Feast of Chaos (Four Feasts Till Darkness Book 3) Read online

  FEAST OF CHAOS

  A Novel of Geadhain

  CHRISTIAN A. BROWN

  Copyright © 2016 by Christian A. Brown

  Feast of Chaos is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the author/ publisher.

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 0994014422

  ISBN 13: 9780994014429

  For the children, poets, and protectors of Geadhain

  (For the readers)

  CONTENTS

  On Geadhain (Glossary)

  Foreword (A Recap)

  Prologue

  I The Cradle

  II Teeth

  III People of Glass

  IV Judgment

  V Red Riders

  VI After the Fall

  VII Taken

  VIII Memory’s Burn

  IX Return of the Queen

  Part II

  X Defying Death

  XI True Selves

  XII Sinner’s Path

  XIII The Empress

  XIV City of False Grace

  XV The Hunt

  XVI The Descent

  XVII Queen’s Justice

  XVIII Deepest Truths

  XIX A Trick of Fate

  Epilogue

  ON GEADHAIN (GLOSSARY)

  I: Paragons, Wonders, and Horrors

  Brutus: The Sun King. Brutus is the second of the Immortal Kings and ruler of the Summerlands in southern Geadhain. Zioch, the City of Gold, shines like a gold star on the southern horizon and is the seat of his power. Brutus is the master of the wilderness and the hunt. His magik has dominion over the physical world and self. He is victim to the Black Queen’s whispers and falls far from his nobility.

  Lilehum (Lila): Magnus’s bride. Magnus sought her when learning to live as a man independent of his ageless brother. Through the sharing of blood and ancient vows—the Fuilimean—she is drawn into the mystery of the immortal brothers and imbued with a sliver of their magik. She is a sorceress and possibly eternal in her years. She is wise, kind, and comely without compare. However, she is ruthless if her kingdom or bloodmate is threatened.

  Magnus: The Immortal King of the North. Magnus is one of two guardians of the Waking World. The other is his brother, Brutus. The Everfair King—the colloquial name for Magnus—rules Eod, the City of Wonders. He is living magik itself; a sorcerer without compare; and the master of the forces of ice, thunder, Will, and intellect.

  Morigan: A young woman living a rather unremarkable life as the handmaiden to an elderly sorcerer, Thackery Thule. A world of wonder and horror engulfs her after a chance, perhaps fated, meeting with the Wolf. She learns she is an axis of magik, mystery, and Fate to the proceedings of Geadhain’s Great War. In the darkest days that she and her companions must face, her heroism and oft-tested virtue will determine much of the world’s salvation or ruin.

  Thackery Hadrian Thule (Whitehawk): An old sorcerer living in Eod. Thackery lives an unassuming life as a man of modest stature. However, he is a man with many skeletons in his closet. He has no known children or family, and he cares for Morigan as if she were his daughter. Morigan’s grace will touch him, too, and he is drawn into the web of Fate she weaves.

  The Black Queen, Zionae ’Zē-ō-’nā: A shapeless, bodiless, monstrous entity without empathy who seeks to undo the Immortal Kings and the world’s order. Her actions—those who perceive these things sense she is a she—are horrific and inexplicable.

  The Dreamstalker: A vile presence that haunts and travels the waters of Dream as Morigan does. She is the Herald of the Black Queen, Zionae’s voice in the physical world.

  The Lady of Luck, Charazance ’SHer-āh-zans: The Dreamer of serendipity, gambles, and games. Alastair is her vessel.

  The Sisters Three—Ealasyd ’Ēl-ə-sid, Elemech ’El-ə-mek, and Eean ’Ē-en: From youngest to eldest in appearance, they are Ealasyd, Elemech, and Eean. The Sisters Three are a trio of ageless witches who live in the woods of Alabion. They are known to hold sway over the destinies of men. They can be capricious, philanthropic, or woefully cruel. One must be careful when bartering with the Sisters Three for their wisdom. There is always a price.

  The Wanderer, Feyhazir ’Ph-āe-āh-ˈzi(ə)r: The Dreamer of mystery, seduction and desire. He is Morigan’s father.

