The Dark Ferryman (67 page)

“The world began as a steaming ball of mud, floating through the sky and clouds. The Gods looked down it, a-thinking to themselves what they might do with it. They called up the one known as Digger, who appeared with his rounded talons and rounded ears and his sharp-pointed stick. He was not a God, but a great, strong creature, and listened to them. ‘Go down,’ they told him. ‘Dig about and make us lakes and rivers and great seas as you wander, and grub about and tell us what you see.’

“So Digger went to the newborn world and did as he’d been told. With his clawed and padded feet, he dug out the massive oceans. He paddled in the waters that flowed over the mire, and he tickled the fish with his claws and tail. When he tired of that, he trudged over the steaming lands and searched for other life that made him curious. With his point-sharp stick, he etched out the thin and swift rivers. The mud he flung aside stacked into towering mountains and vast, wide plains. He did many things heedlessly, interested only in what he might dig up from under the steaming mud. Almost, the Bolger chieftain told me,” reminisced the miller, who may or may not have actually had the tale from a chieftain but was far more likely to have heard it in another toback shop, “the Digger did not notice the people he brought up. Colored as the muds, brown and gray and greenish, the people were, and grubbers like the Digger and with sharp sticks of their own, they set off across the new lands fashioned from the Digger’s cast-aside sludge.

“Finished with the new world, the Digger returned to the Gods and let them see what he had found, and done. Now it drew their interest and closer attention, so they fashioned new people with their own hands, and reshaped the lands themselves with fire, ice, and flood, until the world was nearly what we know today.

“The mud people, the Bolgers, stayed to themselves for many a century until one day, they found a bridge between their land and another, and traveled it, astonished to find they were not the only people in the world. How they dealt with that discovery is another tale.” And here, the miller closed his story, and the ponderings of his words began—including whether he had ever met a Bolger chieftain, for he was well known to have rarely strayed from the fine millworks his family built and owned—and many other things were discussed in the shop, until the talkers were too weary of it and begged for another tale rather than decide upon returning home.

Someone, whose cheeks sounded stuffed with toback leaf being chewed, shouted out for a telling of “Why the Kernan Grew Tall” and so that tale was launched by a quiet, straw-colored man in the corner who recited: “Why the Kernan Grew Taller—

“In the early days, it is told the Gods came down to the top man of the Dwellers as he sat taking his leisure with his pipe, and said to him, ‘Bad times are coming for our peoples, for your kind and the Kernans.’

“The Dweller, who was a little surprised but not disconcerted to see a God emerging from a cloud of toback smoke, put his pipe down to answer, ‘I am sorry to hear that, my Lord. Is there something I need to do?’

“To which the God replied, ‘It is We who will do the doing. I have come to make you taller, so that you will be closer for hearing and talking with Us, so that We may help.’

“ ‘Me? Taller?’

“ ‘All Dwellers,’ the God told him, not unkindly.

“ ‘If there are bad times coming, You will need all of Your strengths, then! No need to make us taller—there isn’t a tree we can’t climb to get closer to you and to get a leg up on trouble.’

“The God frowned a bit. ‘This is a great honor We offer you.’

“Our Dweller responded in his sturdy way, ‘Of that I have no doubt! But we like ourselves quite as we are, and I thank You, knowing that You wish to be close by when trouble comes.’ And the Dweller bowed in great respect and when he looked up, not only the fragrant cloud of good toback smoke had faded away, but so had the God.

“He might have wondered if he had seen what he thought, but other events occurred to prove the truth of it. Determined in the way of Gods to do something with Its omnipotent powers, the apparition then made Its way to the leader of the Kernans. To the God’s declaration, the Kernan smiled shrewdly and only asked, ‘May we listen to You from our cities?’

“ ‘Of course.’

“ ‘Done, then,’ the Kernan told the God. ‘There will be paperwork and new buildings to build, and new jobs to assign to those who will be speaking with You, and You will find no more capable hands than ours for this work.’

