The Goblin Emperor (55 page)

At long last, there was a new Witness for the Prelacy, a dry, decisive young man who—unlike the Witness for the Treasury, who was still meek as a mouse—showed no signs of being overawed. He assured Maia before the session proper began that he had studied the matter carefully and would not cast his vote out of ignorance or laziness. Maia was inclined to approve of him.

The Corazhas had been grimly businesslike throughout the trials, and Maia was not surprised when the debate over the bridge became very vocal. Lord Pashavar still opposed it, partly on the grounds that it could not be done, and partly on the grounds that even if it could, it shouldn’t. He was supported by the Witness for Foreigners and the Witness for the Universities, opposed loudly by the Witness for the Parliament and quietly by the Witness for the Athmaz’are. The Witness for the Prelacy proved his quality by flinging himself into the argument, and although at first he seemed inclined to support the anti-bridge side, the answers to some of his questions caused him to change his mind. The Witness for the Treasury sat and watched and said nothing.

When at last it came to a vote, the split was perfectly predictable: three yeses and three noes, right down the middle, and the Witness for the Treasury, looking terrified, said, “We abstain.”

“You can’t
abstain,
” Lord Pashavar said in outrage.

“Yes, he can,” said Lord Deshehar. “Although we admit we would prefer he did not.”

“We cannot decide,” the Witness for the Treasury said. “We are sorry, but it is the truth.”

“May we suggest that indecisiveness is hardly a desirable trait in a member of the Corazhas?” Lord Pashavar said.

“We will give our resignation if His Serenity asks it,” the Witness for the Treasury said, looking at Maia.

“You are very decisive in your indecision,” Maia said, which surprised several members of the Corazhas into laughing. “We do not ask your resignation. But, if you find that the responsibilities of the Corazhas are more than you can bear, we will certainly permit you to step down.”

The Witness bowed his head. “Thank you, Serenity. We are … We did not expect to find it so overwhelming, and we would ask for more time to consider.”

“Of course.”

“But even so,” he added, with a hint of steel in his voice, “on the question of the bridge, we cannot vote. We abstain.”

“Well,” said Lord Pashavar, sour as vinegar, “then it is up to you, Serenity, to break the tie.”

“You cannot keep change from happening, Lord Pashavar,” Maia said sympathetically, and Lord Pashavar flapped a hand at him to get on with things.

“We vote in favor of the bridge,” Maia said, as surely everyone in the room had known he would.

“Thank you, Serenity,” Lord Deshehar said. “And may we propose that it be named the Varenechibel Bridge, in memory of your late father.”

No,
Maia thought. And then quite suddenly, he knew what would be right. “It is an excellent thought,” he said, “but we would prefer that it be called the Wisdom Bridge, in memory of all those who died. And in hope.”

And all the members of the Corazhas, even Lord Pashavar, bowed their heads in agreement.

The session ended shortly thereafter; Maia sat and waited for Csevet as the room emptied. When it was only the two of them, and Telimezh and Kiru behind Maia’s chair, Csevet said, “Between this and Nelozho, they will start calling you Edrehasivar the Bridge-Builder.”

Maia thought about it. “We suppose you are right.” He thought about it some more, thought about alliances, about Idra and Csethiro and Gormened, about Lord Pashavar and Captain Orthema, about Vedero and Mer Celehar. About Cala and Beshelar, Kiru and Telimezh. About Csevet himself. He regretted the bridges he had not built, Setheris and Sheveän and Chavar, and the bridges he had never had a chance to build—his brother Nemolis, for one. And he knew that if the rest of his life was spent in building bridges, that would be no bad thing.

“We would like that,” he said finally. “We would like that very much.”

EXTRACTS FROM

A HANDBOOK FOR TRAVELERS IN THE ELFLANDS

(published by the Press of the Crooked Stair for the Royal Merchants Guild of Porcharn)

PRONUNCIATION

There are no silent letters in Ethuverazhin. Two vowels written together signify length, unless the second vowel carries an umlaut, as in the name of the great central river, Istandaärtha, in which case, they are to be pronounced separately.
Ai
is the vowel of “line”;
ei
is the vowel of “lane”;
ee,
which occurs rarely and is largely archaic, is the vowel of “lean.”

