Changer of Days (33 page)

Rab’bat Rah’honim (K): the Black Drums, sometimes used by sen’en’thari to promote a trance-like state facilitating communications with the Gods

rah’hon (K): black

Rah’honim Ar’i’id (K): see Khar’i’id

Rashin: Tath clan of pretenders to the Roisinan throne

Rima of the Wells: Red Dynan’s queen, Anghara’s mother; dies during Sif’s takeover, but is instrumental in saving Anghara from his avenging arm

Rochen: Kieran Cullen’s friend and lieutenant in the rebel band fighting Sif in Anghara’s name Roisinan: Ancient land, lush with wood and field ruled by the Kir Hama dynasty until the Rashin clan from south Roisinan rose in revolt and took the throne in blood and rebellion, when the Kir Hama king, Connach Kir Hama, was killed in battle. His son Garen went first into a Nual Sanctuary and then took himself into the mountains, living as an outlaw while he gathered together his father’s shattered army. He took his kingdom back two and half years later, in a successful summer campaign. The Rashin usurper was killed, but his son fled south into what had once been a province of Roisinan and declared it to be the independent kingdom of Tath with its capital at Algira, one of the jewels of Roisinan. Shaymir in the north, once also a part of Roisinan, chose to break away as well, but remained a vassal principality, with Garen Kir Hama as High King in Miranei. Tath was not rooted out, but subdued, and forced to pay tribute. The border, marked by the River Ronval, lies ever uneasy. Garen was succeeded by his son Connach II, and he by his son Dynan, known as the Red for his fiery hair, who in his turn would meet his death at Tath hands like his great-grandsire

Saa! (K): ki’thar command: Stop!

Sa’alah: main Kheldrini port and trade city on the coastal plain

Sabrah: Kheldrini clan or family

sa’hari (K): Are you there? (Equivalent to knocking on a door requesting permission to enter)

Sa’id (K): Lord

Sa’ila: stream close to Sa’alah, only running water in Kheldrin

saliha (K): thank you

salih’al’dayan (K): ritual of giving thanks to the gods

sarghat (K): a desert root, distinguished on the surface only by a pair of insignificant-looking leaves, easily overlooked by an inexpert traveller, it can sustain life for a long time

Say’ar’dun: Kheldrini city, stronghold of the Sayyed clan, capital of dun’en breeding country

Sayyed: Kheldrini clan or family

say’yin (pl. say’in’en) (K): necklace of rank, usually of sea amber and silver

sea amber: soft yellow globes found in the sea off Kheidrin—deep sea amber is much prized, but smaller and less regular pieces are often found washed up on the shoreline. Exported to Roisinani and Shaymir

se’i’din (K): Khar’i’id plant. A swift-acting poison, no known antidote (Roisinani name: rosebane)

Sen’en Dayr (K): gods willing

Senena Shailan: Sif’s second queen

sen’thar (pl. sen’en’thari) (K): Kheldrini priestly caste, usually female, but sometimes also has male acolytes, none are devoted to a single god—all belong to all gods, and must know all their rituals; there are four levels: novice, white robe (first circle), gray robe (second circle) and gold robe (an’sen’en’thari, q.v.) (Linguistic roots: sen, or sen’en, meaning God or deity, and thar, thari—meaning serve, server, service)

sessar (pl sessi; pron. seshar, seshi) (T): Tath coinage Shadir: Kheldrini clan or family

Sheriha’drin (K): Kheldrini name for Roisinan, Land of Running Water

shevah (pl. shevah’en) (K): desert hare

Shod Hai’r (K): literally, the Last Oasis—the last place to find water before stepping into Khar’i’id; there are two, one in the Kadun and one in the Arad, depending from which direction the traveller is coming, both also known as Fihra Hai’r (q.v.)

Sif Kir Hama: Anghara’s half brother, Red Dynan’s son by a Clera; Sif seizes the throne when it is offered to him at the battle which saw the death of his father; he hates and fears Sight—seeing his own bastard birth due solely to the fact that Dynan chose to marry Rima (who was Sighted) instead of Clera (who was not); this plays a large role in his later violent campaign against Sight.

Sight (R): a power with roots in Second Sight, or prescience, granted to those born with it—usually but not exclusively women; current usage covers a multitude of gifts, some rare; a Sighted person may exhibit an ability to “eavesdrop” on conversations many miles away, move objects without touching them, dream true, establish when truth is being spoken (and, more importantly, when not), and sometimes the ability to control their immediate environment (invoke a rainstorm, for example); some of these gifts are taught to aspirant Sighted initiates at Castle Bresse and a similar establishment near Algira in Tath, run by a Sisterhood of Sighted women who have devoted their lives to teaching; largely accepted as a fact of life in individuals—many women are Sighted in Roisinan—but often feared in large numbers

Silk Curtain (T): a euphemism for the Tath custom of kaiss (q.v.), symbolic of a border beyond which women rule their own kingdoms; strange men entering another’s kaiss and passing the Silk Curtain are living dangerously; while Tathi men like to believe they own a kaiss, it is not unknown for the kingdom to be ruled by a mind sequestered behind the Silk Curtain, with the so-called king no more than a mouthpiece

silkseeker: golden-yellow and white bird often used in Kheldrin to seek out nests of jin’aaz spiders (q.v.), on whose larvae it feeds; the larger adult jin’aaz, in turn, has been known to devour unwary silkseekers; wild silkseekers are seen as Gods’ birds, and are protected

soul fire: aura around Sighted people, which is visible to others with Sight; of a shade specific and unique to every individual (Anghara’s is gold, ai’Jihaar’s is white, ai’ Farra’s is crimson)

Standing Stones (R): huge, hewn, solitary stones, often but not always upright, scattered across Roisinan; thought to have been part of an ancient Dance; sometimes used as a focus for sacrifice by underground worshippers of the Old Gods and practitioners of black magic, but even without this connotation they possess power and are avoided at night, especially on major festivals like Cerdiad

tamman (R): originally a medicinal herbal concoction, but used ruthlessly by Sif in his anti-Sight pogroms when its concentrated form was shown to inhibit or suppress Sight; at this concentration, and at the dosage required to maintain this suppression, tamman has both serious side-effects and a potential for addiction

Tath: ancient province of Roisinan, now an independent kingdom ruled by the Rashin Clan, pretenders to the Throne Under the Mountain

tei’han (pl. tei’han’en) (K): Kheldrini spear

Throne Under the Mountain: ancient name for the Roisinan Throne, in the mountain fortress of Miranei

Ul’khari’ma: village of al’Talip ma’Shadir where al’Tamar fostered; a corruption of “The Place of the Stone”—the place Anghara knows as Gul Khaima, and where she raises the second Kheldrini oracle

Vallen Fen (T): broad, malodorous swamp at the mouth of the River Ronval, largely on the Tath side

wirrow (R): a medicinal herb in Roisinan

Alma Alexander is the author of four accomplished novels, including the duology
The Hidden Queen and Changer of Days
, and
The Secrets of Jin-Shei
. She was born in Yugoslavia, grew up in Africa, lived in New Zealand, and is now based in Bellingham, Washington.

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any reseblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

CHANGER OF DAYS
. Copyright © 2002 by Alma Hromic. Map © 2002 by Helen Casey. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.

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Microsoft Reader May 2005 ISBN 0-06-084692-5

First published in New Zealand by Voyager, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

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