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    Reap the East Wind
    Reap the East Wind
    Reap the East Wind
    Ebook278 pages5 hours

    Reap the East Wind

    By Glen Cook

    3.5/5

    ()

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    About this ebook

    It has ended. It begins again. In Kavelin, Lady Nepanthe's new life with the wizard Varthlokkur is disturbed by visions of her lost son, while King Bragi Ragnarson and Michael Trebilcock scheme to help the exiled Princess Mist re-usurp her throne — under their thumb. In Shinsan, a pig-farmer's son takes command of Eastern Army, while Lord Kuo faces plots in his council and a suicide attack of two million Matayangans on his border. But in the desert beyond the Dread Empire, a young victim of the Great War becomes the Deliverer of an eons-forgotten god, chosen to lead the legions of the dead. And the power of his vengeance will make a world's schemes as petty as dust, blown wild in the horror that rides the east wind.
    This volume marks the beginning of the end. Reap the East Wind is the first step on the road to the long-delayed final chapter of Glen Cook's legendary Dread Empire series.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNight Shade Books
    Release dateOct 1, 2011
    ISBN9781597803199
    Reap the East Wind
    Author

    Glen Cook

    Born in 1944, Glen Cook grew up in northern California, served in the U.S. Navy, attended the University of Missouri, and was one of the earliest graduates of the well-known "Clarion" workshop SF writers. Since 1971 he has published a large number of Science Fiction and fantasy novels, including the "Dread Empire" series, the occult-detective "Garrett" novels, and the very popular "Black Company" sequence that began with the publication of The Black Company in 1984. Among his science fiction novels is A Passage at Arms. After working many years for General Motors, Cook now writes full-time. He lives near St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife Carol.

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    Reviews for Reap the East Wind

    3.5/5

    57 ratings121 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Great book. Can't wait to read the second one! :)
    • 4/5
      I adore this series! What I love most is that the 'monsters' aren't hiding in the dark somewhere. They're walking around and riding the bus and shopping and teaching your children... and they have rights (mostly). Vampires are people too(?). But if they step out of line? Anita Blake, raiser of the dead and executioner of bad vamps, is called in to carry out their death sentence.

      I loved Jean Claude right away. He's sexy, suave, and doesn't sparkle! From this first book, I hoped Anita would hook up with Jean Claude... I had no idea just what was coming!
    • 2/5
      i've read one other book in the anita blake series... one that comes much later... it was also ok... i guess i was really hoping for more depth... ?? ennywho... it's very easy to read and if you like fiction with vampires thrown in it and some comedic timing, this may fit the bill... :)
    • 4/5
      First book in the Anita Blake series, its also one of the best. Anita is an animator (zombie raiser) and vampire executioner in St Lois.This is a reality where vampires and shifters are real and legal citizens.After being blackmailed into investigating a series of vampire murders by the current master of the city, Nikolaos she ends up on the wrong side of the master and must help Jean-Claude, vampire manager of a supernatural strip club to defeat her. Great fun,not a serious read but good for when you want a quick but entertaining read.
    • 4/5
      This book certainly lives up to its name. Anita Blake is an animator, someone who raises folks from the dead for money (most of the time to settle posthumous court cases and inheritance disputes). As a sideline, she also assists the police with destroying vampires who murder humans. This time, however, she has been hired to figure out who is murdering vampires. I figured out who it was as soon as the killer was introduced, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the story. Anita is sarcastic and amusing, kick-ass but still very human. The idea of a legally recognized vampire subculture is intriguing. I don't see myself reading the rest of the series, but this was a fun little distraction.
    • 4/5
      I read this book because I'd seen a lot of Laurell Hamilton quotes on Goodreads and they were funny. And certainly this book had many funny parts, as well as a decent whodunit. It reminded me of Sue Grafton's Alphabet Mysteries series, except with vampires and zombies and so on thrown in. But will this be enough to make me pick up the rest of the books in the series? I'm not sure. So times books in a series disappoint me because they all blend together and nothing really changes.
    • 3/5
      I admit it...I'm a sucker for vampire books! This was entertaining and my first foray into the Laurell K. Hamilton series. I am looking forward to reading the whole series!
    • 3/5
      I wasn't really expecting to like this, especially since she's a vampire hunter. I ended up really enjoying it, and at some point I'll probably track down at least the next in the series. The thing with Jean-Claude has definitely peaked my interest. I'm wondering if there are prequels that come up later in the series, and honestly, I hope there aren't. The background info was fine, but I'm not interested in knowing any more about it.
    • 5/5
      Guilty Pleasures" is the first of the Anita Blake series. What makes the series unique is the strong, tough-minded character of the heroine and narrator. Before "Guilty Pleasures" vampire stories rarely had female leads, let alone one with the hard-nosed style of Anita Blake. She is a professional animator (one who raises the dead) and a licensed vampire killer in an alternate earth where vampires have come out of the closet (coffin?) and are active participants in American life. he plot is fast paced, often moving from cliff-hanger to horrific confrontation with all the agility of the ball in a pinball game. There is a steady sexual undercurrent that veers towards sadistic and fetish oriented pleasures. It is a natural outgrowth of the vampire personality and is as chilling as it is erotic. In "Guilty Pleasures" it is an effective plot device that keeps the heat turned up. If you are a vampire story fan you will find Laurell Hamilton's efforts deeply satisfying.
    • 5/5
      This book was a fun read and a change from what I usually read. The story was a great mix of humor, mystery, supernatural and an interesting point of view. Anita makes an awesome friend but I sure wouldn't want to be her enemy. My only complaint is that I didn't read it sooner. Looking forward to the rest of the series.
    • 3/5
      Decent pulpy vampire horror-fi.
    • 3/5
      Predictable tale of the dead and undead.
    • 3/5
      2.5
      I realise that this is a really popular series and I'll admit the second half of this book was better put together than the first, suggesting that the latter books might be better than this first one. But I spent that first half of this book completely lost and wondering what exactly was going on. I came back here to GR three times to verify I was actually reading the first book in the series, because there were so many references to past events and people she knew kept popping up unexpectedly.