Ethuverazhin has a number of aspirated consonants.
Ch
is pronounced as in “churn”;
kh,
a consonant common only in Ethuverazhin and its sister tongue, Barazhin, is pronounced rather like a cough in the back of the throat. The traveler is not advised to attempt it until great familiarity and comfort with the language have been achieved.
Th
is pronounced as in “theater.”
Sh
is pronounced as in “show.”
Zh,
like
kh,
is rarely heard outside the Ethuveraz and the goblin lands; it is pronounced more or less as a slurred
j.

The consonant
c
is always hard (the elves along the border with Barizhan have even started to borrow the
k
of goblin orthography), and the consonant pair
cs
should be pronounced, as best as possible, as a hard
c
and
s
elided together. Apostrophes indicate only a dropped syllable and should not be marked in any way in speech. In other respects, the traveler will find the orthography of the Ethuveraz perfectly straightforward.

NAMES

Personal names
are marked by gender. Male names end in
-a, -is,
and
-et,
as in the popular wonder-tale about the brothers Vana, Vanis, and Vanet, in which Vanet, the youngest and weakest, is the only one who can lift the sword Cartheio from the ogre’s anvil. Female names end in
-o
and
-an
. The ending
-u
appears in names of both genders.

Family names
are of paramount importance to the people of the Elflands. The traveler should remember that each family name is a root to which suffixes are added to mark gender and marital status. Men use the suffix
-ar,
married women use
-aran,
and unmarried women use
-in.
The suffix
-ada
signifies “many,” and is used to denote the family—or “house” as the elves call it—as a collective body. Among the common people of the south, along the border with the goblin lands, the suffixes
-a, -o, -eth
are still to be found, and the herders of the western plains inflect their names with
-ezh, -ezho, -ezhen.

Place names
also carry markers. Note that cities and rivers are both named for their tutelary spirits, and thus cities are always female and rivers always male. The traveler is
strongly
advised to ignore the rude rhymes about the river Istandaärtha and the city of Cairado that may be heard among the more vulgar parts of the populace. The suffix
-ee
denotes a dwelling, while the suffix
-an
denotes a gathering place.
Theileian,
the word for “hall,” carries a specifically governmental or juridical connotation. The
Untheileian,
the emperor’s hall, bears an archaic prefix, the exact meaning of which has been lost. Philologists are divided between those who believe it derives from the word for “wisdom” and those who believe it derives from the word for “center.”

FORMS OF ADDRESS

The elves are an ancient and punctilious people. Travelers are advised always to err on the side of politeness. Never address an elf with the informal second, “thou” or “thee,” even such humble folk as chamber maids and waiters. Excessive formality will be forgiven from a foreigner; rudeness will not.

Elvish titles are likewise complicated and likely to trip up the unwary traveler. Children under thirteen should all be addressed as
michen,
“little.” Although the age of legal adulthood in the Ethuveraz is sixteen, children of thirteen are frequently expected to begin to take their place in the adult world, and thus should be addressed as adults.

Men are
mer,
married women are
merrem,
single women are
min.
(The traveler may look for the iron oath ring on the woman’s right hand.) Even the merest pocket baron, however, must be addressed as
osmer,
his wife as
osmerrem,
his daughter as
osmin.
Those of more exalted rank—and rest assured, traveler, you will not encounter them unawares—have the prefix
dach’
(shortened from
dachen,
“greater”) added in front of the prefix
os
(which means “honorable”), making their forms of address
dach’osmer, dach’osmerrem, dach’osmin.
The emperor is addressed always and only as “Serenity.”

The artisans’ guilds of the Elflands have their own hierarchy and titles, with which the traveler need not be concerned. Persons of the artisan class may always be correctly addressed as
mer, merrem,
and
min.

