The God Tattoo: Untold Tales From the Twilight Reign by Tom Lloyd

Author:Tom Lloyd
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780575131248
Publisher: Gollancz
Published: 2013-04-17T14:00:00+00:00

THE DARK OF THE MOOR

A Beginning

Before I begin this account I feel I must first confess its inadequacies to the reader. Being familiar with the conventions of the macabre tale, I fear this may prove unsatisfactory in comparison. This is the case because these pages contain the truth and I am forced to be reticent even with that. The how and why are questions that have consumed my hours since these terrible events began, but no measure of enlightenment has brought peace to my troubled spirit.

I have withheld details so that at least some measure of account be permitted to survive. The truth brought to light by my late mother was a secret born from the murky depths of unrecorded history. What accompanied it was death and darkness, and the Land cannot yet profit from such knowledge. It is my hope that one day some scholarly mind be permitted to draw these threads into a whole, but that day has not yet come and this remains overshadowed by a greater tale.

To the more inquisitive reader I say this – the whole truth has been omitted to protect those I love from a terrible spectre. I gained nothing from my understanding and my hand trembles at what I will now lose. I urge you to be content solely with what I lay before you, or you may well suffer the fate my mother unwittingly invited upon us all. I write this as a warning to those who follow as much as in the hope that one day the truth may out. I pray that this curse is one day lifted and these vague passages may yet provide a degree of understanding.

Coran Derenin, 6th Suzerain of Moorview, this 21st year of the reign of King Sebetin Thonal

The cold light of autumn was the first change to meet me when I set eyes upon Moorview again. An ill pallor had taken hold of the countryside. It came as a grim shock to one whose recent visits had been conducted in glorious summer. The abandon of leaves and chill wind further muddied my already dismal mood. That I had been notified of my mother’s death by a hurried and sparse note did nothing to ease the heart of a man whose very nature was to be seen in the detail and clarity of his work. To be denied knowledge of what illness had claimed my mother seemed a calculated iniquity, but at such unhappy times much does.

As we journeyed the last few miles to Moorview, already within what were now my lands, we entered familiar and beloved terrain. I knew within minutes the track would start to climb under our wheels and then I would truly have come home. Once that rise had begun, Moorview would be visible through the trees. For the first time in my life I dreaded it.

The sudden caw of a crow broke from the great forest of beech and scarred ash to disturb my brooding. I parted the curtains

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