      The book also kept leaping from place to place, activity to activity, etc. It was hard to keep up with. Further, it felt very much like Anita kept putting herself at pointless risks. Should I be surprised that she was attacked by vampires when she's hanging out at the vampire bar? I mean, she's not known to be on good terms with any of them.

      Being as the book felt like it picked up in the middle of something it also felt like the Anita's character development must have been left somewhere in that missing first half. She felt incredibly flat to me. Yes, she was pleasantly sarcastic and I enjoyed that, but the book ended and I didn't feel like I had gotten to know her at all.

      I'm also baffled by the fact that this is considered a PNR by many. It's certainly what I went in expecting. From reading reviews I see that quite a lot of sex must come in at some point in the very lengthy series, but this book is bone dry in the romance department. There is a person who, if the standard PNR trope holds true, will likely become a romantic interest at some future point, but there is no spark here. None. Nada. Nothing.

      Needless to say I'm disappointed.
    • 4/5
      A tough, principled heroine in a gritty urban fantasy world. Weres, vampires and risen corpses are no secret--and just barely legal. Mystery, adventure and fantasy all tied together in one short, fast-paced book. It's good, but stop reading these books soon--they get bad fast.
    • 1/5
      5 Chapters, 47 minutes on audio. I would say those were minutes I'll never get back, but I was either painting or driving while I was listening to this so it wasn't really time wasted. It was painful though, extremely painful. Sorry, it's going to take something more persuasive than a "reading challenge" to get me to read something this bad.
    • 3/5
      Anita Blake is a detective/vampire hunter/animator (aka zombie-maker) who is blackmailed by a vampire master into investigating a series of murders in the vampire community. I had been under the impression that this was a paranormal romance, so I was pleasantly surprised to find out that there is more fighting than romance. I also liked the premise that all supernatural creatures are "out" in Anita Blake's world, even if it makes for a few unlikely scenarios. I thought Anita was a decent character - it's fun that she is full of talk and then actually kicks butt as well, but I would have liked some more backstory to actually get a sense of who she is. Also, if the vampires are so desperate to get her help with the murders, why do they keep interrupting her investigation (and kinda trying to kill her...)? I get that they have instinctual/animal drives, but that should mean that they're even better than humans at figuring out how to achieve their goals. Overall it was an entertaining read and if I trip over another installment I'll certainly pick it up, but I won't go looking.
    • 4/5
      First in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. Anita is a full time animator, read zombie maker, and part time vampire hunter. She is coerced into investigating local vampire murders in St. Louis. She meets the local vampire leader who's over a thousand years old and as well as being very powerful is very sadistic. She befriends a "freak," in other stories would be called a vampire or vampire lover. She meets various vampires and freaks along the way. Helps to raise a zombie. Finds out that someone is practicing voodoo. Wererats, not werewolves but were rats. Sorry this review doesn't really tell much in regards to the plot but the series has lots of possibilities. Also lots of back story to be explored book kept eluding to her past.
    • 2/5
      I learned from this book and the subsequent books in the series that I read a lot of trash. I kept wanting these to get better, even just a little bit but they didn't.
    • 3/5
      I only decided to listen to this audiobook because1. A friend has been telling me to read it for over a year now because she LOVES these books and she's read every book that I've shoved into her hands, so naturally I felt the need to read the one book she recommended.2. It's set in St. Louis.The audiobook wasn't bad, and I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have liked Guilty Pleasures as much if I actually read the book. One thing that I'm sure played a role in my feelings for the book was that I'm starting to really get burnt out on vampires. This was my 3rd audiobook about vampires this year and it's all starting to sound the same.The audio kept me entertained while I worked though. I was interested in the storyline, but also didn't really care what happened either. I wasn't attached to any of the characters and was only listening to hear what happened.This was one of those rare audiobooks where I found that I could concentrate on something else entirely, but still know what was going on. There was only one moment where I didn't hear what happened, and I didn't care enough the go back to actually listen, and it didn't really matter anyways because I still had an overall understanding of what was happening.There was also little things that bothered me. The writing seemed too description-y for me, which is why I think I wouldn't have liked this if I actually read the book. I mean, why did I have to know how many fake trees were in Anita's office building? No, I don't care what clothes any of the characters are wearing. Also, there were times when I felt like information got repeated, down to the same phrasing and all. There was one moment when I thought to myself that I just heard that same sentence not 10 minutes ago.So yeah, overall the audio was very entertaining, but if I start to really think about it, I start to nitpick little things that bothered me.
    • 3/5
      Not bad. I am listening to it on audio. It keeps me interested while i am doing house and yard work.
    • 4/5
      The cover of my copy has a quote from Jane Ann Krentz calling the book "a heady mix of romance and horror." I'm not sure what Jane was referring to, but there was no romance in this book. It was engaging and well-written, chock full of horrific action scenes, but no romance at all. There was something of a friendship between Anita and Phillip, but that was about it.

      Hamilton is a great writer. The prose was tight. The dialogue was believable. And Anita was funny enough to inject some levity into the otherwise gruesome story, but didn't come across as goofy or silly.