  The Wolf, Caenith ’Kā-nith: A smith of Eod. His fearsome, raw exterior hides an animal and a dreadful wrath. Caenith is a conflicted creature—a beast, man, poet, lover, and killer. Caenith believes himself beyond salvation, and he passes the years making metal skins and claws for the slow-walkers of Geadhain while drowning himself in bitter remorse. He does not know it, but Morigan will pull him from his darkness and make him confront what is most black and wicked within him.

  II: Eod’s Finest

  Adhamh (Adam): An exiled changeling of Briongrahd. Noble, loyal, and loving, his only hatred is for those like the White Wolf, who abuse and punish life. Humble Adam has a destiny beyond what he or others would ever expect.

  Beauregard Fischer: A waifish, lyrical young man lost in the Summerlands with his father. In his past and soul lies a great mystery. His cheek is marked with the birthmark of the one true northern star.

  Devlin Fischer: A seasoned hunter and Beauregard’s father. He is as gruff and hairy as a bear.

  Dorvain: Master of the North Watch and Leonitis’s brother. He is a brutish, gruff warrior tempered by the winds of the Northlands. He is dependable and unflappable. He is an oak of a man who will not bend to the winds of change or war.

  Erithitek ’Ᾱr-ith-ə-’tek: More commonly referred to as “Erik.” He is the king’s hammer. Erik was once an orphaned child of the Salt Forests and a member of the Kree tribe, but Magnus took him in. Erik now serves as his right hand.

  Galivad: Master of the East Watch. The youngest of Eod’s watchmasters, he is seen by many as unfit for the post because of his pretty face, foppish manner, and cavalier airs. He laughs and sings to avoid the pain of remembering what he has lost.

  Jebidiah Rotbottom: A flamboyant spice merchant from Sorsetta. He sails the breadth of Geadhain in a garish, crimson vessel—the Red Mary. Currently, he uses different aliases, for reasons no doubt unscrupulous and suspect.

  Leonitis: The Lion. He is thusly named for his roar, grandeur, and courage. He is the Ninth Legion master of Eod (King Magnus’s personal legion). Once Geadhain’s Great War commences, he will play many roles from soldier to spy to hero. Leonitis’s thread of destiny is long and woven through many Fates.

  Lowelia Larson (Lowe): The queen knows her as the Lady of Whispers. Lowelia seems a simple, high-standing palace servant, yet her doughy, pleasant demeanor conceals a shrewd mind and a vengeful secret.

  Maggie Halm: Maggie is the granddaughter of Cordenzia, an infamous whoremistress who traded her power for freedom from the Iron City. Maggie runs an establishment called the Silk Purse in Taroch’s Arm.

  Rowena: She is Queen Lila’s sword and Her Majesty’s left hand. Rowena’s tale was destined for a swift, bleak end until the queen intervened and saved Rowena’s young life. Since that day, Rowena has revered Queen Lila as a mother and true savior.

  Tabitha Fischer: The sole magistrate of Willowholme. She has assumed this role not by choice but through tragedy.

 
Talwyn Blackmore: The illegitimate son of Roland Blackmore (since deceased). Talwyn is a kind, brilliant scholar and inheritor of all the virtue that escaped his half brother, Augustus. Talwyn lives in Riverton. His thirst for knowledge often makes him cross boundaries of decorum.

  III: Menos’s Darkest Souls

  Aadore Brennoch: An Iron-born survivor. A woman whose strange lineage comes from the far, far East. Once a handmaiden to the Lady El, she will leave that meager station behind and rise into a woman of prominence and legend alongside her brother.

  Adelaide: Mouse’s childhood friend from the charterhouse. The girl’s fate is the cause of much torment for Mouse.

  Alastair: A mysterious figure who acts seemingly in his own interests. He greatly influences certain meetings and events. To all appearances, he is the Watchers’ agent and Mouse’s mentor. He almost certainly, though, serves another power or master.

  Beatrice of El: Moreth’s pale and ghastly wife. After a glance, a person can tell this ethereal woman is not wholly of this world.

  Curtis: A young, athletic man with a shameful, criminal past trying to make a better life for himself in Menos. He is taken with Aadore, though will prove himself more than a doting suitor.

