Trade: Although the unit of currency is the valcon, many Kobalos, particularly haizda mages, rely on what they call trade. This implies an exchange of goods or services, but it is much more than that. It is a question of honor, and each party must keep its word, even if to do so means death.
Triumvirate: The ruling body of Valkarky, composed of the three most powerful high mages in the city. It was first formed after the King of Valkarky was slain by Eblis, the Shaiksa assassin. It is essentially a dictatorship that uses ruthless means to hold on to power. Others are always waiting in the wings to replace the three mages.
Tulpa: A creature created within the mind of a mage and occasionally given form in the outer world.
Note: I have traveled extensively and probed into the esoteric arts of witches and mages, but this is a magical skill that I have never encountered before. Are Kobalos mages capable of this? If so, their creatures may be limited only by the extent of their imaginations.—Grimalkin
Ulska: A deadly but rare Kobalos poison that burns its victim from within. It is also excreted from glands at the base of the claws of the haggenbrood. It results in kirrhos, which is known as the tawny death.
Unktus: A minor Kobalos deity worshipped only by the lowest menials of the city. He is depicted with very small horns curving backward from the crown of his head.
Valcon: A small coin, usually referred to as a valc, accepted throughout the southern peninsula. Made of an alloy that is one-tenth silver, a valcon is the wage paid daily to a Kobalos foot soldier.
Valkarky: The chief city of the Kobalos, which lies just within the Arctic Circle. Valkarky means the City of the Petrified Tree.
Vartek (plural varteki): The vartek was the most powerful of the three types of entity that I grew from the material found within the lair of the haizda mage. The fact that it can burrow through solid rock means that it could burst up out of the ground right in the midst of a human army, so that they scatter them in terror. It has three bone-tipped tentacles, the ability to spit globules of acid that could burn flesh from bone, and fearsome teeth. It also has many legs and is capable of great speed. Although it is protected by black scales, its eyes and underbelly are vulnerable to blades. It is impossible to know what size a vartek would achieve once fully grown. It could be the most daunting of the battle entities that the Kobalos may deploy against us.—Grimalkin
Whalakai: Known as a vision of what is, this is an instant of perception that comes to either a high mage or a haizda mage. It is an epiphany, a moment of revelation, when the totality of a situation, with all the complexities that have led to it, are known to him in a flash of insight. The Kobalos believe this is a vision given to the mage by Talkus, their God Who Is Yet to Be, its purpose being to facilitate the path to his birth.
Whoskor: This is the collective name for the creatures subservient to the Kobalos who are engaged in the never-ending task of extending the city of Valkarky. They have sixteen legs, eight of which also function as arms and are used to shape the skoya, the soft stone that they exude from their mouths.
Widdershins: A movement that is counterclockwise or against the sun. Seen as counter to the natural order of things, it is sometimes employed by a Kobalos mage to assert his will upon the cosmos. Filled with hubris, it holds within it great risk.
About the Author
JOSEPH DELANEY is the author of the internationally best-selling The Last Apprentice series, which is soon to be a major motion picture, Seventh Son. He is a former English teacher who lives in the heart of boggart territory in Lancashire, England. His village has a boggart called the Hall Knocker, which was laid to rest under the step of a house near the church.
www.josephdelaneybooks.com
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Credits
COVER ART © 2014 SHUTTERSTOCK
COVER DESIGN BY CHRISTIAN FUENFHAUSEN
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. References to real people, events, establishments, organizations, or locales are intended only to provide a sense of authenticity, and are used to advance the fictional narrative. All other characters, and all incidents and dialogue, are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real.
A NEW DARKNESS. Copyright © 2014 by Joseph Delaney. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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First published in 2014 in Great Britain by The Bodley Head, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, under the title The Starblade Chronicles: A New Darkness.
First published in 2014 in the United States by Greenwillow Books.
The right of Joseph Delaney to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Delaney, Joseph, (date.)
A new darkness / Joseph Delaney.
“Greenwillow Books.”
pages cm
Summary: Although his apprenticeship was not done when John Gregory died, Tom Ward spent years learning to fight boggarts, witches, demons, and more and feels prepared to be the new county Spook, but while his youth causes many people to distrust him, Jenny is determined to be his apprentice.
ISBN 978-0-06-233453-4 (hardback)
EPub Edition July 2014 ISBN 9780062334558
[1. Supernatural—Fiction. 2. Apprentices—Fiction. 3. Monsters—Fiction. 4. Witches—Fiction. 5. Horror stories.] I. Title.
PZ7.D373183New 2014 [Fic]—dc23 2014011963
14 15 16 17 18 LP/RRDH 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
FIRST EDITION
Greenwillow Books
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Joseph Delaney, A New Darkness
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