      I won't be reading the rest of the series, as it's a bit dark for my taste (and I prefer romance to be the central theme of the books I read), but I can see why it's a popular series!
    • 5/5
      I fell in love with this book from the begining and couldn't put it down. It is very good. The story was great and the characters we're thought out and well put together. Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series is a must read.
    • 4/5
      I read this series a long time ago. I was hooked on book one. Captivated by book two, still interested in book 4 and then it turned in to "romance" novel status. Yes, I continued to read the rest of the series, I'll admit it. But the urban part was gone and it really was just fantasy. Hamilton took a great character with a ton of potential and turned her into a sex goddess with so many lovers, who could keep track. What happened to the short, crazy haired, black nike wearing Anita. In it's place a nymphomaniac arose and I just can't find the interest to check out the most recent novel.
    • 5/5
      No, this isn't a deathless classic, but for what it is, it's top-notch. That is, it's a sometimes scary and creepy but throughout very entertaining book that straddles the line between dark fantasy and horror, with an appealingly kick-ass heroine and fine world-building. Anita Blake is the first person voice of this tale--a female zombie animator and vampire slayer with the smart ass voice of a hard-boiled detective. She considers herself "tough of nails" but is willing to put her life on line for innocent bystanders, not just friends. She goes around with knife sheaths, and guns in trouser holsters and shoulder rigs--and she has a collection of stuffed penguins. Her favorite, Sigmund, goes to bed with her when she's had a really bad day.And lately she's had a string of them. In her world, zombies, ghouls, weres are known to exist and a US Supreme Court case has recently given vampires rights as people. That doesn't mean they're not dangerous and when Anita's friend is threatened she must solve a string of vampire murders and deal with some of the most powerful and dangerous vampires of St Louis. I like all the thought Hamilton put into her vampires: they have "animals to call," "human servants" and there is a whole subculture attracted to vampires including a religious cult...and oh, a vampire stripper club called "Guilty Pleasures" that features a smexy owner--Jean Claude who is one of the most intriguing and prominent characters in the series. And the most chilling monster of all may be a human--Anita's sometime ally and colleague Edward.I also liked LK Hamilton's style and pacing in this. I read this book in one sitting, feeling as if nothing was filler and liking how she can choose details that bring characters and settings sharply to mind. There are winning touches of humor as well--the book features witty and snappy dialogue.Sounds like a rave, doesn't it? I do have to sound one warning note though. If you're the kind of person who, if you like the first book in a series, can't stop reading the others even once it jumps the shark. Well, you may hate taking me up on my recommendation. I think if anything, the books get better in the next 8 volumes. I liked Anita's arc up through Blue Moon. I thought Hamilton was working through some interesting themes about walking the line between fighting monsters and becoming one--and just what it means to be a monster. But imo the series badly, badly jumps the shark in the tenth book, Narcissus in Chains, of the jaw-dropping, book hurling, she-didn't-just-do-that! kind and with every book after that I thought Anita became more and more a caricature of herself. It's at the point that I'm absolutely astounded the most recent Anita Blakes are published, let alone inhabit the bestseller list.Reading this first book though reminded me exactly why I persisted reading this series long after I should have given up. I was struck with just how rich Anita's world was in the beginning. She had co-workers, a boss, colleagues, family--her step brother is mentioned as someone she cares about--friends, neighbors. Later what she has...well, you might want to find out for yourself. But yes, this first novel is good. A guilty pleasure.
