Books by Isobelle Carmody
THE OBERNEWTYN CHRONICLES
Obernewtyn
The Farseekers
Ashling
The Keeping Place
Wavesong
The Stone Key
The Sending
The Waking Dragon
THE GATEWAY TRILOGY
Night Gate
Winter Door
LITTLE FUR
The Legend Begins
A Fox Called Sorrow
A Mystery of Wolves
Riddle of Green
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Text copyright © 2011 by Isobelle Carmody
Cover art copyright © 2015 by Larry Rostant
Map by Cathy Larsen © Penguin Group (Australia)
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.
This is a slightly modified version of the second half of a work originally published by Penguin Books Australia Ltd., Camberwell, in 2011. Published here by arrangement with Penguin Group (Australia), a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd.
Random House and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.
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eBook ISBN: 978-0-375-89338-4
First Random House Ebook Edition 2014
Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment and celebrates the right to read.
v3.1
for my friend Kristin Olson, who has all the qualities of a good heroine: she can kickbox, she is courageous and clever and intrepid, and she has perfect manners.
Contents
Cover
Other Books by This Author
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Character List
Map
Part One: The High Road
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Part Two: The Perilous Dreamtrails
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
CHARACTER LIST
Ahmedri: Sadorian, brother of Straaka
Alad: Beastspeaking guildmaster, highlander
Alden: highlander, coercer
Analivia: daughter of Radost, sister of Moss and Bergold
Angina: Empath guilden and enhancer, twin brother of Miky
Ariel: distorted Talent, abilities unknown
Ari-noor, Ari-roth: shipfish
Atthis: Agyllian or Guanette bird or oldOne, Elder of the eldar, survivor of the Great White
Avra: Gahltha’s mate, leader of Beastguild at Obernewtyn
Bergold: son of deposed head Councilman Radost
Blyss: empath healer, heartfasted to Merret
Brildane: mountain wolf pack
Brocade: rebel leader in Sawlney
Bruna: Sadorian, daughter of Jakoby, bondmate of High Chieftain Dardelan
Caldeko: halfbreed gypsy bondmate of Iriny, executed by Herders
Cassy Duprey: Beforetimer
Catrin: coercer
Ceirwan: Farseeker guilden
Christa: Futureteller
Cinda: Norseland shadow
Daffyd: highlander, former guardsman of Henry Druid, brother to Jow, beloved of Gilaine
Dameon: blind Empath guildmaster
Dardelan: rebel son of Bodera, high chieftain of the Land east of the Suggredoon
Darga: Herder-bred dog of Jik
Darius: Twentyfamilies gypsy, beasthealer
Declyn: coercer
Dell: Futuretell guilden
Descantra: she-wolf of the Brildane
Doktaruth: Beforetime scientist at Inva complex
Domick: once Coercer guilden, spy, and bondmate of Kella
Dragon: empath-coercer, daughter of the Red Queen
Druid, Henry: renegade Herder priest and charismatic leader of secret community, father of Gilaine and Erin
Edric: coercer and farseeker
Elii: rebel leader in Kinraide
Elkar: Herder novice, bondmate of Cinda
Elspeth: Farseeker guildmistress, powerful coercer-farseeker-beastspeaker, known as ElspethInnle and the Seeker by beasts and as Elaria in gypsy disguise
Enoch: coachman loyal to Misfits
Erlinder: Beforetime scientist
Evander: son of Cassandra
Falada: Sadorian horse
Faraf: pony ridden by Elspeth in Sadorian Battlegames
Fedan: teknoguilder
Fell: teknoguilder
Fian: Teknoguild ward, highlander
Freya: empath-enhancer
Gahltha: guardian of Elspeth, known as Daywatcher, Avra’s mate
Garth: Teknoguildmaster
Gavyn: boy with unknown Talents
Gevan: Coercer guildmaster, leader of Magi performers
Gilaine: mute farseeker, daughter of Henry Druid, twin sister to Erin
Gobor One Ear: wolf of the Brildane
Grufyyd: father to Brydda Llewellyn, bondmate of Katlyn
Gutred: Norselander woman, bondmate to Helva, mother to Lark
Gwynedd: Norselander king, high chieftain of the Land west of the Suggredoon
Hannah: Beforetime paranormal and director of revived Reichler Clinic
Hannay: farseeker
Harwood: powerful coercer
Helvar: Norselander, father of Lark, shipmaster of the Stormdancer
Hilda: coercer from Oldhaven
H’rayka: one-who-brings-destruction, equated with the Destroyer
Iriny: halfbreed gypsy, half sister to Swallow
Jak: Teknoguilden
Jakoby: Sadorian tribal leader, mother of Bruna
Javo: head cook at Obernewtyn
Jes: brother to Elspeth, killed by soldierguards
Jik: Herder novice rescued by farseekers, killed in firestorm
Jil: coercer
Kader: healer
Kasanda: mystical leader of Sadorians
Katlyn: herblorist, mother to Brydda Llewellyn, bondmate of Grufyyd
Kella: mistress of Cloister Healing Center in Sutrium, former bondmate of Domick