THE EMPERORS

The Elflands have been ruled by the family Drazh for more than two thousand years, although it must be confessed that the continuity of this dynasty is in some ways a politic fiction due to strategic adoptions by the emperors of their chosen heirs. The emperors assume a cognomen upon ascending the throne; these are invariably archaic and cumbersome names that the traveler will not hear otherwise used, and they are further marked by the imperial prefix. Before the unification of the eastern and western Elflands by Edrevenivar, commonly called the Conquerer, the imperial prefix was always Bel-. Since Edrevenivar, although no emperor has taken his cognomen, the imperial prefix has been Edre- in his honor. Most recently, Varenechibel I chose to adopt the prefix Vare-, which the common people consider an insult to his ancestors and thus a harbinger of ill luck.

A Listing of Persons, Places, Things, and Gods

Aäno:
maid at Edonomee; daughter of Kevo

Adremaza:
the master of the Athmaz’are

Aisava, Csevet:
a courier; Later Edrehasivar VII’s secretary

Aizheveth:
Witness for the
Wisdom of Choharo
; scholar of the second rank

Akhalarna:
a god

Alcethmeret:
the emperor’s residence within the Untheileneise Court

Alchenada:
a noble house

Alchenin:
a noblewoman

Amalo:
a city in Thu-Athamar

Anmura:
god of the sun and god of war

Anmur’theileian:
a fortress built by the elves in the Evressai Steppes; called Memory of Death and Carrion-Bones by the Nazhmorhathveras

Anvernel:
a country across the Chadevan Sea

Ashedro:
a city in Thu-Athamar; seat of a university

Ashevezhko:
the Barizheise goddess of the sea

Athmaz’are:
the institution of the mazei of the Ethuveraz

Athamara:
a river of the Ethuveraz; meets the Istandaärtha at Cairado

Atterezh, Clemis:
the emperor’s Master of Wardrobe

Aveio:
a town in Thu-Evresar

Avris:
one of the emperor’s edocharei

Bakhoree:
a manor belonging to the Drazhada in Thu-Cethor

Barizhan:
the Ethuveraz’s southern neighbor; the land of goblins

Barizhin:
the languague of Barizhan

Bazhavada:
a noble house

Bazhevar, Dalera:
nephew of the Count Bazhevel

Bazhevel:
a count of Thu-Tetar; father of Stano Bazhevin

Bazhevin, Stano:
fiancée of Ciris Drazhar; daughter of the Count Bazhevel

Belmaliven IV (dec.):
Belmaliven Zhas, the 123rd Emperor of the Elflands; brother of Belmaliven V; father of Belvesena XI and Belmaliven VI

Belmaliven V (dec.):
Belmaliven Zhas, the 124th Emperor of the Elflands; brother of Belmaliven IV

Belmaliven VI (dec.):
Belmaliven Zhas, the 126th Emperor of the Elflands; son of Belmaliven IV; brother of Belvesena XI

Beltanthiar III (dec.):
Beltanthiar Zhas, the 113th Emperor of the Elflands; defended by Hanevis Athmaza from Orava the Usurper

Beltanthiar V (dec.):
Beltanthiar Zhas, the 121st Emperor of the Elflands; a child emperor who did not live to see adulthood

Belthelema IX (dec.):
Belthelema Zhas, the 88th Emperor of the Elflands; husband of Valestho Drazharan

Belu:
a soldier of the Hezhethora

Belvesena XI (dec.):
Belvesena Zhas, the 125th Emperor of the Elflands; son of Belmaliven IV; brother of Belmaliven VI

Berenada:
a noble house

Berenar, Eiru:
the Witness for the Treasury; later Lord Chancellor; husband of Anzhevo Berenaran

Berenaran, Anzhevo:
wife of Eiru Berenar

Benevolence of Marigolds
:
a Barizheise steamship

Beshelar, Deret:
First Nohecharis to Edrehasivar VII

Bralchenar, Evrenis:
an airship worker; a follower of Curnar

Bromada:
a noble house

Bromar:
the Witness for Foreigners

Bucarezh:
a comic novelist

Cairado:
a city in Thu-Athamar

Cala Athmaza:
First Nohecharis to Edrehasivar VII