“So the deal was struck, and the Kernans, one by one, were made taller to the dismay of those who found it quite painful to be stretched by bone and sinew and flesh to a height the Gods deemed necessary. Their children after were born taller but the remaking of those already living was not a thing to be borne lightly. Some to this day are still quite disagreeable over their lot in life. They did as they said they would, and built tall buildings in their cities for listening and talking to the Gods and created the priests and the Mageborn, and talked and talked until they began to fight over the Gods and their newly gained magics and things turned out quite disastrous, in the way lofty plans can go wrong. It is said, after the Mageborn Wars when the Gods stopped talking to anyone, that it was as much out of embarrassment as anger and punishment, but who can say for sure? Only a God would know Their minds.

“As for the trouble said to be coming, there have been many difficult days but no one knows if the times the Gods feared have passed or are yet to be. So it is a good thing the Dwellers have remained nimble and strong and the trees are still growing tall enough that one might shinny skyward up them, just in case the Gods might decide to speak and listen once again.” The straw man grew quiet, as did the entire room, for that warning of dire times seemed to echo the words Tolby Farbranch had spoken earlier in the evening though every Dweller and Kernan in the room had held some hope of forgetting them.

300
—Magi create Galdarkan guards.

223
—The Raymy are defeated and retreat across the ocean, leaving Ravers stranded behind.

90
—Magi wars. Most magic users die and magic fades from Kerith.

0
—Collapse of the Empire.

90 AE (After Empire)
—Creation of City States through trader guilds.

112
—Galdarkan Rebellion, the collapse of which sends the survivors into the barrens as nomads.

312
—Vaelinars invade Kerith, starting a hundred years of slavery, strife, impressments.

423
—Accords signed, principally between the Houses and Strongholds of the Vaelinars for their own civil wars, but are extended to the City States.

501
—Bolger clans unite, begin warfare.

511
—Vaelinars step in to help defeat Bolger clans, but then retire to a deep seclusion, as their numbers are hard hit. Kanako defeats the Bolger tribes, but his lineage dies with him.

700
—Vahlinora is born.

703
—Gilgarran dies.

721
—Bolgers emboldened, and Raver raids begin anew.

723
—Nutmeg Farbranch pulls a waif from the Silverwing River waters.

723
—A major assassination attempt in Calcort signals new animoisites toward the Vaelinars.

733
—Ravers and Bolgers join together in raiding groups with new aggressions.

737
—Accords Conference in Calcort brings riots, and the Accords are contested.

737
—Abayan Diort begins forcible unification of the Galdarkans.

aderro:
(Vaelinar corruption of the Dweller greeting Derro) an endearment meaning little one

alna:
(Dweller) a fishing bird

astiri:
(Vaelinar) true path

avandara:
(Vaelinar) verifier, truth-finder

Aymar:
(Vaelinar) elemental God of the wind and air

Banh:
(Vaelinar) elemental God of earth

Calcort:
a major trading city

Cerat:
(Vaelinar) souldrinker

Daran:
(Vaelinar) the God of Dark, God of the Three

defer:
(Kernan) a hot drink with spices and milk

Dhuriel:
(Vaelinar) elemental God of fire

emeraldbark:
(Dweller) a long-lived, tall, insect- and fire-resistant evergreen

forkhorn:
(Kernan) a beast of burden with wide, heavy horns

Hawthorne:
capital of the free provinces

kedant:
(Kernan) a potent poison from the kedant viper

Lina:
(Vaelinar) elemental Goddess of water

Nar:
(Vaelinar) God of the Three, the God of War

Nevinaya aliora:
(Vaelinar) You must remember the soul

Nylara:
(Kernan) a treacherous, vital river

quinberry:
a tart yet sweet berry fruit

Rakka:
(Kernan) elemental Demon, he who follows in the wake of the earth mover doing damage

skraw:
(Kernan) a carrion eating bird

staghorns:
elklike creatures

stinkdog:
a beslimed unpleasant porcine critter

Stonesend:
a Dweller trading village

tashya:
(Vaelinar) a warm-blooded breed of horse

teah:
(Kernan) a hot drink brewed from leaves

ukalla:
(Bolgish) a large hunting dog

Vae:
(Vaelinar) Goddess of Light, God of the Three

vantane:
(Vaelinar) war falcon

velvethorns:
a lithe deerlike creature

winterberry:
a cherrylike fruit