    • 2/5
      The only reason I went here was because everyone was raving about this book! Bad idea. I couldn't get into this book, the first however many chapters she spends in a vampire strip club watching sexy vampires be sexy. No.
    • 4/5
      It was a gift from a friend and the first book just sucked me in. [pun intended]. Anita is a strong female lead who can kick vampire ass, take names and fight their powers while dealing with Edward who wants to kill her. Stong woman, strong story and great character development. Love, love, love the wonderful alternate world that exists in Laurell's mind. I want to come play there.
    • 3/5
      Guilty Pleasures is the first book in Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake - Vampire Hunter series and it starts the series off with a bang. Full of nasty preternatural critters and compelling characters Anita's world is a wild and wonderful place! have started reading Hamilton's books only recently and right now I am at the last book Blue Moon. On the whole this series is very good. It has a different twist in plot it has action good dialogue and more importantly a gustsy heroine one you can like. As you read the series yes some books will be better than others. But the one consistant throughout the series is the growth of the main character Anita Blake. The author shows the moral dilemmas that plague the heroine throughout the series and the decisions she makes whether good or bad. Like I said this series is really entertaining and worth at least an attempt. Definitely start reading them by order beginning with Guilty Pleasures which I think was one of her best ones out of the series. So if you're looking for something original Hamilton's Anita Blake books fits the bill. I will defintely keep reading her books and look forward to the next one.
    • 4/5
      A bit slow to start, but easily caught up in if you like the vampire/werewolf genre.A potentially VERY addictive read.
    • 3/5
      Although I didn't care much for this book, I can see why the Anita Blake series is so popular. It's fast paced, full of action, and has a kick butt heroine with an attitude. However, its positive aspects end there. The mystery is too easy to figure out and readers will have the case solved long before the main character. Anita doesn't even do much to figure it out; events just seem to happen around her until all her problems work themselves out, through no fault of her own. In addition to the uninspired plot, Anita's snarky comments aren't funny and start getting quite annoying by the end. The premise and characters would have been intriguing if they were less contrived and cliche. While I see the draw for many readers, this series isn't on the top of my list.
    • 4/5
      I haven't read a great deal in the urban fantasy genre, and other than Jim Butcher's Dresden Files, most of what I have read hasn't really stood out in any way. However this first book in the Antita Blake series was a fun, exciting, action-packed book that promises good things for the rest of the series. One concern I had, given the titles of the books, and the cover art, was that this might trend too much towards the paranormal romance end of the genre, a fear that was accentuated when the book started with a bachelorette party at a vampire strip club (!!!) but luckily things improved from there on in.The hard-boiled heroine is an engaging character, there is a large cast of supporting characters and an interesting world at play where Vampires and other forms of the undead have come out of the closet, so to speak, and gone mainstream. At its heart this book is a murder mystery, which is fairly easy to work out. The plot also at times seems to rely too much on coincidences, (some very glaring) but once the story kicks into overdrive, its possible to put these misgivings to one side and simply enjoy the ride.

