Earthly Crown

  PRAISE FOR KATE ELLIOTT’S JARAN SERIES

  “Elliott’s sure-handed and seductive blend of exotic locales, complex interstellar politics, intriguing cultures, realistic romance, and wonderfully realized characters is addictive. I want my next fix!” —Jennifer Robertson, author of the Novels of Tiger and Del

  “Sweeps the reader along like a wild wind across the steppes. Tell Kate to write faster—I want to read the whole saga NOW!” —Melanie Rawn, author of the Dragon Prince Trilogy

  “[Kate Elliott] spins a splendid web of a tale to trap the unwary and hold them in thrall until the tale is done. Here is another one . . . take care, for if you open these pages you’ll be up past dawn.” —Dennis McKiernan, author of Voyage of the Fox Rider

  “A new author of considerable talent . . . a rich tapestry of a vibrant society on the brink of epic change.” —Rave Reviews

  “A wonderful, sweeping setting . . . reminds me of C. J. Cherryh.” —Judith Tarr

  “Well-written and gripping. After all, with a solidly drawn alien race, galactic-scale politics, intrigue, warfare, even a crackling love story, all set in a fascinating world that opens out onto a vast view of interstellar history, how could anyone resist?” —Katharine Kerr

  An Earthly Crown

  A Novel of the Jaran

  Kate Elliott

  This book is dedicated to my brother, Karsten, because he keeps bothering me to dedicate a book to him, and because it was meant to be dedicated to him all along, for reasons he knows best.

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Prologue

  ACT ONE

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  ACT TWO

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-one

  Chapter Twenty-two

  Chapter Twenty-three

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Chapter Twenty-six

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  Chapter Twenty-eight

  Chapter Twenty-nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-one

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Chapter Thirty-three

  Chapter Thirty-four

  ACT THREE

  Chapter Thirty-five

  Chapter Thirty-six

  Chapter Thirty-seven

  Chapter Thirty-eight

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-one

  Chapter Forty-two

  Chapter Forty-three

  Acknowledgments

  Preview: His Conquering Sword

  About the Author

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  THE SWORD OF HEAVEN is a single novel being published in two parts. The author sometimes refers to it as a novel in five acts with one intermission.

  “Barbarus hic ego sum,

  qui non intelligor illis.”

  —OVID

  (Here I am a barbarian,

  because men understand me not.)

  “I can take any empty space

  and call it a bare stage.

  A man walks across this empty space

  whilst someone else is watching him,

  and this is all that is needed

  for an act of theatre to be engaged.”

  —PETER BROOK,

  The Empty Space

  Atheneum (New York, 1968)

  PROLOGUE

  “Nature that framed us of four elements, Warring within our breasts for regiment,

  Doth teach us all to have aspiring minds:

  Our souls whose faculties can comprehend The wondrous architecture of the world: And measure every wandering planet’s course,

  Still climbing after knowledge infinite,

  And always moving as the restless spheres, Wills us to wear ourselves and never rest, Until we reach the ripest fruit of all,

  That perfect bliss and sole felicity,

  The sweet fruition of an earthly crown.”

  —MARLOWE

  Tamburlaine The Great

  THE RIDER LEFT THE great sprawl of tents that marked the main camp of the nomad army just as the sun set. Dusk washed his scarlet shirt gray, and with only the gibbous moon to light him, he soon faded into the dark of night, the susurration of his horse’s passage through the high grass marking his progress. Near midnight, he came to another, smaller camp, and here he changed horses and went on. By dawn, he was within sight of the low range of hills where lay the farthest outposts of the khaja, the settled people.

  One hand’s span after sunrise, he rode through a village. Fields spread out around the huts. Green shoots wet with dew sparkled in the soft light of morning. The khaja stopped in their tasks and stared at him, a lone jaran warrior armed with a saber and a lance, passing through their midst as if their presence was beneath his notice. None spoke, or moved against him.

  A cluster of jaran tents stood in neat lines outside the leveled sod walls that had once protected the village. A single rider emerged from the encampment and rode out to meet him.

