The Demon Horsemen (44 page)

• Army: usually a grouping of one hundred thousand soldiers, led by a Warmaster.
  
• March: a grouping of twenty thousand soldiers, led by a Marchlord; an army consists of five Marches.
  
• Shield: a grouping of one thousand soldiers, led by a Shieldmaster; a March consists of twenty Shields.
  
• Group: a grouping of fifty soldiers under the command of a Leader; a Shield consists of twenty Groups.
  
• Party: a grouping of ten soldiers; a Group contains five Parties.
  

Length measurement is a direct derivative of the human body. The smallest measuring unit is called a ‘width’, which is the original equivalent of an average person’s thumb width, although there is a standardised rule. Ten ‘widths’ makes a ‘hand’ length, and five ‘hands’ is the equivalent to an arm ‘length’. Thus for measuring purposes Shessian people talk of ‘widths’, ‘hands’ and ‘lengths’. They also link length measurements to travel distance measurements through ‘paces’ – the length of an average man’s stride when walking – with a ‘pace’ and a ‘length’ being accepted as an interchangeable measurement.

Travel distance therefore begins with the smallest measurement being a ‘pace’. Ten ‘paces’ is called a ‘measure’. A hundred ‘measures’ is collectively called a ‘walk’. Thereafter, Shessian practices vary, but the most common measurements are ‘days’, ‘half-days’ and ‘quarters’. Forty ‘walks’ is generally agreed as a ‘day’ travel measure; twenty ‘walks’ form a ‘half-day’; ten ‘walks’ is a ‘quarter’, or the equivalent to ten thousand ‘paces’. The increasingly wider spread of the use of horses, however, is slowly altering the view and terminology of travel measurements across the kingdoms and tribal areas.

The determining time factors in most villages and towns throughout the lands are the obvious day and night, with a full day divided into pre-dawn, dawn/sunrise, early morning, midmorning, late morning, midday, early afternoon, midafternoon, late afternoon, dusk/sunset, early evening, late evening, midnight, post-midnight. Experimentation with timing devices is common in cities and larger towns. Ringed candles are usually divided into ten equidistant rings. The carefully measured and manufactured wax candle
called Waxman’s Timer generally takes about half a day to burn down. A water-based dripping device called Fletcher’s Timer works on the principle that a specific-sized water container with a set hole size empties at the rate of eighty thousand drips per day. Fletcher, the inventor, divided the day into twenty ‘pails’, each ‘pail’ the product of four thousand ‘drips’. He further subdivided the ‘pails’ into forty ‘pots’, or one hundred ‘drips’. Thus his timing scheme became: one hundred ‘drips’ makes a ‘pot’. Forty ‘pots’ makes a ‘pail. Twenty ‘pails’ is the length of one full day. Cumbersome as it is, a host of professionals in the larger cities apply the system to enable them to accurately measure and complete a wide range of tasks. Some have chosen to combine Waxman’s and Fletcher’s systems and talk about a ‘pail’ also being a ‘ring’.

Western Shess recognises nine cycles of forty days each cycle. In Shessian language, the English word ‘month’ translates to ‘ejas’, literally meaning ‘cycle’ and refers to the full passage of the phases of the single moon. The Shessian Year is divided into four distinct seasons: Akim (Rebirth), Fuar (Dry), Doyanah (Passing) and Shahk (Chill).

Akim brings very pleasant, mild weather, with occasional rain and regular sunny days. Plants flower and the animals give birth to young in this season. Rebirth is the beginning of the Shessian yearly calendar, and represents the original time that the Shessian god, Jarudha, created the world. Rebirth runs for two cycles or eighty days.

During Fuar, the temperature can rise up to 45°C and rain is scarce, especially along the plains. Drought is not an unusual phenomenon. Farmers traditionally
harvest their crops in this season. Dry is the longest season of four cycles or ejas.

Doyanah is a time of rain and dull days when deciduous plants lose their leaves. The temperature is variable, but often mild, thoughout the eighty-day period.

Temperatures in Shahk, a forty-day period, can drop to 0°C on the plains, and, in the higher regions, particularly the mountains, snow will fall. Rain and storms are regular features of this season and flooding is also a common event around the main rivers. Shessian religious culture teaches that the world will end in a cold, freezing state.