    Book preview

    Reap the East Wind - Glen Cook

    REAP THE

    EAST WIND

    The Last Chronicle of the Dread Empire: Vol I

    GLEN COOK

    NIGHT SHADE BOOKS

    SAN FRANCISCO

    Reap the East Wind © 1987 by Glen Cook

    This edition of Reap the East Wind © 2011 by Night Shade Books

    Cover art by Raymond Swanland

    Cover design by Claudia Noble

    Interior layout and design by Amy Popovich

    All rights reserved

    First Edition

    Printed in Canada

    ISBN: 978-1-59780-318-2

    Night Shade Books

    Please visit us on the web at

    http://www.nightshadebooks.com

    1

    Year 1012 After the Founding

    of the Empire of Ilkazar

    Armies in Shadow, Waiting

    THE BEAST HOWLED and hurled itself against the wall of the cell next door. It raged because it could not sate its thirst for Ethrian’s blood.

    The boy had no idea how long he had been incarcerated. Night and day had no meaning in the dungeons of Ehelebe. The only light he saw was that of the turnkey’s lamp when the man brought pumpkin soup or made his infrequent rounds.

    Before the dungeon there had been an unremarkable childhood in the slums of Vorgreberg, capital city of a tiny kingdom far to the west. There had been a strange mother with witch blood, and a father stranger still... 

    Something had happened. He did not understand it. He thought it was because his father had become politically involved. He and his mother had gotten caught in the backlash. Men had come and taken them away. Now he was here, in irons, in darkness, with only the fleas for companions. He did not know where here was, nor what had become of his mother.

    He prayed for silence.

    The damp stone walls never ceased shuddering to the moans and roars of the Hell things chained in neighboring cells. The laboratories of Ehelebe had yielded a hundred strains of monster terrible and strange.

    The scratching and roaring ceased. Ethrian stared at the heavy iron door. A light flickered in the passageway beyond. The beasts remained poised in an expectant hush. Slow, shuffling footsteps broke the abnormal stillness.

    The door contained one small, barred opening. Ethrian watched it fearfully. His hands shook. Those were not the steps of his keeper.

    His captors had raped away everything but fear. Hope was as dead as the darkness in which he lived.

    Keys jingled. There was a metallic scratching at his door. The rusty lock squeaked in protest. The door swung slowly inward.

    The boy gathered his legs beneath him. He curled into a balled crouch. Even had he been unchained he could not have resisted. He had been inactive too long.

    An old, old man entered the cell.

    Ethrian tried to shrink away.

    And yet... there was something different about this one. He lacked that air of indifferent cruelty possessed by everyone else the boy had encountered here.

    The old man moved as if in a dream. Or as if he were badly retarded.

    Slowly, clumsily, the ancient tried his keys on Ethrian’s fetters. At first the boy cowered. Then, moved by cunning, he waited for the last lock to fall away.

    The old man seemed to forget what he was doing. He considered the keys with a bewildered expression, surveyed his surroundings. He made a circuit of the dark-walled cell.

    Ethrian watched warily.

    He tried to stand.

    The old man turned. His forehead creased in concentration. His face came alive. He moved closer, fumbled with the last lock. It fell away.

    Ca-ca-come, he said. His voice was a crackling whisper. It was hard to follow even in the unnatural stillness haunting the dungeon.

    Where? Ethrian whispered too, afraid he would rouse the beasts.

    "Ah-ah-away. Th-they sent me to ka-ka... to ga-give you to the savan dalage."

    Ethrian cringed away. The turnkey had told him of the savan dalage—the worst of Ehelebe’s creations.

    The old man produced a tiny vial. Dra-drink this.

    Ethrian refused.

    The old man seized his wrist, pulled him close, twisted him round, forced his head back and his mouth open. His strength was both startling and irresistible. Something vile flooded the boy’s mouth. The old man made him swallow.

    Warmth and strength spread through him immediately.

    The old man pulled him toward the cell door. His grip was steel. Whimpering, Ethrian tripped along after him.

    What was happening? Why were they doing this?