  The traveler reined in his mount and waited, leaning forward over the horse’s neck to whisper in its ear as it fretted at the tight rein. Then, sitting back, he lifted a hand. “Well met,” he said as the young rider from the encampment pulled up beside him. “I am Aleksi Soerensen. I’ve come from the main camp, with a message for the Gathering of Elders. You’re one of Grekov’s riders, aren’t you?”

  “I’m Feodor Grekov. His sister’s son. Soerensen?” Grekov hesitated, raising a hand to brush a lock of blond hair off of his forehead. He pronounced the name awkwardly.

  “Yes,” Aleksi agreed, politely but without a smile.

  “You’re the orphan that Bakhtiian’s wife adopted,” said Feodor. He examined Aleksi with what appeared to be common curiosity. “It’s said you have a fine hand for the saber.”

  Aleksi was disconcerted. He had not grown used to the respect, and the protection, his adopted sister’s name granted him. “I had a fine teacher.”

  Feodor did not press the matter. “If you’ve come from the main camp, then your news must be important. I’ll get you a new mount, and ride with you myself, if you need a guide.”

  “It’s safe enough for the two of us from here on into the hills?”

  “We have patrols running through all these hills. There are a few khaja bandits left, but nothing more. These khaja aren’t real fighters. Soon they’ll all be subject to us, as they should be.” Feodor grinned. “And I’d like to go, anyway. It will be something to tell my children.”

  “Ah. You’ve a little one?”

  Grekov flushed. “Not yet.”

  “But you’ve a woman in mind for a wife, I take it.”

  “I—” Feodor hesitated. “A man can’t help looking,” he said at last. Aleksi heard the bitterness in his voice clearly.

  “I’d like to marry,” Aleksi agreed, feeling suddenly and surprisingly sorry for Grekov, who ought to have had an easy life, being nephew of a tribal warleader and nephew to its headwoman. And since the unnamed young woman in question had no choice in marriage, Aleksi could only guess that the obstacles arose from Grekov’s elders. “But I suppose I never will.”

  “Of course, as an orphan—but surely you’ve standi
ng enough now, since Bakhtiian’s wife has adopted you into her tent.”

  “Adopted me by her customs, not by ours. Or a bit by both, I suppose. Still, you may be right. I hope so.”

  “Gods,” said Feodor, “there’s enough trouble in the world without worrying about women.” And that sealed their comradeship. Aleksi felt a bit overwhelmed by how easy it was, when you had a respectable name, a sister, a place in a tribe. “Come on,” Feodor added, “we’ll get you a new mount and something to eat, and then be on our way.” He led Aleksi into camp and introduced him round as if he was just another young soldier like himself and the rest of the riders. A short time later, the two young men rode out in charity with each other.

  By midday they reached the butte known to the jaran as khayan-sarmiia, Her Crown Fallen from Heaven to Earth. Once, the stories said, this range of hills was known only to the jaran tribes, but in recent generations a few khaja settlements had crept out across the plains from settled lands in the south and west to pollute the holy ground where the Sun’s Crown had come to rest on the earth.

  At the base of the hill, an army waited. Countless soldiers, in their tens and hundreds and thousands, gathered to acclaim the man who would lead them against their ancient enemies. Aleksi and Feodor left their horses with the army and hiked up the trail that ascended the steep hillside. The wind began to buffet them. Soon both were breathing hard, despite their youth, because they were not used to so much hard walking.

  At last, the path leveled and gave out onto a plateau from whose height they could see the shifting mass of the army below, the rolling spread of hills, and a few distant wisps of smoke that marked khaja villages. Far to the south, past the flat haze of plain, a suggestion of bluer haze marked the southern mountains. To the north and east lay only the vast golden plains that blended at the horizon into the equally monotonous blue of the sky. West, though they could not see it from here, lay the sea.

  They admired the view for as long as it took to get their breath back. But of far greater interest was the gathering now taking place on the plateau itself.