Khuria: beastspeaker, father to Zarak
Lark: Norselander
Larkin, Louis: unTalented friend to Misfits
Leander: farseeker novice
Lei: Beforetime laboratory assistant
Lidgebaby: powerful coercer-empath baby, bonded to Misfit group in Henry Druid’s secret encampment
Lina: beastspeaker
Linnet: powerful coercer-knight
Llewellyn, Brydda: rebel leader formerly of Aborium, now right hand of Dardelan in Sutrium, son of Katlyn and Grufyyd
Lo: Obernewtyn horse
Luthen: brother to the Red Queen
Malik: treacherous rebel leader
Marisa: second wife to Lukas Seraphim, scientist who resurrected Beforetime brain scan machine called Zebkrahn
Maruman: one-eyed cat, friend of Elspeth, known also as Yelloweyes and Moonwatcher
Maryon: Futuretell guildmistress, highlander
Masterton, Petr: Beforetime assistant to director of government com
plex in Old Scotia
Matthew: farseeker with deep probe abilities, slave in the Red Land
Merret: powerful coercer with beastspeaking Talent, heartfasted to Blyss
Miky: Empath guilden and twin sister to Angina, gifted musician
Miryum: leader of the coercer-knights
Moss: son of deposed head Councilman Radost
Mouse: son of Sabatien
Nerat: Agyllian healer
Noviny: former Councilman of Saithwold and grandfather to Wenda
Obernewtyn, Jacob: wealthy Beforetime friend and benefactor of Hannah Seraphim
Okan: defective with healing Talent washed ashore on the Land
Olinden: teknoguilder
Oma: Norselander, first shipmate to Helva, shipmaster
Per Vallon: Norseland village leader and kinehelt or king’s hand
Powyrs: captain of the Cutter
Radost: head Councilman of Sutrium, father of Analivia, Moss, and Bergold
Rasial: white dog with coercive abilities
Reuvan: former seaman, right hand to Brydda Llewellyn
Rheagor: pack leader of the Brildane
Roland: Healer guildmaster
Rolf: chieftain of Halfmoon Bay
Rushton: master of Obernewtyn, half brother of Stephen Seraphim, Misfit with latent Talent
Sabatien: ex-Herder priest, father of Mouse, leader of Norseland rebels
Salamander: slave trader and mysterious shipmaster of the Black Ship, ally of Ariel
Sarn: farseeker
Seely: unTalented girl, once nanny to Gavyn, now companion and assistant to Jak
Selmar: Talented Misfit killed by Ariel’s mad dogs
Sendari: horse who travels with the gypsies
Seraphims: Hannah, director of the Beforetime Reichler Clinic; Lukas, first master of Obernewtyn; Michael, son of Lukas and Marisa, father to Rushton and Stephen
Sharna: dog and friend to Elspeth
Sover: coercer with a secondary Talent for empathy
Straaka: Sadorian tribesman under Jakoby, heartfasted to Miryum
Swallow: D’rekta of the Twentyfamilies gypsies; half brother to Iriny, grandson of Maire
Tomash: farseeker
Vega, Madam: head guardian at Obernewtyn, killed while trying to torture Rushton
Vinderlin: mare who travels with the gypsies
Wenda: granddaughter of Noviny
Wila: farseeker
Zade: stallion, Obernewtyn horse
Zarak: beastspeaker and farseeker, son of Khuria
1
I HAD BEEN told by the futuretellers that I would have to leave behind all those I loved when I left Obernewtyn to complete my quest, but the Fates often unfold events in ways that none can guess. My mind was on this and the companions Atthis had sent me as I made my way around the Skylake.
Trees grew thickly where I walked, and I could catch only a glimmer of the lake through the dense foliage. But I knew how it looked. I had first seen it from above when I approached the Valley of the Skylake. It had been a strange and marvelous sight, but also eerie, because a past-dream had shown me that it had once been a Beforetime storage for weaponmachines. They had long since taken flight—in the dream, I had seen them fly—a flock of narrow, deadly birds that rained down poisons and fire on some hapless distant place. The storage had been left open and, I assumed, had gradually filled up with water to become a lake.
I thought of other remnants of the Beforetimers that I had seen—the huge dark storage space under Ariel’s house on Norseland, the complex beneath the ruins of a Beforetime city that had become Oldhaven—and wondered how many more hidden pockets and niches had escaped destruction in the devastated world.
Sentinel was in such a place, I thought, remembering another dream of a misty chasm.
I drew a deep breath and shook my head to clear it of clouds and dreams before focusing and sending out a farseeking probe tuned to Maruman’s strange mind. This was my third attempt, but no matter how hard I concentrated, it would not locate. No doubt the old feline was sound asleep, though it would be just like him to shut his mind to me out of sheer contrariness. As far as I knew, I had not especially vexed him that day, but sometimes it took very little to rouse his ire.