    The old man led him toward the stair leading up out of that subterranean realm of horror. The unseen beasts roared and howled. Their tone suggested they felt cheated. Ethrian glimpsed red eyes behind the barred window in the nearest door.

    He gave up trying to hang back.

    The old man stammered, Ha-hurry. Th-th-they will ka-kill you.

    Ethrian stumbled after him, to the head of the steps, then down a seemingly endless stair outside. There was a salt tang to the hot, still air. He began to sweat. The sunlight threatened to blind his unaccustomed eyes. He tried to question his benefactor, but could make only limited sense of the garbled answers he received.

    This was K’Mar Khevi-tan, island headquarters of the worldwide Pracchia conspiracy. He had been held as leverage upon his father. His father had not performed as desired. His usefulness was at an end. He had been ordered destroyed. The old man was defying those orders.

    It made no sense to Ethrian.

    They descended to a shingly beach. The old man pointed toward a distant shore. It was the color of rust in the foreground, a leaden hue beyond. The strait was narrow, but the boy’s vision did not permit him a sound estimate. One mile or two?

    Sa-sa-swim, the old man said. Sa-safety there. Na-wami.

    Ethrian’s eyes grew round. I can’t. The thought terrified him. He was an indifferent swimmer at best. He’d never swum in the sea. I’d never make it.

    The old man settled himself cross-legged, lowering himself with exaggerated care. Intense concentration captured his face. He grunted as he strained to bring his slow thoughts into speech. When he did speak, it was with a ponderous precision. You must. It is your only hope. Here the Director will throw you to the children of Magden Norath. They are your enemies, those who abide here. The sea and Nawami are indifferent. They allow you the chance to live. You must go now. Before He discovers that I have denied His wickedness at last.

    Ethrian believed he was hearing the truth. The old-timer was so intense... 

    He looked at the sea. He was afraid.

    The strength of the drug flowed through him. He felt he could run a thousand miles. But swim?

    The old man began shaking. Ethrian thought he was dying. But no. It was the strain of making himself understood.

    The beasts beneath the island broke into a suddenly redoubled roaring.

    Ga-ga-go! the old man ordered.

    Ethrian took two steps and flung himself into the chilly brine. He got a mouthful immediately. He stood chest deep while he coughed it up.

    He had been chained naked. He had been in the sun only a short time now, but already he felt the fire of its kiss. He knew he would burn miserably before he reached the nether shore.

    He pushed off, and paced himself.

    After what seemed a long, long time he rolled onto his back to feather and rest.

    He was scarcely three hundred yards off shore. He watched the old man climb the steps they had descended, take a few and rest, take a few and rest. The island was long and lean and jagged. The fortress was an ugly old thing strung out along its spine like the crumbling bones of an ancient, gigantic dragon. He turned and glared at a barren mainland that looked no nearer.

    He knew, then, that he would not make it.

    He swam on. Stubbornness was in his blood.

    He had learned four names during his sojourn. The Director. The Fadema. Magden Norath. Lord Chin. He knew nothing about the man who owned the first. Norath was a sorcerer of Ehelebe. The Fadema was Queen of Argon and, apparently, bewitched by Lord Chin. He and she had spirited Ethrian to the island. Lord Chin was one of the high Tervola, or sorcerer-nobles, of the Dread Empire, against which Ethrian’s father had striven. Chin was dead now, but the empire that had spawned him remained active... 

    Shinsan, the Dread Empire, surely was behind all this.

    If he survived...

    It seemed that many, many hours had passed. The sun had, indeed, moved westward, but it was not yet in his eyes. The grey hills had grown only slightly darker... He was too tired to go on. His stubbornness had burned away.

    He was ready to sink into the deep. He was too tired to be afraid.

    Something brushed his leg.

    He was no longer too tired. He kicked in panic and tried to swim away.

    A dorsal fin slid across his field of vision. Another something touched him.

    He began to flail and gasp.

    One of the sea beasts flung itself into the air. It arced gracefully and plunged into the brine.

    Ethrian was not reassured. He was an inland child. He did not know a dolphin from a shark. Of sharks he had heard from his father’s friend, Bragi Ragnarson. His godfather had told cruel, grim stories of the great killers ravening amongst the crews of ships wrecked in fell sea-battles.

    His struggles earned him nothing but a belly full of salt water.

