The Archons of the Stars Read online

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2005 by Alison Baird

  All rights reserved.

  Aspect

  Warner Books

  Hachette Book Group USA

  237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

  Visit our Web site at HachetteBookGroupUSA.com.

  First eBook Edition: August 2005

  ISBN: 978-0-446-51042-4

  Contents

  Also by Alison Baird

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Part One: The Siege

  Chapter 1: The Island

  Chapter 2: The Councils of Kings

  Chapter 3: The Book of Doom

  Chapter 4: Fire in the Sky

  Chapter 5: The Monster in the Dark

  Chapter 6: The Mistmount

  Chapter 7: The War Between the Worlds

  Chapter 8: The Country in the Clouds

  Chapter 9: The Queen of the World

  Chapter 10: The War of the Wood

  Chapter 11: Pas de Deux

  Chapter 12: The Return

  Part Two: The Battle

  Chapter 13: Nemorah

  Chapter 14: The Overseer

  Chapter 15: Wind and Wave

  Chapter 16: The City of Dragons

  Chapter 17: The Power of the Earth

  Chapter 18: Ombar

  Chapter 19: The Perilous Citadel

  Chapter 20: The Prince of Shadow

  Chapter 21: The Celestial Empire

  Appendix

  Pronunciation of elensi Words

  Glossary of Extraterrestrial Words

  Glossary of Terrestrial Terms

  About the Author

  CREATURE OF THE BLACK STAR

  Ailia roused to find the fire had died down to a red-eyed smolder. At the edge of its sullen light there crouched a creature: a thing that had the batlike wings of a dragon, opening and closing as if in spasms of agony, and a dragon’s scales and twitching tail. But its form was like that of a man, and it was draped in some dark material. Then, as the horned and shaggy head lifted, she saw it had a man’s face crusted with scales and two blazing eyes weeping tears, which, in the reflected fire-glow, seemed to leave trails of flame. The monster moaned and thrashed about as if in pain, but its burning eyes did not seem to see her. And in the next moment she recognized him.

  Mandrake, she thought, sickened. Neither man nor dragon, but a horrifying blend of the two, a thing utterly unnatural . . .

  [p. 218]

  PRAISE FOR THE STONE OF THE STARS

  “Legendary gods and lost temples emerge from dragon-mists. This is writing that calls enchantment forth from the shadows of Time.”

  —Andre Norton, author of Beastmaster’s Ark

  “Solidly entertaining . . . Baird’s narrative is crisp and lucid.”

  —Starlog

  “A strong contribution to the epic fantasy genre.”

  —Library Journal

  Also by Alison Baird

  The Stone of the Stars

  The Empire of the Stars

  For my fellow “Ink Blots”: Jan, Terri, Marian, and Louise

  PROLOGUE

  (Excerpted from Maurian’s Historia Arainia)

  IT IS DIFFICULT FOR US, studying these annals, to envision the events and personages in them, so fantastic do these accounts seem; so remote and even godlike the figures that move in their midst. We must not lose sight, however, of the fact that these beings were as human as we, in their outward forms at least: that Ailia, Damion, Morlyn, and the rest lived and breathed and knew our mortal weaknesses, doubts, and fears. For any chronicler of this strange and wondrous era the principal task must be to clothe those names in flesh.

  As to their story, it is elsewhere recounted in full, and a brief retelling of its main points will serve here. When the Queen Elarainia, revered throughout the world of Arainia as the incarnation of its goddess, gave birth to a daughter, the people rejoiced to see prophecy fulfilled: the Tryna Lia, Princess of the Stars, had been born in mortal form to deliver them from the designs of the dark god, Modrian-Valdur. When the little Princess Elmiria was still scarcely more than an infant, her mother took her from her home world and conveyed her by sorcery to the neighboring world of Mera for her protection. For Morlyn, the Avatar of Valdur, knew that she would one day challenge his rule. Also, it was in Mera that the Star Stone lay. This enchanted gem alone could give the Tryna Lia the power to defeat her foreordained foe. But upon reaching Mera, Queen Elarainia disappeared, and the little princess was left, not in the care of the holy monks on the Isle of Jana as both friend and foe would later come to believe, but on the shores of Great Island much farther to the north, where she was discovered by a lowly shipbuilder and his wife. They took the foundling into their home and raised her as their own. And when she grew older she did not seek out her true origins, for her guardians allowed her to believe that they were her true mother and father.