Ever elusive, he was even more so when possessed by one of the fits that claimed him from time to time. I was always alert to any sign of their approach, because in such a state, he wandered, insensible of danger. In ordinary circumstances, that was troubling enough, but to have him wandering out of his mind in the taint-streaked High Mountains, when I must journey inexorably onward, was especially worrying. And it seemed that he had been vague and distant ever since we had left the wolf vale to come to the Skylake, where we had been bidden by the pack leader to wait until he decided whether or not the Brildane would accede to my request to travel with us.
In the end, I had no alternative but to trust that whatever his state, Maruman’s fate was linked to mine and had been linked from the moment the Agyllian bird Atthis had appointed him one of my guardians. I did not think that link would be so easy to break, even if we should desire it.
I tried one final time to locate him, turning in one full slow circle and scanning the trees about me before finally giving up.
Then I sat down on a rock to decide what to do.
Aside from being worried about Maruman’s state of mind, I had badly wanted to speak to him about the wolves. Given the Brildane’s loathing and mistrust of humans, I was uneasy at the thought of them arriving to find a whole pack of humans I had not mentioned were waiting with me. Rheagor might regard it as a betrayal and simply order his wolves to attack. Worse, he could turn away without even coming to inform me of his decision.
I had not mentioned the others to the wolves, of course, because at that point, I had not known they would be here. But would Rheagor give me the chance to explain that? In truth, I was still reeling from the surprise of finding the others here.
When Maruman and the Herder dog Darga appeared beneath my window one misty night to summon me to the final stage of my quest, I left Obernewtyn without saying a word to anyone. I had done so, believing I would never again see Rushton nor any of the people I had come to care about. It had near torn my heart out, but I had done it because Maruman said my quest depended on it.
When I learned I was not to return to the Land, I had wondered if I would ever see human folk again, for none were known to dwell in the inimical High Mountains, taint streaked and perilous as they were, and beyond them lay only vast terrible, lifeless Blacklands. I had thought then that the promised companions would be beasts, especially after Maruman had made me seek out the wolves and ask them to go with me. I had come to the Valley of the Skylake seeking Gahltha, and without warning, I had discovered two people here, cooking their nightmeal over a campfire.
Astonished and dismayed, I had resolved to use coercivity to drive the couple away as much for their own safety as for my purposes. Then the fire flared and I had recognized the handsome, saturnine face of the Twentyfamilies gypsy leader, Swallow.
When I revealed myself to him, I had discovered that he was not in the least surprised to see me. Indeed, he had been waiting for me. Given that he had long had some inkling of my quest and might even be part of it, since he had been more than once been summoned to rescue me over the years, I might have accepted that his presence was reasonable and maybe even inevitable. But for the fact that he was not alone.
After greeting me, he had waved a careless encompassing hand at the woman standing by the campfire, and only when she offered her intense, enigmatic smile did I recognize Analivia, the yellow-haired daughter of the powerful and corrupt councilman Radost. Long estranged from her father, she had once rescued me from a savage whipping at the hands of one of his soldierguards.
Before I could ask why she had come here, Gahltha had emerged from the trees behind her and came to nuzzle my ear. I had felt a rush of relief, and Maruman, irritated b
y my emotions, had sunk his claws into my shoulder and leaped down with a hiss to vanish into the trees.
I had not seen him since, but I told myself he would not go far. Indeed there were only trees up this end of the valley, and given their rarity in the High Mountains, I doubted he would be eager to abandon them. I could easily imagine him draped along some high branch, watching me with one ironic yellow eye.
I sighed and gave up fretting about the old cat. Closing my eyes, I immersed myself in the memory of those first few moments after I had discovered the others, needing to relive them to properly take in all that I had been told, for I had been too numb with shock to listen properly.
“You must be famished and chilled besides,” Swallow said calmly, ushering me toward the fire. “Your pack and the other things Gahltha carried on his back are just over there with our things.”
I wanted to ask about the stone sword, but I was distracted by a movement out of the corner of my eye. I turned to see Dameon making his way around the lake, one hand resting lightly on the flank of the little mountain horse Faraf, whom I had ridden in the Battlegames in Sador.
I followed the approach of the blind empath, who was my dearest friend, with a tumble of conflicting emotions. I had not had the chance to see him for many sevendays before my departure from Obernewtyn because he had been late returning from a journey to the Westlands. This had spared me the immediate wrench of leaving him as I had left Rushton, without a single word of farewell, but I had been devastated by the knowledge that I would never see him again.
And now here he was.
My eyes blurred with tears.
“Gavyn is here, too,” Swallow said as we watched Dameon and the sturdy little pony approach us. “He is off foraging with Rasial. Despite his lack of sparkling conversation, the lad has proven adept at it, which is fortunate since these mountains offer so little bounty.”
“Gavyn and Rasial are here, too?” I echoed foolishly.
Dameon faltered to a stop and was now turning his head this way and that. Not in order to see or hear, I knew, but because he sensed my presence and was trying to locate me. My control over my emotions was so erratic that he always felt my presence, and it suddenly struck me how odd this was, for I never thought of myself as an emotional person.