    The dolphins surrounded him. They bore him up and carried him to the desert shore. With his last spark of energy he dragged himself across the rocky beach into the shadow of a cliff. He collapsed, puked seawater till his guts ached, fell asleep.

    Something wakened him. The time was deep night. The moon was high and full. He listened. He had thought he heard a voice calling, but now there was nothing.

    He looked down at the beach. Something was moving there, making little clacky sounds... He saw them. Crabs. Scores of them. They seemed to be staring at him, waving their claws like soldiers’ salutes. One by one, they scuttled closer.

    He drew away, frightened. They meant to eat him! He sprang to his feet and stumbled away. The crabs became agitated. They could not keep his pace.

    He seated himself a hundred yards away. Stones had torn his feet and barked his shins.

    Again, faintly, he thought he heard someone calling. He could distinguish neither direction nor words.

    He stumbled a little farther, then collapsed and slept again.

    He had strange dreams. A beautiful woman in white came and spoke to him, but he could not understand her, nor did he remember her when he wakened.

    Daylight was almost gone. He was hungry and thirsty. His whole body ached. His sunburned skin had blistered. He tried drinking from the sea. His stomach refused the brine. For a time he lay on the sand in an agony of heaving.

    He rose and surveyed the land by twilight. It was utterly without life. There were no plants. No cliff swallows wheeled against the gathering darkness. No sundown insects hummed the air. Even the rocks were barren of lichens. The only living things he had seen were the crabs, which had come from the sea.

    A touch of cunning came upon him. He settled himself near the water, watching the waves charge toward his toes, peter out, and slide away.

    He used a stone to smash several crabs when they came. He ripped out salty flesh and ate till his stomach again rebelled.

    He retreated from the water and slept a few hours more.

    The moon was up when he wakened. He thought he heard voices. He crawled out to the sand, where he could stand and walk without further injuring his feet. Searching the line of cliffs, he thought, for an instant, that he saw a woman in white staring out to sea, her arms lifted as if in supplication. Her clothing whipped around her, yet the air was completely still.

    She disappeared when he moved to a better vantage.

    He considered his predicament. He had to get off the beach and find food and water. Especially water. And something useful as clothing, else the sun would cook him alive.

    He could see no way up the cliffs.

    He started walking along the strand.

    Exhaustion overcame him soon after dawn. He crawled into a shadow and slept among jagged rocks. His tongue felt like a ball of wool.

    The tide came in. The sea pounded the rocks, thundering, hurling white spray thirty feet into the air. And again Ethrian dreamed.

    Again a woman in white came. Again he could understand nothing she said.

    And again he wakened after dark, and ambushed crabs, and thought of walking on down the beach in search of a break in the cliffs.

    The tide was out, yet seemed to be in. The crash of breakers seemed far, far away. Over them, he heard the faintest creaking, then clanking and shouting. He settled on a boulder, waited to see what was happening.

    Suddenly, he saw what looked like a fleet of a thousand ships out on the white-capped sea. Boats plunged through the surf like raging black horses, scraped on sand and shingle, discharged lean, dark-bearded men in alien armor. Shorter, fairer men in armor equally strange met them on the beach. Their swords flashed and sang.

    A voice called out above the roar of battle. Ethrian looked up. A woman in white stood upon the clifftop, her arms outstretched. Blue fire crackled among her fingers.

    Blue witchfire played over the white-winged vessels upon the sea. Leviathans surfaced and flung themselves at the ships. Sharks and porpoises swam to the woman’s song, ignoring one another as they attacked the swarthy invaders.

    Then ruby bolts flashed from the ships, pounding the cliffs. Great walls of stone fell on the combatants on the beach... 

    Winged things arced across the moon, their mouths trailing tongues of fire. Creatures bigger than men rode their scaly backs, vast black cloaks trailing behind them. In their hands they bore spears of light which they hurled at the woman in white.

    She spun webs of blue and cast them into the firmament. They fluttered toward the winged lizards like merry moths, wrapped themselves about the dragons, and brought them tumbling to earth.

    One thing Ethrian noted through the flash and flame: The land was alive. Riotously alive. It could not be the desert that held him captive on its shore.

    The vision began to fade. He looked this way and that, trying to make sense of it. It was gone before he could grasp anything more.

    He looked toward where the woman had stood. There was a gap where the red bolts had bayoneted the cliffs. A gap where, earlier, he thought there had been nothing but solid cliffline.

