill whose landscape is unknown, in the company of soldiers who may be incompetent or treacherous. Will Rook and Fairview's friendship remain by the end of the battle? Or will their lives take an unexpected detour as they struggle to survive on Spy Hill?
My fiction announcements are also available by e-mail and feeds.
Valouse is easy to reach from the Koretian capital. Two paths lead there. The longer and more picturesque path winds along the feet of the low mountains dividing Koretia from Daxis. To your east as you journey is the so-named Sea of Koretia; as I have explained earlier, that forest is best not entered without a guide.
The mountainside path to Valouse is frequently travelled, so much so that even families can feel safe walking along here. Men need only be sure they are visibly armed. Women travelling independently will not need more than one armed escort.
As you near Valouse, your path will pass under a mountain directly opposite the western gates into Valouse. This mountain is popularly known by locals as the Mountain of Surrender, for it is here, in August 976, that Tristan son of Raeburn, the last heir to the kingship of Koretia, surrendered his princedom to the Emorian occupying forces that had already conquered the capital and most of Koretia's land to the north. At the same time, Prince Tristan surrendered all future claim to the Koretian throne.
Prince Tristan was much criticized for his act at the time, but in retrospect, we can see that great good came from his decision not to fight the Emorians further. Koretia was at that time rife with corruption. The brief Emorian conquest helped to bring an end to this, for the Emorians instituted their world-renowned system of justice in Koretia. After the departure of the Emorians, this justice system continued to maintain peace in Koretia.
[Translator's note: That historic surrender is featured in The Fire Before.]
The area near Koretia's capital is made up of many pleasant towns. Pleasant, that is, if you make sure you visit them while armed.
If you would like to avoid having to duel Koretian men when you inadvertently cause them offense, your best choice is to visit the Town of Valouse. Alone among all the Koretian towns, Valouse bans duelling and other forms of private vengeance. The town's troubled history makes clear the reason for this ban.
[Translator's note: Last winter, as you may recall, I had to delay publication of Heir because of a concussion. This caused a problem with my release of "Tempestuous Tours," because I was due to release a section at that time about the Town of Valouse, and that section had major spoilers for "Heir." I ended up skipping releasing that section, as well as a couple of side tours, because my head was in no state to figure out what to do. So now I'm backtracking to some tours of southern Koretia and Daxis, before I continue with our tour of Emor.]
At the end of the corridor stand familiar high doors; these doors are plated with silver. Flanking them on both sides of the corridor are the living quarters of the High Lord and the living quarters of the senior-most council lord. The latter is likely to become High Lord in turn. These chambers switch back and forth; when a senior-most lord becomes High Lord, his chambers become those of the High Lord, and the chambers of the recently deceased High Lord become those of the new senior-most lord.
As for the Map Room, you may already have visited there; it is where receptions are held. When not in use for receptions, the Chara meets here with palace residents or else makes military plans for his empire – hence the chamber's appellation.
The best view in the palace of the black border mountains can be seen from this room's windows.
[Translator's note: The Ambassador has good reason to remember those windows. Blood Vow shows why.]
At one time, the cellar of the current palace was made up of dank, dim chambers where the palace's slave-servants slept and sometimes worked. When the previous Chara made up his mind to free all the palace slaves, there was much discussion over what to do with the former slave-quarters. The somewhat belated consensus by the palace officials was that these rooms were unfit to live in. There was talk of turning the rooms into storage rooms.
To everyone's amazement, the palace's community of eunuchs came forward and asked that the dank, dim chambers be given over to them. They had never before had a place in the palace that belonged solely to them. Many of them, being recently freed slaves, had lived in the slave-quarters; they considered this their home, one that might finally belong to them, rather than to their slave-masters.
The Chara graciously granted them their new quarters and forbade anyone who was not a half-man from entering the quarters, except by invitation of the eunuchs.
I can testify that the eunuch community has done a marvellous job of redecorating the cellar, so that it is bright and cheerful. One room alone has not been touched: the slaves' punishment room, which remains as a stark reminder of this place's bloody past.
If you are invited to visit the eunuchs' quarters, I strongly advise you to visit the punishment room. My advice grows even stronger if you keep slaves yourselves.
