The Hammer of the Sun (74 page)

But a better one may remain elsewhere. Those few stragglers who remained in Kerys, and were not slaughtered out of hand in the confusion and madness of the early days, also came to mingle with their lighter-skinned neighbours. Unmanned and humbled by what they had experienced, they responded much as the Ravens had, and sought new allegiance. There also they won it with their great skill at surviving in the wild, and more swiftly; mild as was the winter that followed the fall of the Gate, many Kerys folk would have perished were it not for their aid. One or two became men of great account in the crude tribal life to which the survivors were reduced, but there were never enough of them for their physical type to dominate, as it did in Brasayhal, and the race of the Akiya'wahsa was lost, becoming no more than a name. But when, many long thousands of years later, such another tribe of fierce searovers arose in those lands, that name was remembered, and either bestowed upon or taken by them in defiant assumption of a heritage. To their earliest enemies these Sea Peoples were called
Akiyawaot Ekwesh us
their hieroglyphics rendered it, and that is the form we have used. But they are better known to us as the Achaeans, the warlike Greeks of Homer.

FLORA AND FAUNA

The Book of the Armring has much to tell of the living things of Kerys, for Elof and Roc, having travelled from another continent, often found them very strange. Something is said of the different varieties of tree they saw from the cog on their long river journey, and elsewhere. But since Elof was forced to remain on the island for so long, animals are mostly mentioned in connection with Roc's travels, which are not germane to the tale. For the most part it can be said that the animal life is recognisably similar to that in similar latitudes of Elof s own land at this time. Many, however, are made to sound strange, because they are described only in their modern winter colouration; it may well be that they were wearing it all year round, an anomaly that may reflect the worsening state of the climate, and perhaps also the more direct effects of the Ice on living things. These were markedly more severe than in Brasayhal, because there the mountain ranges were ranged predominantly on north to south axes, and large areas of flat land and forest remained open to migration. In Kerys, however, most of the mountains extended from east to west, and as the Ice advanced they left few easy avenues southward; the creation of the secondary icesheets must have worsened matters even further. Adaptation must have been forced upon animals and plants much more swiftly.

Small and Domestic Animals

Among the commonest small beasts were squirrels, hares, rabbits, lemmings, mustelid predators such as martens and wolverines, and foxes; hedgehogs and water-shrews flourished on the island, and were totally new to Elof. Mercifully it was free of rats and mice, though the city of Kerys was not; dogs and wild kites were the main agents for controlling such vermin, the more efficient cat still rare as a domestic animal outside the houses of wealthy noblemen. These were probably unlike modern cats; from their descriptions they sound more like domesticated breeds derived from some wilder breed such as
Felts lunensis
, ancestor of
Felis silvestris
, the modern wildcat.

Other domesticated beasts included the huge and temperamental cattle of Kerys, the same breed Elof had herded as a child, and some much smaller beast which yielded a wooly fleece, but from its description sounds otherwise more like a goat than a sheep; certainly no very sharp distinction was then drawn between the two caprine types. It may well have looked a little like the primitive Soay sheep, lean and long-limbed with substantial horns, but must have been much larger. Less common were domesticated pigs, savage creatures barely distinguishable from the wild hogs they were bred from; these, and their cousins the wild boars, were still common enough to make hunting worthwhile. It was hardly less dangerous than keeping them. Horses were not only ridden, but were the main draft animals of the land, oxen being stronger but more dangerous; it seemed strange to Elof that there were none of the hardy little pony-like species native to his own land, with their vestigial extra hooves.

