The Key to Creation (2 page)

Korastine’s new Arkship was constructed, and Aldo na-Curic was chosen as the Saedran chartsman for the voyage. Before the Arkship could sail, though,
ra’vir
saboteurs burned the great ship, dashing the king’s dreams.

Prester Hannes continued his depredations against the followers of Urec until he was captured and sent to work in the Gremurr mines. He escaped into the rugged mountains and endured great tribulations until—frostbitten, starving, and near death—he stumbled upon the hermit Criston Vora. Criston nursed him to health and took the prester back to Calay. While all of Calay reeled from the destruction of the Arkship, Criston presented himself to King Korastine and offered to create and captain a new ship.

After many years, Soldan-Shah Omra set off with his armies and recaptured Ishalem just as Istar gave birth to his son and heir, whom she named CRISTON. Omra’s third wife, a sweet woman named NAORI, was also pregnant, while his other wife, Cliaparia, grew murderously jealous of Istar. The baby Criston only increased her ire, and as soon as Naori gave birth to a son, Cliaparia murdered Istar’s baby by having a deadly sand spider placed in his crib. Mad with grief and shock at the death of her child, Istar stabbed Cliaparia to death in broad daylight and staggered away into the market, where she found a merchant selling strange artifacts, including a letter in a bottle—a message from her dear Criston.

Over the next several years, as Omra consolidated his hold on Ishalem, his engineer soldier KEL UNWAR constructed a gigantic wall across the isthmus to bar Aidenists from the sacred ground. While excavating the rubble of the Aidenist church in Ishalem, Omra’s builders discovered an ancient map in a deep underground vault: Urec’s Map, a relic that could lead them to the mysterious Key to Creation.

The Tierran army tried to retake Ishalem before the wall was finished. Mateo, now a military leader, vowed to do this for Anjine, whom he had loved for many years. They had grown up together, and both had a very close connection that went beyond friendship, but they dared not show it. Now he was her adviser and went off with the armies to Ishalem. When the Tierrans prepared to attack, however, the masked Teacher appeared on the wall and issued a command. Suddenly, many young Aidenist soldiers revealed themselves to be
ra’virs
. They assassinated several army commanders, and Mateo barely escaped. The Tierran army stumbled home defeated.

In Olabar, Saan, now nineteen, fended off an assassination attempt; hating Saan and Istar because of their Tierran heritage, the sikaras used every opportunity to harm him and discredit his mother. When Omra returned from Ishalem after defeating the Tierran army at the wall, he was enraged to hear about the threats and disrespect. In order to keep Saan safe, Omra commissioned a fine vessel, the
Al-Orizin
, and sent the young man on a quest to find the Key to Creation. Saan gathered his crew, including con man Yal Dolicar, a reef diver named GRIGOVAR, Sen Sherufa, and the Urecari priestess FYIRI, who possessed a magic journal through which she could write instantaneous messages back to the main church in Olabar. The
Al-Orizin
sailed east into the uncharted waters of the Middlesea.

In Calay, Criston Vora prepared his new ship, the
Dyscovera
, for the voyage to find Terravitae. Among his crew were the Iborian shipwright KJELNAR, cabin boy JAVIAN, chartsman Aldo na-Curic, and the grim Prester Hannes. King Korastine saw the ship off with Anjine, Prince Tomas, and Destrar Broeck, Tomas’s grandfather. Old Korastine longed to go on the voyage, but his failing health forced him to stay behind. Shortly after the ship sailed westward across the Oceansea, Korastine died in his sleep, leaving Anjine as queen of Tierra.

One of the
Dyscovera
’s sailors turned out to be a young woman in disguise, MIA. Furious at the deception, Prester Hannes wanted her marooned at the next landfall, but Criston refused. Two sailors, ENOCH DEY and SILAM HENNER, cooked up a scheme to rape the girl during a night watch, but Javian, who had taken a liking to Mia, and Hannes intervened. With no choice but to enforce the law of the sea, Criston sentenced Henner to twenty lashes, and Enoch Dey was cast overboard to his death. As they sailed onward, Aiden’s ancient Compass awakened, and its needle pointed to Terravitae.