[Translator's note: Free-man's Blade includes a visit to the slave quarters, courtesy of a half-man.]
Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.
New installments:
In honor of Independence Day in the USA, a novel-within-a-novel about revolution.
Checkmate (The Eternal Dungeon: Sweet Blood #4).
The Eternal Dungeon is no longer a prison. It's a battlefield.
Split apart from their closest loves and friends, a small group of prison-workers seek to abolish the use of torture against prisoners in the queendom's royal dungeon. Time is running out, for the deadly High Seeker has already flogged and executed prison-workers who oppose his policies.
Do the reformers have enough time and skill to bring about radical change in the dungeon? Will they be able to overcome their mistrust of one another?
I hope those of you who have been affected the heat waves have been keeping cool. I and my family are nicely air-conditioned so far, but the past month or so has seen me dealing with a documentation problem, a flooded basement, and three family medical crises leading to trips to the emergency room and, in one case, a stay in the hospital.
All that hanging around for doctors to arrive has left me plenty of time in which to write, but I fell short of time in June in which to edit and lay out my next e-book. So I've rescheduled the release of the now-aptly-titled "Wait" to August.
In the meantime, I've decided to add in a new feature to my monthly updates: "From the Backlist." I know that I have a somewhat formidable backlist, and it may seem challenging to know where to start with it. Here's the secret: Start anywhere. I've written nearly all my stories so that they can be read independently of one another. Of course, if you hate spoilers with a passion, you'll want to start at the beginning of each series cycle. But otherwise, you may enjoy having the chance to dip into various spots of my backlist.
Website news: I've added Edward Eager to my Links page and have updated the links to other authors. Among other things, the site of Sylvia Engdahl (which hasn't been updated since 2024) has gone down, which is a little alarming, since the author was born in 1933. If you're interested in her writings, her quite-reasonably-priced books and ebooks are still available at bookstores - though for how long, I can't say; her more recent novels are self-published. Her Children of the Star trilogy, which I first read as a teen, deeply influenced my own writing. (I unconsciously swiped the ending of The Breaking from one of her novels.)
My fiction announcements are also available by e-mail and feeds.
Continuing our journey down the southern corridor of the East Wing, we reach, on our left side, the chambers belonging to the Chara's historian. The royal historian works in close cooperation with the royal clerk; indeed, it is traditional for historians to rise to the rank of clerk. The historian makes use of the documents room in the clerk's quarters, but he also has his own documents room, filled with books and papers only lightly connected with the Chara and his law, but offering important information on the history of Emor. Here you will find some of the earliest annals of Emorian history. I need hardly say that you need an invitation to visit these treasures.
Just beyond are the busy quarters of the court summoners. See the law chapter for more information on the exact work that these important men do. I will only say here that you really, really do not want to attract the attention of the summoners.
We have been looking, until now, at the work chambers on the left side of the corridor; only the Chara and his heir have taken rooms on the right. But now we reach a stretch of corridor that will be familiar to you if you have been invited to stay in the palace overnight: the guest quarters. Each guestroom has its own shape and charm, and some, such as the ambassadorial suites, are permanently assigned to regular guests of the Chara.
Beyond them are new, splendid quarters for the chamber steward. Now relieved of his unpleasant duties as the supervisor of hundreds of slaves, the chamber steward can devote his full attention to his remaining duty, which is assigning rooms to palace residents and guests. You will likely have already met this person and are aware that he is a eunuch. Or she; the chamber steward is happy to respond to either mode of address. That the chamber steward should be a eunuch is traditional, for disagreeable reasons that ought to be obvious to anyone who knows the details of a Slave's Death. Some condemned prisoners have their sentences commuted, after the first stage of a Slave's Death: the gelding. Most of these unfortunate former captives have chosen to live in the community of eunuchs that exists in the palace.
Which brings us to the half-men's quarters.
[Translator's note: In an earlier era, the chamber steward was known as the palace slave-keeper. You may meet them in Breached Boundaries.]
The semi-attached bedchamber I mentioned before is assigned to the Chara To Be – that is, the heir to the Chara.
