The Shadow Eater by Attanasio A

Author:Attanasio, A.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: A. A. Attanasio
Published: 2013-12-21T16:00:00+00:00

Massacre on Nemora

Old Ric kept to the high trails where he and the Radiant One would not be seen by the gnomes of Nemora's summer veldt. The open country below bustled with activity. Numerous cobbled roads crisscrossed groves of tall staghorn ferns.

The quaint peat houses and grassy knolls stirred profound nostalgia in Ric, and he yearned to walk again the mushroom-banked paths where he had frolicked as a child. Yet he dared not, for the presence of Asofel would alarm the residents.

The Radiant One had grown stronger than ever. Nemora's close proximity to the Abiding Star saturated him with Charm. He was not yet powerful enough to assume again his invisible station adjacent to the nameless lady's dream. But he had changed. His hair billowed like thermal smoke. And his eyes—slits of compacted light—burned dense as thunderbolts.

The hills carried old forests swarming with creatures, and the travelers easily stayed out of sight behind walls of ivy when hunters approached. Those gnomes wandered the hills tracking specific beasts for the breeding yards of the villages.

The veldt's economy depended on providing beastfolk as laborers to gnomish communities in the icy vastness that dominated most of Nemora.

From a high bough in a lightning-scarred cedar, Old Ric satisfied his wistfulness by watching unobserved as gnomes below fulfilled their labors. Some toiled in the orchards and gardens laid out in spoke-wheel patterns on the open plains. Others tended wellsprings and cider presses. But the majority worked in the breeding yards.

Unlike most mortals on the Bright Shore, gnomes had no need of amulets or talismans. The Charm they carried naturally in their bones kept them grounded when Nemora faced into the night.

Gnomes also exhibited an uncanny ability to use their internal Charm to work gnomish magic. That magic included the ability to fuse the reproductive cells of disparate plants, animals—and mortals.

Combining birds and humans produced beastfolk useful to the textile mills in the ice caves. Their keen eyes and swift, dexterous handiwork had won their renown as the best tailors and seamstresses in all the worlds. Avian beastfolk equally excelled at gathering snail-linen threads from snowy crags where slugs excreted colorful filaments to cross crevices.

For gathering spidersilk, the gnomes had melded mortals and rats. The nimble ratfolk served usefully in the textile industry for their nonpareil skill at loomwork and their ability to harvest spider-nest fabric swiftly and without injury.

Over the ages, beastfolk had been traded for goods from other worlds, and their descendants had settled across the Bright Shore. Only ogres openly protested the gnomish magic that created beastfolk. Both elvish and human communities openly offered their young populations opportunities in the breeding yards.

The gnomes paid their genetic recruits well: After siring two or birthing one beastmarked progeny for the gnomish magicians, the youths had earned funds sufficient to live well another thousand days.

As a child, Ric had anticipated learning the breeders' trade, until his family had moved to the ice caves. For a moment, he speculated about that tedious magic tinkering with all its percolating beakers full of crimson jellies and yolks.

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