  Elineth: Son of Elissandra.

  Elissandra: The Mistress of Mysteries. She is an Iron Sage and the proprietress of Menos’s Houses of Mystery—places where a wary master can consult oracles and seek augurs regarding his or her inevitable doom. While she is wicked, she is also bright with love for her children, and she fosters a hidden dream and hope no other Iron Sage would ever be so bold as to consider.

  Elsa Brennoch: Mother to Aadore and Sean.

  Gloriatrix: The Iron Queen and ruler of Menos. Gloriatrix single-handedly clawed her way to the top of Menos’s black Crucible after her husband, Gabriel, lost first his right to chair on the Council of the Wise and then his life. Gloriatrix has never remarried and blames her brother, Thackery Thule, for Gabriel’s death. With her family in shambles, power is the only thing to which she clings. Gloriatrix has ambitions far beyond Menos. She would rule the stars themselves if she could.

  Iarron (Ian): An abandoned child, unnaturally calm and still, who was discovered by the Brennoch siblings, on Menos’s darkest day—he is a star of hope to them.

  Kanatuk: A tribesman of the Northlands who had been stolen from his home and placed into a lifetime of abhorrent slavery, serving as a vassal to the Broker. Morigan rescues him in Menos.

  Lord Augustus Blackmore: Lord of Blackforge. A deviant power-monger with grotesque appetites.

  Moreth of El: Master of the House of El and the Blood Pits of Menos. He traffics in people, gladiators, and death.

  Mouse: More of a gray soul than a black one, Mouse is a woman without a firm flag planted on the map of morality. She knows well life’s cruelty and how best to avoid it through self-sufficiency and indifference. As a girl, she escaped a rather unfortunate fate, and she has since risen to become a Voice of the Watchers—a shadowbroker of Geadhain. Mouse’s real trial begins when she is thrust into peril with Morigan—at that time a stranger—and Mouse is forced to rethink everything she knows.

  Sangloris: Elissandra’s husband.

  Sean Brennoch: Brother to Aadore. Once a soldier of the Ironguard, now a one-legged veteran. Sean wants no pity, however, and is more capable and clever than most other soldiers.

  Skar: An ugly, ogreish mercenary whose heart is kinder than his looks. Fate sees his path cross with the Brennochs, and to them he will become a sword not for hire but bound to protect them through respect and duty.

  Sorren: Gloriatrix’s youngest child. Sorren is a nekromancer of incredible power who possesses the restraint and moods of a petulant, spoiled child. He shares a pained past with his (mostly) deceased brother, Vortigern.

  Tessariel: Daughter of Elissandra.

  The Broker: All the black rivers of sin in Menos come to one confluence: the Broker. Little is known about this man beyond the terror tales whispered to misbehaving children. The Broker has metal teeth, mad eyes, and a cadre of twisted servants whom he calls sons. He inhabits and controls the Iron City’s underbelly.

  The Great Mother: Her Faithful are multitudinous. Her elements and the shades of her divinity—Green, White, Blue—are prefixes to her many names.

  The Slave: An unnamed vassal purchased in the Flesh Markets of Menos. A dangerous creature, more than a man. Although property, he later became a free man and substitute father to the Lord El. Together, the men traveled into the wilds of Pandemonia on a most dangerous safari.

  Vortigern: Gloriatrix’s second son. This pitiable soul lives in a state between light and dark and without memory of the errors that brought him to this walking death.

  IV: Lands and Landmarks

  Alabion: The great woodland and the realm of the Sisters Three.

  Bainsbury: A moderate-size township on the west bank of the Feordhan. Gavin Foss lords over it.

  Blackforge: A city on the east bank of the Feordhan River. It was once famous for blacksmithing.

  Brackenmire: The realm outside of Mor’Khul. It is a swampy but pleasant place.

  Carthac: The City of Waves.

  Ceceltoth: City of Stone.

  Eatoth: City of Waterfalls.

  Ebon Vale: The land around Taroch’s Arm. It has fiefs, farmsteads, and large shale deposits.

  Eod: The City of Wonders and kingdom of Magnus. Eod is a testament to the advances of technomagik and culture in Geadhain.