Wild Animals

Among larger wild animals the various breeds of
mammut
were rare, probably through hunting, but still to be found in the north eastern plains of the Wild Lands; the same was true of some breed of wooly rhinoceros. Deer and wisent were still quite common, some breeds of very great size; one deer Roc shot was larger, he claimed, even than the huge deer of Tapiau's forests, and had a wider spread of antlers. If so, this must almost certainly have been the so-called Irish elk,
Megaceros
. In the warmer areas wild cattle of similar enormous bulk still roamed, probably ancestors of the recently extinct
aurochs;
and there were both wild boar and wild hogs in the forests. In the higher areas chamois were common, and some breed of mountain goat. Large predators seem to have been rare, probably because the land had been so long settled by men. It is known that the early settlers of Kerys faced some big cat of appalling size, probably the so-called "cave lion"
Felis leo spelaea
, a third again as large as modern lions, but this had been quite deliberately hunted down and all but exterminated throughout the land; some had reappeared in the Wild Lands, but Elof and Roc ran little risk of encountering them where game was so scarce. Another somewhat smaller cat, probably a descendant of the giant cheetah
Adnonyxpardinensis
, was still an occasional threat to livestock in the southlands. In the northern woodlands lynxes were still to be found, and on the grasslands a cat of similar size, probably the steppe cat,
Felis manul;
wildcats very like today. The bears, as in Elof s land, were very large, but chiefly vegetarian and rarely aggressive if not provoked. Wolves, once again, were large, but rare, although they had begun to move into the western lands once more as men deserted them, and found fat pickings after .the battles that raged there.

These creatures are mentioned only incidentally among the many strands of the chronicles; but one or two creatures feature so prominently that they deserve some further remarks.

Amicac
This astonishing creature, the Sea-Devourer, is so unlike any known seabeast, either in living or fossil form, that it might be thought some strange anomalous form natural to a minor power, as were dragons, or yet another of the creations or distortions of the Ice. The strong impression of intelligence it left with Elof and Roc is echoed by other surviving witnesses, and suggests this. Yet manifestly the creature was no servant of the Ice, for it destroyed its thralls with appalling ferocity and cunning, yet spared their quarry with an almost regal grace. It has been suggested that it might have been a shape assumed by Niarad or some other sea-dwelling power, but this is unlikely; there is no record of them ever containing themselves within a single beast, preferring shoals and throngs much as Tapiau preferred his trees. What then can it have been? It bore the shape of the plesiosaurs, long-necked prehistoric sea-reptiles, but they were long extinct, much smaller and lived differently; nor could two such keen observers ever mistake such creatures for any kind of seal or other pinniped. It seems best to accept their identification, therefore, and look for some other evidence; and this exists. In studying the many sightings of so-called "Sea Serpents" around the world, the Dutch scientist Dr. H.C. Oudemans produced a composite picture of a very large marine carnivore resembling a type of seal or otter, but by the same evolutionary convergence that made icthyosaurs appear almost identical to dolphins, shaped like a gigantic plesiosaur; he christened it, somewhat misleadingly,
Megophias
, or Great Serpent. Though the evidence has been interpreted differently by later researchers, most notably by Dr. Bernard Heuvelmans of Belgium as two distinct species of different size, the distinctive shape and dimensions remain; and they fit the Sea Devourer all too well. More, it is generally agreed to inhabit colder northern waters, where it was much feared by seamen of previous generations in their small sailing vessels. This might be thought of as a superstition, but in one or two Norwegian fishing museums giant iron traps can still be found, that were set in fjords to ensnare long and questing necks; in a pre-industrial society the labour of shaping such a trap is not usually devoted to hunting phantoms. It may be worth noting the quite startling intelligence often displayed by sea mammals, not only dolphins and whales but also seals such as H.G. Hurrell's Atlanta, able to distinguish command words spoken in complex context in a normally-toned voice -a feat unusual in any creature. And it is not impossible that with an increased brain size this might also be enhanced; which is not to say that such intelligence would produce anything like a human mind. What use would a human outlook be in so different a body and lifestyle? But even a very different mind might well be able to share the same repugnance for the common enemy of all things living, and recognise a call for help - not least from so powerful a mind as Elof s.

Small Mammut
The miniature proboscideans with whom Elof and Roc shared Elan Ghorhenyan might sound even more problematic than the Sea Devourer, but in fact the existence of such creatures during the Long Winter is well established. Like similarly dwarfed deer, hippopotami and ground sloths at various times, they seem to have evolved in island environments where food and living space were limited. Various very different breeds existed in different parts of the world, but the most likely candidate would be
Loxodonta falconeri
, or a close relative. This was in fact a true elephant rather than a mammoth or mastodon, with long straight tusks, and it stood no more than three feet tall. If it was as curious as its living relatives it might well have strayed into the smithy in search of food.