  When she was in her seventeenth year, Ailia (as the young maiden came to be called) made a journey along with many other islanders to escape the invading armies of Khalazar, the Zimbouran tyrant king. She and her family found sanctuary in the land of Maurainia, and at the Royal Academy of Raimar she first encountered Damion Athariel, priest of the Faith of Orendyl. She secretly fell in love with him, though such a love was forbidden, but she did not guess that their lives were interwoven by destiny.

  Many others were also bound by fate to Ailia. One was the aged woman known only as old Ana, a reputed witch dwelling in the coastal mountains. The “coven” that Ana led was in truth a secret company of Nemerei, seers and sorcerers who practiced the magical arts of elder days, and she told Father Damion of their ways and of the predestined ruler who would one day descend from the stars. At that time the girl Lorelyn, who had fled with Damion from the Isle of Jana when King Khalazar’s forces menaced it, was believed to be the Tryna Lia. Damion later came to her aid again when the sorcerer-prince Morlyn, then using the name of Mandrake, abducted her and confined her deep within the ruins of Maurainia’s oldest fortress. The Zimbouran king, who believed himself destined to seize and wield the Star Stone and conquer the Tryna Lia, then captured Lorelyn and with her Damion, Ana, and Ailia. He set off with his prisoners by galleon to the long-lost Isle of Trynisia: for there the holy jewel lay waiting for either the Tryna Lia or the dark god Valdur’s champion to claim it. But with her sorcerous power Ana freed the prisoners after landfall was made, and they escaped together into the wilderness of Trynisia. They were joined by Jomar, a half-breed slave who hated his Zimbouran masters and rejoiced at the chance to thwart them of their prize. The Stone lay in the ruin of the holy city of Liamar, high upon the sacred mountain of Elendor, and Lorelyn and her party resolved to find it before the Zimbourans could.

  But many perils lay in their path: not only the vengeful king and his soldiers, but also the misshapen and evil beast-men that dwelt on the isle, and the dragons that made their lairs on the summit of Elendor. Morlyn, using his sorcery to take the shape of a great dragon, led the latter in an assault upon Ana’s company. For it was his wish that no one should ever come near the Stone, nor awaken its wondrous powers.

  Yet though he caused Ana to be separated from her charges, and though he fought Jomar and Damion in the cavern wherein he kept the Stone, and took young Lorelyn back into his power, in the end he was thwarted by Ailia. The maiden, whom he thought a harmless shipwright’s daughter, ventured all alone into the treasure-cave, and took from thence the sacred Stone. She was assisted in her escape from Elendo
r by a great golden dragon, a servant of the celestial realm, whom she freed from the chain with which Morlyn had bound him fast. The semidivine Guardians, whose sacred duty it was to protect the Stone until the Tryna Lia came to claim it, saved her remaining companions. All were borne away through the heavens and reunited in far-distant Arainia—a world that, to them, had become merely a myth.

  Morlyn met them there and once more attempted to challenge them, denying them entry to the royal palace of Halmirion. But before the others’ wondering eyes Ailia took up the Star Stone and drew upon its power to put the dragon-mage to flight. In so doing she revealed at last her true identity. And before the people of Arainia she was returned to her throne.

  But countless dangers still awaited. For Ailia had not destroyed her predestined adversary; and there were on other worlds many cruel and powerful beings whose aid he could summon in his fight against her. The Zimbouran God-king, Khalazar had turned to necromancy to aid his cause, and in the midst of one of his incantations Morlyn appeared before him. The Dragon Prince revealed that he was the son of the ancient king Andarion, and feigned to be an undead spirit. The seeming “spirit” then bestowed upon Khalazar a vision of Arainia, and vowed to assist Khalazar in conquering the Tryna Lia and her world—if the Zimbouran king would but accept the title of Valdur’s Avatar. Khalazar did so eagerly, little suspecting that he had been deceived, and would serve but as the bait to draw Ailia out of her world and induce her to try and deliver Mera before her powers were adequate to the task.

