The Paths of the Dead by Steven Brust

Author:Steven Brust [Brust, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Speculative Fiction
ISBN: 9780812534177
Publisher: Tor
Published: 2001-12-31T13:00:00+00:00

Chapter the Twenty-Second

How Ibronka, Only Daughter of

Her Highness Sennya,

Came to Begin an Adventure

Some three hundred and ten or or three hundred and twenty leagues southwest of Mount Kâna there is a region called Harata, which name comes from “Hvaer-itha,” which, in the ancient language still preserved by the House of the Dragon, means “several hills,” or something very like it. It should not, we should add, be confused with the name of the town of Hartre, to the south, which derives from “Hara-itha,” meaning “several winds.”

Harata is, indeed, a place of rolling hills, in addition to a large number of small ponds, gentle meadows, and, here and there, small wooded areas, the whole of which is populated mostly by Dzur and Lyorn, as well as the occasional Tiassa and, of course, the Teckla; but more than all of this, it is populated by sheep.

It is well known that most of the Empire’s wool came from this district. In the days of the Empire, the wool had, most often, been transported to the Elbow River, from which point it could be loaded on ships, which might journey to Hartre, or to Elde Island, or to barges that would make their way along the Grand Canal from Candletown to Dragaera City. From this, the reader might deduce that the Elbow River was vital to the entire district; we can only say that such a deduction would be entirely correct.

The Elbow River was named by a certain Tiassa who, seeing it from atop Blackbird Mountain, fancied that it resembled a bent arm as its westerly course made an abrupt southward turn as it was joined by streams running from the mountain to which we have just had the honor to refer. As for Blackbird Mountain itself, there is little to say about it, except that it does not, in fact, contain an abundance of blackbirds; rather it was named for Lord Blackbird, of the House of the Hawk, who first discovered it, and then named it after himself. He also named the stream that flows down from it, the river that the stream becomes and which flows into the Elbow River just at the elbow, and the surrounding district.

The region was first settled in the Chreotha Reign of the Eighth Cycle, and, when it was raised to a duchy in the Issola Reign of the Ninth Cycle, the first Duke, who happened to be a Dzurlord, naturally took for his title Duke of Blackbird. It is equally natural that Lady Blackbird of the House of the Hawk protested, and what followed was a battle in the justice chambers of the Iorich. It happened that Lady Blackbird retained as an advocate the famous Sir Neevya, whereas the Duke of Blackbird enlisted the aid of the brilliant Lady Jutatil, with the result that the struggle before the Justicers lasted some seven hundred years, and set several precedents which are still referred to often in disputes of this kind. In the end a compromise was reached:

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