For centuries, no women except the Consort and the High Lord's wife have lived in the East Wing of the Chara's palace. Any children of the Chara and the High Lord have been raised elsewhere in the palace. The current High Lord visits his children daily, often spending entire evenings with them.
The one exception to the rule against families dwelling in the East Wing is that, upon reaching the age at which he can read, the Chara To Be is moved to the bedchamber directly next to his father's quarters, so that he can begin to learn the law. He is tended by servants and, in recent decades, by a tutor assigned to him. The tutor lives elsewhere in the East Wing; however, the Chara To Be may enter the Chara's quarters at any time, and he is permitted to spend time playing with the scribe-boys across the hall. He is thus less isolated than were earlier Charas To Be: young boys who were expected to quietly read law books all day.
The previous Chara To Be is now Chara. He is young enough that he has not yet married, but presumably he will do so and will install his own heir in the bedchamber.
The bedchamber is guarded by the same men who guard the Chara. Do not approach that door in the corridor.
[Translator's note: The Ambassador first came to know the Chara To Be's chamber during the period of Re-creation.]
The place where you are standing or sitting is the Chara's sitting chamber. You are privileged to see it; most visitors only encounter the Chara in his court or at receptions. The primary purpose of the sitting chamber is to provide the Chara with a place to relax with his friends during his brief moments of leisure.
To your right is the hearth, and over it is carved the royal emblem. This was added during the reign of the previous Chara. Directly opposite is a doorway leading into a semi-separate bedchamber, of which we will speak later.
Directly in front of you is the law. This impressive display of books, in a floor-to-ceiling bookcase, constitutes the Emorian edition of the Chara's law. You must not touch the books, but if you admire them from afar, the Chara may unbend enough to talk of the law with you. By all means, take this opportunity to learn more about the law from Emor's High Judge.
A small window to the left of the bookcase offers a splendid view of the black border mountains.
Other objects and chambers in the quarters are entirely private. Do not touch anything in the Chara's quarters – I emphasize that. Over the centuries, the Chara's dungeon has been filled with many men who accidentally let their hands touch something forbidden that belonged to the Chara.
In a word, visiting the Chara – at least, the current Chara – is an intimidating experience. Let us leave here as quickly as possible.
[Translator's note: Due caution in these quarters is shown by the protagonist of Law of Vengeance.]
Free at my website.
The Motley Crew (The Thousand Nations). When a young man named Dolan flees from the north, he faces danger on all sides. The Northern Army wants him back. The Empire of Emor wants him dead. His native homeland of Koretia may not want him at all. And his only protection is a man with motives that are mysterious and possibly deadly.
New installment:
Side story | Stream of Dying. All right, so you're captured.
Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.
New installments:
My next release will be a Law of Vengeance side story: "Wait." You'll encounter a few characters you already know.
My fiction announcements are also available by e-mail and feeds.
The Chara's quarters are directly opposite those of his clerk. His quarters appear to be only lightly guarded. Do not be deceived.
Let us begin with protocol. Unless you are an intimate friend of the Chara, you do not go to his quarters uninvited. If you go uninvited and are lucky, you will simply be knocked to the ground by the spears of his guards. If you are armed, it is more likely you will be gutted by the spears.
Do not come armed to the Chara; that is the first suggestion I would make. Koretian ambassadors may arrive armed; so may council lords and other Emorians whom the Chara knows well. Anyone else should arrive naked of arms, looking as peaceful as possible. Even so, you may be searched for hidden weapons. Remember: the palace guards are forever on the lookout for assassins.
Dress formally and act formally. You may have heard that the Chara prefers to drop formality in private. This was so with a couple of the recent Charas, but the current Chara adheres to older tradition.
As you step into the Chara's chambers, do not worry about the door behind you. The guards will close it. Make your bow, obeisance, or other gesture of respect to the Chara. He will have servants present, all of them trained to defend him. Keep your movements as nonthreatening as possible.
If he wishes, he may invite you to sit. Wait until he is seated before seating yourself, and only sit in whatever chair you have been offered. Sitting on the floor is not considered acceptable - at least, not with the current Chara.