  A single tent had been set up at the southern end of the plateau, a great tent whose sides shook in the wind that scoured the summit. Between the northern end, where the two young men stood on an escarpment of rock, and the tent lay a broad stretch of ground smoothed by generations of wind and storm. On this ground, on the earth itself, some on blankets, some on pillows, sat the assembled commanders and elders of the thousand tribes of the jaran.

  At the very back sat the younger men, commanders of a hundred riders each; many now wore the scarlet shirts, brilliant with embroidery on the sleeves and collar, that had come to be the symbol of the jaran army, though a few still wore the colors of their own tribe. In front of them sat a sea of elders, some ancient and frail, some elderly but robust, female and male both.

  At the very front sat the etsanas of the thousand tribes, each headwoman flanked by the dyan, the warleader, of her tribe. Most of the women were elderly, though a few were young. They wore their finest clothing, bright silk blouses beaded with gold and silver under calf-length tunics. Striped, belled trousers swelled out underneath. Jeweled headdresses and necklaces and torques and bracelets adorned them, and their hand mirrors hung free of their cases, face out in the glare so that they reflected the light of the sun. So many wore tiny bells that a faint tinkling chime could be heard, underscoring the rush of wind and the solemn proceedings.

  The dyans, too, wore their finest shirts, twined animals or interlaced flora embroidered with lavish detail on the sleeves and capped with epaulets fastened on their shoulders. Each man wore sheathed at his belt a saber and most held a lance, so that the gathering resembled a sea of bright colors tipped with metal.

  In a semicircle before the awning that stretched out from the tent sat ten women and eight men, the women on fine silken pillows and the men beside them on woven blankets: the etsanas and dyans of the Ten Eldest Tribes, the first tribes of the jaran. The men held their sabers, unsheathed, across their knees. Each woman gripped a staff from whose tip hung a horsetail woven with ribbons and golden harness, the symbol of their authority.

  “Two dyans missing,” said Feodor Grekov in a low voice to Aleksi. Aleksi glanced at him, and Grekov cocked his head toward the assembly. “Of course, Bakhtiian himself is the dyan of the Orzhekov tribe. But Sergei Veselov never arrived. I heard that he’s ill.”

  “That’s the news I brought,” said Aleksi. “Sergei Veselov is dead. He died two days past.”

  “Who will become dyan, then? Arina Veselov’s brother sits beside Bakhtiian, but everyone knows it isn’t fitting for a brother and sister to act as etsana and dyan together.”

  “Sergei Veselov has a son, still, who could claim the position,” said Aleksi slowly, not much interested in the Veselov tribe’s troubles. He stared at the tent and at the small figures clustered underneath the awning.

  “I don’t think I’ve heard of him. Is he here?”

  “No.”

  “Perhaps he doesn’t know his father is dead. Perhaps he doesn’t want to be dyan.”

  Aleksi shrugged. “I met him once, a long time ago. I don’t know if he’d want the position.” He added, under his breath: “Or if he did, if they would let him take it.” Then he caught in his breath, because he had seen, under the awning, a woman dressed in man’s clothing, the red shirt and black trousers and boots, armed with a saber.

  Feodor Grekov made a tiny, strangled noise in his throat. “That’s her, isn’t it?” he asked. “That’s Bakhtiian’s niece.”

  Aleksi, with some disappointment, realized that the woman soldier’s coloring was as dark as her uncle’s. Where was Tess?

  Six men and one woman, soldiers all, sat under the awning. In front of them, on a single pillow at the edge of the awning, half under the awning, half out under the open sky, sat the man on whom all attention was fixed. Ilyakoria Bakhtiian absorbed the force of their regard effortlessly. And yet, even at such a distance, Aleksi felt Bakhtiian’s presence so strongly that it was as if Bakhtiian was standing right next to him.

  “Come on,” he said to Feodor, and he led the other man around the fringe of the assembly. No one paid them any mind. At the tent, etsanas and dyans came up in pairs to pledge their loyalty to Bakhtiian’s war, and to be pledged to, his allegiance to their tribe, in return.