    He crept that way, unsure, cautious. The moon was high now. He could see the tumbled stone well.

    It was not a fresh fall. Ages had gnawed at the boulders in the slide.

    A voice seemed to call from the desert beyond.

    He froze.

    It was another of the ghost voices. He shrugged. He had no time for mysteries. His great task was to survive. To do that he had to get off this shore.

    The climb was an epic of pain. And he found nothing above but moon-silvered desert vistas. More land utterly without life. Yet... yet he heard the voices. Wordless voices. They called.

    What was this land? What forgotten spirits haunted its barrens? Gingerly, he limped in the direction whence the voices seemed to come.

    His feet were swollen, raw, and festering. His tongue was fat and dry. His sunburn blisters were breaking. He ached in every sinew and joint. A throbbing pain beat from temple to temple.

    But he was stubborn. He went on. And, in time, the descending moon outlined something atop the nearest mountain.

    The more he studied it, the more it looked like some gargantuan figure carved from the mountain itself. It was a great sphinxlike creature, facing eastward.

    Something crackled beneath his foot. He stooped. It was a twig with a few dry leaves attached. It had been tumbled along by the wind. It was acacia, though he did not recognize it, never having seen the tree.

    His heart leapt. Where trees grew there must be water. He limped faster, moving like a man dancing on coals.

    Dawn came. He was stumbling and falling more than walking. His hands and knees were raw. The great stone beast loomed high ahead, up just a few hundred yards of slope.

    It was larger than he had estimated. It reared at least two hundred feet into the air, and stretched back out of sight over the lip of the flat space surrounding it. It was very old and time-worn. The once deeply carven features were all but invisible now.

    He paid little heed to the stone figure. His eyes were all for the scraggly trees around the fabulous creature’s forepaws.

    The sun beat at his naked back, igniting new agonies. Though he fell more and more often, he pressed on. Crawling, he dragged himself onto the flat area.

    Water! A shallow pool lay between the monster’s feet...  He heaved himself upright and tottered forward, fell on his face half in and half out of the moisture in the depression. He gulped the algae-thick, stagnant water till his belly ached.

    Only minutes later he heaved it up again.

    He waited, and drank more, though sparingly this time. Then he splashed across the pool into a shadow that looked like it would persist all day. He collapsed into a fetal ball and slept.

    He dreamed strange and powerful dreams.

    The woman in white came. She examined his hurts. Where her fingers touched the pain went away. He looked on himself and found that he had healed. He tried to mask his nakedness with his hands. She smiled gently and went to stand between the monster’s paws. She stared at the moon lifting out of the sea, limning the fortress riding the spine of the island off the coast.

    Ethrian joined her. He gazed upon the desert, and saw it as it might have been. Lush, rich, peopled by an industrious, pious race...  But there were fires burning on the island. There were ships upon the sea. They were so numerous their sails masked the waves. And there were columns of smoke on the land, and dragons in the sky. Fell wraiths bestrode the thunderous lizards, raining destruction from the firmament. The armies of Nawami fought, were defeated, and fell back to reform their companies. The woman in white summoned dread sorceries with which to lend them aid. Even that was not enough.

    Then the stone beast spoke. It opened its mouth and said a Word. The Word called forth thunder and doom. Skull-faced wraiths plummeted from the sky. Dragons screamed and clawed their ears. The invaders fled to their ships.

    They did not remain gone. A Power dwelt on the island in the east. Ethrian could feel it, could sense its name. Nahaman the Odite. A woman of great evil and great Power, possessed by hatred, obsessed with a need to destroy Nawami.

    Nahaman rallied her armies and struck again. They rolled across the land and descended from the clouds. Neither the witchery of the woman in white nor the Word of the stone beast could shatter the countless waves of them. Each time they came, their attack crested a little nearer the stone beast’s mountain.

    Ethrian soon realized he was seeing generations of struggle condensed into a night, an age of warfare reduced to its high points.

    The hordes of the Odite did come to the mountain. They destroyed everything they could, and silenced the stone beast’s mouth.

    Nahaman came ashore. With the aid of her skull-faced wraiths she smote the land barren. The woman in white and the monster of stone could do naught but watch. The beast’s mouth was his Power and her life. Nawami’s sole preservation, in the beast’s wan power, lay between those great rock paws.

    Nahaman and the survivors of her host withdrew to the island,

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