Meanwhile, the Nunghal adventurer Asaddan convinced a clan captain to sail around the southern coast in search of a new sea route. After a long and arduous voyage, they arrived at Ishalem. Pleased to have found a new trade route, the Nunghals returned home, promising to bring back many ships.

After Kel Unwar completed the great wall, Omra gave him an even greater task: digging a canal across the isthmus to connect the Oceansea and the Middlesea. Using explosive firepowder—a chemical recipe given to them by the Nunghals—and the manpower of Tierran slaves, Unwar began excavations. In anticipation of the canal’s completion, Omra visited his exiled brother Tukar at the Gremurr mines. He instructed Tukar to armor a group of warships; these invincible ironclads would sail through the new waterway to destroy the Aidenist navy.

Incensed that the enemy was operating mines on Aidenist land at Gremurr, Destrar Broeck, his nephew IAROS, and Destrar Siescu of Corag proposed creating a road through the mountain passes so that the Aidenist army could ride a force of woolly mammoths over the mountains to seize the mines. Siescu’s trusted scout RAGA VAR plotted the route, and work began for a full-scale assault.

Grieving for her father, Anjine accepted a marriage offer from JENIROD, whom she had never met. Because her dearest friend Mateo was just a soldier and not an appropriate husband for a queen, she decided to marry for politics, not love. Learning of Anjine’s betrothal, and hiding his own feelings, Mateo impulsively married a blacksmith’s daughter, VICKA SONNEN. Vicka was a lovely, strong woman, whose only flaw was that she wasn’t Anjine.

When the queen finally met Jenirod, she was not impressed with the self-centered, chauvinistic man who treated her like a wilting flower. Anjine made her dissatisfaction with her husband-to-be plain, leaving the narrow-minded Jenirod baffled as to what he’d done wrong. In an attempt to impress her, Jenirod and Destrar Tavishel raided a Urecari shrine, Fashia’s Fountain, and slaughtered the priestesses and pilgrims there. Although Tavishel’s men called it a great victory, Jenirod was sickened at what they’d done.

After the desecration of Fashia’s Fountain, the Urabans retaliated: Kel Unwar sent ships to intercept a royal cog carrying Prince Tomas. Urged on by the ominous masked Teacher (revealed to be Unwar’s own sister ALISI, who was kidnapped and abused by Aidenist sailors when she was young), Unwar captured the boy, executed him, and sent the head back to Queen Anjine. To avenge her brother’s death, Anjine ordered Mateo to decapitate one thousand Uraban prisoners of war and dump their heads before the Ishalem wall, in full view of the enemy. And the cycle of hatred escalated further.…

In the village of Windcatch, Ciarlo had persistent dreams that his sister Adrea was still alive. Though he suffered from a lame leg, Ciarlo set off overland to make his way to Uraba to find her, and to preach the word of Aiden to the Urecari. More often than not, he received a cold welcome, but he persisted. One night at camp, an old wanderer joined him, and they exchanged stories. When Ciarlo awoke the next day, the man was gone, leaving behind a thick journal of his travels. When Ciarlo discovered that his lame leg was miraculously healed, he realized he had encountered the legendary Traveler himself!

In Olabar, Istar/Adrea thwarted an assassination plot instigated from within the Urecari church by the banished Villiki. With Omra gone in Ishalem, former soldan-shah Imir responded to the treachery, purging the church; Villiki fled to the Gremurr mines, where her son Tukar lived with his wife SHETIA and their son ULAN. Tukar had nearly finished armoring the warships, per Omra’s wishes, and he was not happy to see his disgraced, scheming mother.

When Anjine found out that Jenirod was responsible for the desecration of Fashia’s Fountain—and by extension, the murder of Tomas—she broke their engagement and sent him away in disgust. Shamed, Jenirod rode to Corag to join Destrar Broeck in the military campaign to cross the mountains and strike the Gremurr mines. Mateo, scarred by being forced to decapitate a thousand prisoners, refused to face his wife Vicka or Queen Anjine with so much blood on his hands. He also rode into the mountains to join the attack on Gremurr.