  When they were about fifteen paces from the tent, off to the side, Aleksi stopped Feodor with a touch to the elbow, settled down on his haunches, and waited.

  Ilyakoria Bakhtiian sat cross-legged on a square pillow embroidered with stylized horses intertwined, galloping, racing. His expression was composed, but intent. One open, one curled into a loose fist, his hands lay as still as if they were carved in stone, in contrast to the restless, passionate intelligence that blazed from his eyes. To his right, propped up on a little stand of wood, rested a carved wooden staff somewhat longer than a man’s arm.

  After an endless time, sun and wind beating down on them, only the Ten Eldest Tribes had yet to speak. There was a silence. The tinkling of bells whispered like the murmuring of the gods, watching over them. From somewhere in the middle of the assembly, Aleksi heard the soft droning chant of priests, intoning the endless cycle of the gods: Mother Sun and Father Wind, Aunt Cloud and Uncle Moon, Sister Tent and Brother Sky, Daughter Earth and Son River, Cousin Grass and Cousin Rain. Here and there in the crowd Aleksi identified the glazed stare of a man or a woman who was memorizing each word to pass on to the tribes. Even one of Bakhtiian’s personal commanders, Josef Raevsky, had that vacant expression on his face, although he was a soldier and not a Singer.

  Abruptly, Bakhtiian rose.

  “Ah,” breathed Aleksi, realizing what Bakhtiian meant to do. He glanced at Feodor, to see if his companion also appreciated the coming gesture on Bakhtiian’s part. But Grekov was staring like any besotted fool straight at Bakhtiian’s niece. The woman shifted slightly and glanced their way, and immediately Grekov’s gaze dropped and he
stared down at the ground.

  Like an echo of his niece, Bakhtiian shifted his attention from the assembly and turned his head to look straight at Aleksi. Even knowing that most of the audience must have turned as well, to see what was attracting Bakhtiian’s attention, Aleksi could not feel their stares at all. Bakhtiian’s overwhelmed everything else.

  Aleksi stood up. He did not fear Bakhtiian, but he respected him, and he was grateful to him for never once objecting to the way in which Aleksi had become a member of his tribe. Aleksi valued Bakhtiian’s protection almost as much as he valued that granted him by his new sister. Bakhtiian gestured with his left hand, and his niece jumped to her feet and walked briskly over to Aleksi. Feodor Grekov climbed hastily to his feet as well. He kept his gaze fixed on his boots.

  “Aleksi,” said Nadine by way of greeting, “You’ve come from camp.”

  “Sergei Veselov is dead.”

  “Ah,” she replied. Then she grinned, and Aleksi grinned back, liking her because he knew that she had the same kind of reckless, bold heart as he did. And because she had never cared one whit that he was an orphan. “Trouble will come of that, I trust.” She sounded satisfied, as if she hoped the trouble would come soon, and in an unexpected and inconvenient manner. “Well met, Feodor,” she added. “I missed you.”

  Then she spun and strode back to the tent. She knelt beside one of the seven commanders under the awning. Anton Veselov’s fair complexion flushed red first, and then he paled. Bakhtiian turned right round and considered them, but he said nothing. After a moment, Veselov rose and walked out the side of the awning and around to the semicircle. The youngest etsana shifted to let the soldier sink down beside her. He drew his saber and laid it across his knees: his authority as the new dyan of his tribe.

  “The gods will look askance at that,” murmured Feodor.

  “There’s no other man in the line to give it to,” said Aleksi, but he also felt uncomfortable, seeing a sister and brother sitting together in authority over a tribe.

  Bakhtiian waited for the stir to die down. Aleksi settled back into a crouch to wait, and Feodor slid his gaze back to Nadine Orzhekov. As if she felt his gaze, she looked back over her shoulder at them. A smile—or a smirk—quirked her lips up. Feodor flushed. He collapsed ungracefully beside Aleksi, looking pale and staring hard at his hands. Bakhtiian’s niece sat down in her place and did not look their way again.