  Ailia, unaware of the threat to her life and people, was celebrating a national feast day when an ethereal image of Khalazar materialized before her court, and declared he intended to seize Arainia. In the meantime, Mandrake continued to gather many allies against Ailia’s reign. He sought out the dragon-folk—sorcerers descended, like him, from Loänan—and slew their ruler in a duel, taking his place. Then Mandrake brought Khalazar and the king of the goblin race together, in a pact to conquer Arainia.

  Arainia’s governors then held a council of war. Jomar warned them that all the young sorcerers and knights of that world must train for the conflict to come. That same night, before an audience of hundreds, Ailia entered into an oracular fit, prophesying disaster while a storm raged with unnatural intensity over the city. At the urging of the court sorcerer Wu, Ailia was sent to the Nemerei academy of Melnemeron to be instructed in the lore of wizardry, preparing her for the battle to come. Syndra, an Arainian Nemerei turned traitor, spied upon the Tryna Lia and gave report of her progress to Morlyn. At her command, a firedrake made an attempt on Ailia’s life, but it was foiled by Master Wu, who was revealed to be a celestial dragon disguised in human form. His true name was Auron, and he was the very same Loänan who had saved her life in Mera. He explained that he believed she was the prophesied leader who would one day unite all the worlds of the Celestial Empire. From that point on, Ailia would be watched over by two celestial guardians, Auron and a firebird named Taleera, who was also sworn to protect the princess from harm.

  Their new draconic allies declared that they would assist the Arainian army, now planning to open a “dragon-gate” on the Ethereal Plane and enter Khalazar’s world. Ana also went to Mera, but to Maurainia not Zimboura, where she rejoined her Nemerei coven. Damion, to Ailia’s dismay, elected to join the army in the desert of Zimboura. She made a last desperate effort to stop the war by appealing to Khalazar in a magical message, but he spurned her offer of peace. The army departed; only later was it discovered that Lorelyn had disguised herself as a knight and passed through the gate as well.

  Her guardian dragon flew with Ailia through the Ether to a world of the celestial dragons where she would be safe, and she was filled with wonder at their fabulous city—built by the long-vanished race of the Archons whom the Arainians believed were gods—and its extraordinary inhabitants: dragons, cherubim, sphinxes, dryads, and many other beings long held to be mythical. On Mera, Khalazar’s forces and the Arainians clashed in a desert battle. Jomar, Damion, and Lorelyn were separated from the others, and fled to a distant oasis to join with a small band of rebel Mohara warriors. Their shaman declared that Jomar was fated to lead them to victory, and together they made daring forays against the enemy. But they had not the numbers to overthrow the tyrant Khalazar and his armies.

  In the world of the dragons Ailia sought an audience with Orbion, the Celestial Emperor, to ask for his help in the war against Khalazar. The aging dragon told Ailia that he could not oblige her, since he was the servant of the Empire’s many peoples, not their master. It was important that she understand this, for she must rule Talmirennia in his place when he died. In any case Mandrake had already divided the Loänan, so that they were themselves on the verge of civil war. Ailia, distressed at the prospect of a cosmic conflict that made the Meran war seem insignificant by comparison, then secretly resolved to go to Mandrake and parley with him. She took a flying ship and traveled alone through the Ether to Mandrake’s homeworld of Nemorah. But on arriving there she was assailed by his firedrakes, and her winged vessel was damaged and fell from the sky. She wandered through alien jungles, hopelessly lost, until she met and saved the life of a native creature called an amphisbaena. In gratitude it offered to show her where other humans like herself lived. Following the amphisbaena, Ailia came to a city made up of human beings whose ancestors had been slaves of the old Loänei empire. A local seeress gave shelter to Ailia, and explained that Mandrake in this world was believed to be a god. Though he had been gone for centuries and a new human ruler had disbanded his cult, still he was feared and revered by many.

  In Mera, Khalazar set a trap for the Tryna Lia’s friends by announcing that he would sacrifice a captive princess. He knew well they could not ignore the plight of this innocent victim. The shaman Wakunga warned that Damion was the one most sought by the enemy. Lorelyn advised Damion to remain behind while the others attempted a rescue. Reluctantly he agreed, and stayed in the Mohara camp while Jomar and Lorelyn rode forth, and were captured.