The Shessian Year is divided as follows:

SEASON
:
Akim –
Rebirth

CYCLE
:
Tayooh –
first light

MAJOR EVENT
:
Creation
– this is a five-day celebration of Jarudha’s making of the world, marked by festive eating and drinking and prayer at the beginning of Tayooh. This is considered the holiest of Jarudhaism’s festivals.

Alunsnight
– Jarudhan faithful celebrate this night at the end of Tayooh as the birthday of Jarudha’s son, Alun (Alun is a Shessian corruption of Alwyn).

CYCLE
:
Ejasot –
second cycle

MAJOR EVENT
:
Praiseday
– a single day is set aside in the middle of Ejasot for all people to spend the day praying in thankfulness for Jarudha’s gifts. On this day, all institutions and shops are closed and people are not meant to work. Eating and drinking can only be done after sunset.

SEASON
:
Fuar –
Dry

CYCLE
:
Varsoo –
change

MAJOR EVENT
: The Changing – the beginning of Fuar is always marked with the gathering of water in preparation for the long dry spell. People give gifts of water and feast for three days.

CYCLE
:
Ayanah –
hot

No celebrations are held in this period.

CYCLE
:
Fuszash –
no rain

MAJOR EVENT
:
Rainday
– in the middle of this cycle, people ritualistically throw a cupful of water at the sky to encourage rain to come again to the parched land. The ritual has shamanistic pagan origins, but the followers of Jarudha have incorporated it into their religious mythology as a day of prayer. People gather for feasting in the evening and share water as if it is a delicate item.

CYCLE
:
Sun –
prayer

MAJOR EVENT
:
Royal’s Prayer:
this day in mid-Sun celebrates the day that Strongarm Royal the Righteous prayed to Jarudha for help on the battlefield and the prayer was answered with a crushing victory against Strongarm’s enemies.

SEASON
:
Doyanah –
Passing

CYCLE
:
Alun –
deriv. Alwyn

MAJOR EVENT
:
Alunsday:
celebration of Alun’s ( Jarudha’s son), rise to Paradise to work with his Father.

CYCLE
:
Yanah –
die

MAJOR EVENT
:
Erinsday
– named after Erin the Wise, one of the Immortals in Jarudhan mythology/history, this is a solemn late evening ceremony marked by the
wearing of headbands made from dead leaves. Prayers are offered, and stories of the Immortals are told.

SEASON
:
Shahk –
Chill

CYCLE
:
Shahk –
chill or cold

MAJOR EVENT
:
Midshahk
: on the day designated as the middle of this season, people communally gather to share cooked meats and vegetables, and celebrate life.

A project is rarely possible without support, advice and encouragement, so I would like to thank Stephanie Smith, Linda Funnell and Robert Stephenson, whose faith and professional input have steered this series.

And I thank Meg for her love and constancy.

‘Writing is much more than storytelling, and much, much more than informing or teaching. Writing is the act of opening your heart in an attempt to touch the hearts of people you’ve never met.’

Entering the professional writing field in the early 1990s as one of Australia’s first locally published fantasy novelists with the very successful Andrakis series, Tony Shillitoe has become a popular author in the adult fantasy and the adolescent fiction genres. He was shortlisted for the Aurealis Best Fantasy Novel award in 1995 for his standalone classic coming-of-age fantasy,
The Last Wizard
. He was subsequently shortlisted for the first book of the Ashuak Chronicles,
Blood
, in 2002.

Currently a full-time educator at Concordia College in Adelaide, Tony has also, at various times, been a Board Member of the South Australian Writers Centre, a judge for literary awards, and he has conducted a host of workshops and been a guest speaker at many writing events.

Between teaching and writing commitments Tony enjoys relaxing with Meg, rare moments of reading, making noises on his guitar and playing volleyball.

Visit Tony at his website:

www.tonyshillitoe.biz

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The Andrakis Series

Guardians
(1)

Kingmaker
(2)

Dragonlords
(3)

The Last Wizard

Joy Ride

The Ashuak Chronicles

Blood
(1)

Passion
(2)

Freedom
(3)

Caught in the Headlights

Tales of the Dragon

Dreaming in Amber

The Amber Legacy
(1)

A Solitary Journey
(2)

Prisoner of Fate
(3)

The Demon Horsemen
(4)