  Fairfarm: The largest rural community in the East. With so many pastures, fields, and farms, this realm produces most of Central Geadhain’s consumable resources.

  Heathsholme: A small hamlet known for its fine ale.

  Intomitath: City of Flames.

  Iron Valley: One of the richest sources of feliron in Geadhain.

  Kor’Khul: The great sand ocean surrounding Eod. These lands were once thought to be lush and verdant.

  Lake Tesh: The blue jewel glittering under the willows of Willowholme.

  Menos: The Iron City. It is hung always in a pall of gloom.

  Mor’Khul: The green, rolling valleys of Brutus’s realm. They are legendary for their beauty.

  Pandemonia: The large island continent across the Cthonic Ocean and separated from most of Geadhain’s other landmasses. Three Great Cities of immeasurable technomagikal power serve to bring order to this realm of chaos, a land where topography shifts and changes day by day from tundra to desert to lava field to wastes. Only these three Great Cities stand permanent in Pandemonia’s constant flux.

  Plains of Canterbury: Wide, sparse fields and gullies.

  Riverton: A bustling, eclectic city of lighthearted criminals and troubadours. The city is found on the eastern shore of the Feordhan River, and it was built from the reconstituted wreckage of old hulls and whatever interesting bits floated down the great river.

  Sorsetta: In the south and past the Sun King’s lands. This is a city of contemplation and quiet enlightenment.

  Southreach: A great ancient city built into a cleft in Kor’Khul.

  Taroch’s Arm: The resting place of a relic of the great warlord Taroch: his arm. The city is also a hub of great trade among all corners of Geadhain.

  The Black Grove: The forest outside of Blackforge. It leads to the Plains of Canterbury.

  Willowholme: A village located in Brackenmire and famed for its musicians and anglers.

  Zioch: The City of Gold and kingdom of Brutus.

  V: Miscellaneous Mysteries

  Fuilimean: The Blood Promise. It is a trading of blood and vows and a spiritual binding between two willing participants. Magnus and Brutus did this first in the oldest ages. Depending on who partakes in the ritual, the results can be extraordinary.

  Technomagik: A hybrid science that blends raw power—often currents of magik—with mechanical engineering.

  The Faithful: Worshippers of the Green Mother. They exist in many cultures and forms, and the most sacred and spiritual of their kin
d, curators of the world’s history known as Keepers, often lead them.

  The Watchers: The largest network of shadowbrokers in Central Geadhain.

  FOREWORD (A RECAP)

  Four Feasts till Darkness is an expansive and complex work—even I lose track of things without my notes! It would be unreasonable, then, to expect perfect recall from my readers. To that end, I set one of my dear editors—Kyla—to scribbling down all the important bits of the story. Here you are: a refresher of the events of Geadhain’s Great War leading up to Feast of Chaos.

  —Christian

  When first entering the world of Geadhain, we encounter a realm of magical smoke and metaphysical mirrors reflecting the darkest and lightest that its inhabitants have to offer. But as the pages of Feast of Fates turn, a deeper understanding of this mystical realm emerges, one that parallels the universalisms found in our own very real experiences in this world. It is a world unlike any other, where science and magic form a mysterious force known as technomagik. It is a land borne of a Green Mother earth, but ruled by the wills—both conscious and unconscious—of kings and queens that wreak havoc on their world. But there comes a time where even a mother must teach her children the hard way, even if it pains her. And so Feast of Fates sees the start of the Green Mother’s tough love, depriving them of her protection for the anguish they have brought to her with their violence; it is the world’s inhabitants alone who can save themselves.

  Our story begins with the weavers of fate themselves, the Three Sisters—Eean, Elemech, and Ealasyd—who make their homes in the forests of Alabion. The Sisters represent life, death, and all its various contortions and permutations in the world. There, they both give birth to, and usher death upon, themselves and the world. With each renewal, they shape the twists and turns of our players’ journeys, for better or worse. They represent destiny’s infinite loop in a twisted sibling rivalry that will determine Geadhain’s future. But even the Sisters of Fate cannot control the rumblings on destiny’s horizon—the harbingers of destruction to come in the stormy and ethereal form of the Black Queen.