Swans
The guise of a great black swan, though undoubtedly it reflected something in Kara's nature, may not have been so strange and eerie as it appears. It may have been a shape well adapted to passing unnoticed through the skies of Kerys, and perhaps of other lands also. The only living black swan is confined to a small space of the southern hemisphere, is smaller than some northern breeds, and has a slightly comical squeaky cry. But during the Long Winter a swan of immense size undoub-tedly lived in the Northlands. Fossil evidence suggests that it was among the largest of flying birds; but can tell us little more of the hue of it's feathers no trace remains.

Trees and Plants

The impression gained from Elof s journey, and from the map of Kerys, maybe somewhat deceptive. The text of the chronicle tells a truer story. There were still large areas of wooded land in the Vale of Kerys, both north and south; but they were sadly reduced from what they had once been, and accounted for a relatively small land area. Much of what remained was mere secondary growth where the old-established forests had been cut down, sometimes even a stunted aftergrowth of little use to men and fit only for the smaller beasts. Tapiau's accusation was quite justified; Kerys had played the spendthrift with its woodlands, as with every other resource it tapped. This was less true in those that were predominantly Svarhath, both because they were better foresters, and because they had a much smaller population and agriculture. Along the snowline near the gates of the duergar birch forests still persisted, with dwarf juniper and alpine alders in the barrens, and scrubland of heather and gorse. In the Wild Lands species related to all the common evergreen trees of Elof s homeland could be found, save for the redwoods he loved so much; the same was true of deciduous trees; though, as he noticed, they tended to be smaller. Pines - from the descriptions Scots pine, spruce and firs - beech, and oaks were the commonest trees there, and in the south sweet chestnut, which was new to him; the Svarhath had been fond of these, and planted them throughout the forests. Most of these were also found within the warmer climes of the Vale itself, along with less familiar species such as planes, cypresses, cork oaks, tamarisks and even some fig-cactus and date-palms spread from the southern shore, though in the north they were non-fruiting. Beyond Kerys itself, in the warmer east, cypress and olive trees were commonest, and along the coasts maritime and Aleppo pines; there were some of these on Elan Ghorhenyan, among a characteristically fragrant scrubland that seems to have been chiefly the evergreen shrub known today as the rock-rose,
Cis-lus
, mingled with broom and gorse, and perhaps also laurel.

SHIPS

Less can be said of the types of ship with which this book deals, the huge ships that Kermorvan built with the aid of the Duergar, and the cogs which were the main model in use on the rivers of Kerys, than of earlier ones, because no reliable marginalia survive. Evidently such large ships fell quite swiftly from use as the land declined, and later copyists had never seen them; their attempts to draw them are fanciful in the extreme. Large warships such as the
Prince Korentyn
seem to have had hulls of a very modern profile, and a system of multiple sails such as the larger rivercraft of the duergar used. The dromunds have been given that name to distinguish them, because they seem to have been simply larger versions of the standard "double-ended" Kerbryhaine model, though with a variety of more complex rigs. As the extent to which he kept his smiths and shipwrights busy suggests, Kermorvan was constantly experimenting to improve the performance of his ships. What heights he may eventually have reached are suggested by the cutter that bore Roc and Elof across the ocean. If he was able to develop fore-and-aft rigs sufficiently to apply them to his larger and leaner hulls, he could have achieved craft almost as fast and
efficient as
the great China clippers. The cog could hardly be more of a contrast. It is given that name because it somewhat resembled the breed of craft that was common on the seas of medieval Europe, a round-bellied tun of a ship well suited to carrying heavy loads or companies of troops with equal seaworthiness and ill grace under a simple squaresail, with at most a smaller topsail. In versions made or adapted for fighting, as was Trygvar's, towers of planking were added at bow and stern to give archers height to fire down onto an opposing deck. In his boat, and probably in most others of his land, these were kept to a sensible height, but in an early breed of arms race the European types were raised higher and higher till they often made the ship dangerously unstable, more a threat to its crew than its enemies. "
Where now are the bones of Way land the wise
?" Boethius.
Consolation of Philosophy
, in the rendering of Alfred the Great.