Do not ask for food or drink or anything beyond whatever negotiations you have come to discuss with the Chara. If you are an eastern mainlander, keep in mind that Emorians value brevity. Come to the point as quickly as your own sense of decorum will permit.
Do not unnecessarily anger the Chara. The look of the Chara is not entirely under his control; it may surface if he inwardly places you under judgment.
This may all sound exceedingly painful. It is meant to be. Each Chara finds his own way to uphold the dignity of his office; the current Chara does so by making visitors as uncomfortable as possible, to make clear their position under his power. He will seek to impress you with the might of his empire. If you value your nation's future, do not laugh.
If you remain sober and peaceful, all is likely to go well in your negotiations. You may or may not receive what you ask, but you will emerge alive from an encounter with the Empire of Emor, which is a good deal more than many men have done.
But I have strayed from my discussion of the physical surroundings.
[Translator's note: The Ambassador is intimately familiar with the Chara's quarters; see Blood Vow.]
Returning through the door to the previous corridor, we now reach the point where the corridor is met by another corridor running toward the south. This corridor is actually an extension of the corridor to the north that leads to the council chamber; however, it is broken by the court.
Following it south, you will first pass, on your left, the chapel. This is a chamber intended for use by anyone, residents or visitors, who seeks a place of quiet contemplation or prayer. Like the royal chapel in Koretia, it is filled with foreign aids to prayer, but most often it used for public recitations of law passages by devotees of the Chara and his law. At other times, palace residents may be found here during their breaks from work, quietly reading law books.
Further along, on the left, is the treasury. As you might imagine, this chamber is well guarded, though much of the Chara's wealth is spread across the empire, often in the form of land. The royal treasurer plays an important role in the Emorian government, authorizing payments for the Chara's many projects. He does not take well to attempted bribes.
Further down, again on your left, is the chamber of the Chara's clerk. Behind this unassuming door is one of the largest sets of rooms in the palace, where dozens of scribes prepare the documents that track the workings of Emor's vast bureaucracy. Behind the scribal rooms is a corridor to the Chara's documents room, followed by the actual chamber of the Chara's clerk. If you are tempted to break into either room to steal a document, you might wish to keep in mind that nearly all of the scribes are boys. You may be able to creep past dozens of prankish boys without being detected; I have never managed this.
[Translator's note: Just why a chapel exists in the notoriously nontheistic land of Emor is explained in Law-Lover. To visit the chamber of the Chara's clerk, read Breached Boundaries. To visit the documents room, read Empty Dagger Hand.]
Free at my website.
The Motley Crew (The Thousand Nations). When a young man named Dolan flees from the north, he faces danger on all sides. The Northern Army wants him back. The Empire of Emor wants him dead. His native homeland of Koretia may not want him at all. And his only protection is a man with motives that are mysterious and possibly deadly.
New installments:
4 | Apprehension of the Ambassador. A border crossing gone awry turns an escape into a new realm of danger.
Historical Note. [The historical note appears at the end of the omnibus, after the side stories.]
Tempestuous Tours (Crossing Worlds: A Visitor's Guide to the Three Lands #2). A whirlwind tour of the sites in the Three Lands that are most steeped in history, culture, and the occasional pickpocket.
New installments:
My fiction announcements are also available by e-mail and feeds.
Further on, as the corridor turns once more, is a locked door. This leads to the so-named inner garden, which is the palace courtyard. The garden may be entered only by invitation of the Chara or one of his council lords. It is intended as private place of restoration from the heavy duties of the Chara and the council lords.
The garden is a green area of grasses and hedges, in the Emorian fashion of gardens of pleasure. Towards the back of the garden is a small grove of trees. The tallest of these trees is father to the rest. Imported as a sapling from Koretia, it was replanted by the very hands of the Chara Peter.
Surrounding the garden are the four wings of the palace; this is the only place where all four wings can be seen at once. The garden is sunken to the original level of the hill, which causes the West Wing to loom above it. Only the remaining wings of the palace, though, are two-storeyed.
A break between the South Wing and the East Wing is gated and heavily guarded. It offers a splendid view of the black border mountains to the south.
[Translator's note: The protagonists of Blood Vow and Law of Vengeance keep bumping into each other in the inner garden, alas.]
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
winterfish