  Ailia confronted Mandrake in his castle on Nemorah, but he claimed that he did not wish to fight her, and merely desired to convince her that he was in the right. Ailia found herself treated not as an enemy but as an honored guest, and agreed to remain with Mandrake for a brief period of time and hear his arguments. Mandrake advised her to put her concerns for her people aside—humans, he declared, will always harm and enslave one another—and think only of herself. Soon Ailia began to believe that a union between herself and the Dragon Prince might well bring a lasting peace. She gave up her old dream of winning Damion’s affections, and decided to accept Mandrake’s proposal. But unknown to her, he slipped into her wine a potion, a love philter that bound her to him as a helpless thrall.

  Khalazar chafed with resentment at being ordered to spare the lives of Jomar and Lorelyn, whom Mandrake planned to use for hostages. Realizing at last that he was under Mandrake’s control, and not the opposite, Khalazar determined to show his independence by harming Ailia’s friends. He announced that Lorelyn and Jomar would be executed if Damion did not give in. When the priest heard of his friends’ impending executions he went to Khalazar and surrendered himself. The tyrant decided to disobey Mandrake’s command and kill Damion in Valdur’s temple. At the news of the impending sacrifice the unease of the Zimbouran people turned into open revolt against Khalazar. The king was slain, the rebels freed Jomar and Lorelyn, and the two joined in the storming of the temple. But they were too late to save Damion.

  Ailia, unable to free herself from her attachment to Mandrake, was rescued against her will by her guardians, who had learned of the philter. On Arainia she was cured of its effects, but then learned the terrible news of Damion’s death on Mera. Mandrake now realized that Ailia, once cured of the philter and at the peak of her power, could be a deadly adversary and that Damion’s loss would only make her more vengeful. In his extremity he agreed to a pact with the goblin-folk of Ombar: he would become their ruler and Avatar of Valdur in re
turn for their protection.

  In the meantime a grieving Ailia pondered the accounts of Damion’s passing. It was said that he had vanished bodily from the earth, and been transformed into an angel. On seeing him in a dream, she too became convinced that he was not dead after all, but had somehow been transported to the Ether. Disregarding the protestations of her councilors, she embarked on a search for Damion, asking her friends to follow her to Mera.

  Part One

  THE SIEGE

  1

  The Island

  THE STORM RAGED THROUGH SEA and sky, a winter gale surpassing in fury any that had ever troubled these turbulent latitudes. Its massed thunderheads towered up for leagues upon leagues, black against the stars, and beneath the shadow of their opaque canopy there reared titanic waves, rising almost to mountain height. The spray blown from their rearing crests mingled with the lashing rain. It was as though the very elements of water and air were dissolving and melding one into the other, returning to a primeval unity. Cloud and sea churned together, whipped into fury by the wind that held both in sway.

  The lone albatross caught in the midst of this turmoil was no longer attempting to fly, but merely allowing itself to be blown about at the storm’s whim. Indeed, had it not been for the winds that buoyed up its great white wings, it would long since have fallen exhausted into the heaving surf. Once it did falter and drop, but at the last moment recovered itself with a frantic flap of its pinions and skimmed over the frothing summit of an oncoming wave. Beyond this the bird’s weary eyes saw only slope after slope of slate-dark water, capped with white: the cold pale glimmer of foam was all that could be glimpsed between the lightning flickers. For a time it despaired, fearing that it had been blown altogether off its course. But as it rode the gale higher into the air, a dazzling flash revealed a shoreline only a league distant: steep, rocky, a coast of cliffs sheer and threatening as the walls of a fortress, but land nonetheless. Hope renewed the bird’s vigor and it beat its wings in a last desperate effort. The cliffs gave way on the northern side to a long ruinous slope of boulders and jutting columns that broke the force of the surging seas, and sent them tumbling back in confusion. There the albatross spied a low granite shelf, and with the very last of its strength fluttered down upon it. The surf burst around the tall standing rocks, masking them from view, then falling back made fleeting cascades down their jagged sides before crashing up again. One wave, greater than all the rest, dashed over the shelf of stone and covered it and the still white form that lay upon it. When at last the seething foam retreated from the rock, there was no longer a bird lying there, but a woman.