On the far side of the world, the
Dyscovera
came upon an undersea city and a race of people descended from the lost branch of Saedrans. Aldo na-Curic was delighted to be reunited with his people, and their king, SONHIR, promised to help the Tierran ship. Hannes, however, led a mutiny and tried to force King Sonhir and his people to convert to Aidenism—by force, if necessary. The incensed mer-Saedrans fought back, and in the battle, Kjelnar was pulled overboard into the waves before Criston managed to quell the violence. But the damage was done; the mer-Saedrans abandoned the
Dyscovera
, refusing to offer further aid. Criston ordered Prester Hannes tied to the mast, where he awaited his sentence.

The
Al-Orizin
found a lush, isolated island surrounded by reefs and wrecked ships. Going ashore, Saan and his crew found an old crone, IYOMELKA, and her beautiful daughter, YSTYA, alone on the island. Sikara Fyiri took offense when Iyomelka claimed to be the wife of Ondun Himself and that Ystya was His daughter—the sister to Aiden, Urec, and Joron. The two women had lived on the island for countless centuries, and Ondun had drowned there in a magic spring that had now gone dry. If the spring could be restored, Iyomelka claimed, magic would return to the island, and she would regain her youth. She promised Saan any reward he wished if his crewmembers could repair the spring. Saan and Grigovar dove into the deep well and freed the blockage, making the waters flow. Underground, they discovered the preserved body of a mysterious old man, who rose to the surface in the resurgent spring. When Iyomelka bathed in the waters, her body shed many apparent years.

Saan claimed her daughter Ystya as his reward. He had grown very fond of the lovely and innocent girl, and she desperately wanted to get away. Infuriated by the demand, Iyomelka refused to let her daughter go, but Saan sneaked back to the island at night and slipped away with Ystya. The
Al-Orizin
set sail and fled. When Iyomelka discovered that she had been tricked, she resurrected a vessel from the sunken wrecks around the island and sailed in pursuit of Saan, carrying the preserved body of Ondun. Racing away, the
Al-Orizin
came upon an impassible barrier—the enormous sea serpent, BOURAS, that girdled the whole world, cursed by Ondun to bite its own tail for eternity. With Iyomelka closing in behind them, they had no way to get past Bouras.

With a great force of battle-armored mammoths, the Tierran army crossed the mountain pass to Gremurr. Reaching the Urecari mines, the shaggy beasts struck terror into the enemy soldiers. Tukar sent his wife and son to hide in the hills, while he tried to lead a defense but ultimately failed. Destrar Broeck declared a great Tierran victory, freed all of the Aidenist slaves, seized the nearly finished ironclad warships, and executed Tukar, sending the head back to Soldan-Shah Omra to show his hatred: after all, murdered Tomas had been Broeck’s grandson.

Destrar Tavishel planned to get revenge for the killing of Prince Tomas in his own way. Without permission from the queen, Tavishel sailed to Ishalem, where he intended to launch kegs of burning oil into the holy city to destroy it again. However, a hundred Nunghal ships arrived, and the Nunghal cannons cut Tavishel’s ships to ribbons. Furious at the unprovoked attack on Ishalem, Omra refused to rescue any survivors from the wrecked ships, letting the sharks feed instead. He didn’t think his hatred for the Aidenists could grow worse…but he had not yet learned of the carnage at Gremurr.

To unlock the soul of mankind, one must hold the key to creation.

—Urec’s Log

Part I

Outskirts of Calay

As he rode across Tierra, the constant pounding hoofbeats echoed the pounding of his heart. After days of hard travel, Jenirod no longer heard the sound. He fought hunger, thirst, and exhaustion, keeping himself awake only through sheer determination, and pressed on. He had already crossed half a continent, but he had to reach Calay.

Queen Anjine needed to know what had happened at the Gremurr mines. After two decades of war, the Aidenists had finally secured a major victory against the evil Urecari.

Jenirod had pushed two of his three warhorses nearly to death before turning them loose and riding on. The animals could take care of themselves until some other traveler found them. Son of the Eriettan destrar, he had grown up with horses, won countless trophies and ribbons in Landing Day cavalcades; he couldn’t believe he was abandoning such fine mounts. In fact, mere months ago, Jenirod’s proud and shuttered mind would never have imagined that any mission could be so all-consuming. Now he rode long past the point where common sense told him he should sleep and let the horses rest.