Book I: The Journal of Niloc Moncỗ

Niloc introduces us to some of his friends, either explicitly or in the course of relating specific incidents. Roccondil interjects at various points with a commentary on elements of the world of Ũna that relate specifically to the story. (General things, such as the names of days and months, have been outlined in the Introduction.)

Roccondil gives us a detailed description of the city of Sahrenõta, and relates a few elements of the history of the Sahram Empire. He refers the reader to the maps in Chapter 13, but gives a quite detailed written description of the area the Empire covers. Virtually all the action of the first few books is in Sahrenõta or its surrounds.

We met Lêmâjîr in Chapter 1. Now we meet her closest friends, Pawdranîr and Caloranîr. Calo is distant, and very much in the background; the few paragraphs Niloc devotes to her are almost (as he sees it) a ‘token’ introduction. We also see Râmbuol in action on the cricket pitch.

We have only glimpsed Niloc’s mother and father so far; a cousin’s wedding is the occasion for a family party. He takes Vêndu along, but she feels like an outsider. Her own family is by comparison dysfunctional. A totally separate incident illustrates this contrast starkly.

Roccondil has described for us the geographical side of Nidhota. In his second interlude he tells us a little more history and introduces us to the Nidhotan Guilds, which are part trade union, part political party, part government department, and part corporation. There are twelve Guilds, plus a few smaller organisations that affiliate with one or more of these twelve (these include the Army and the Church).

We meet Quândom’s younger brother Tressand properly for the first time, in addition to several other supporting characters. Niloc and Râm are promoted to the first cricket team, but Râm, who has been angling for the captaincy, is passed over. ‘You just don’t put in that little extra bit of effort.’

For this chapter I adapted a short story I wrote a few years ago. Hrônte is a few years younger than our heroes. He pops up occasionally. He is a bit slow, but most people like him. He is one of those characters that you sympathise with, whatever else you feel for him: which is the whole point, because I’m going to kill him horribly.

Niloc decides to regularly invite his friends to contribute their own versions of or thoughts on events. This has happened sporadically in the past; Hrônte’s story in the last chapter is an example. The paranoid Hofâlle Howpa challenges Niloc over what he does with Vêndu.

There’s a party. There’s drink. There’s idiots. There’s egos. It’s O.C. time. Niloc and Vêndu’s relationship takes a downturn. Lêmy’s past is questioned; she reveals that she has lived with foster parents all her life, and she does not know who her parents are. There is no stigma toward her, but she still takes it quite hard.

Niloc and Vêndu break up. Niloc vents his frustration semi-coherently for a few pages, then goes into a complex exploration of cause and effect. Roccondil realises that Vêndu’s father has OCD, and this explains his odd behaviour and the tension within his family. He therefore writes a treatise of sorts on Nidhotan attitudes toward mental health.

Râmbuol has fallen for Pawdranîr. These are the two strongest characters in the novel. He is the Moth; she is the candle. He gets up the balls to ask her out. He does all the right romantic things. She turns him down, and he is quieted for about a week before he forces himself to get over it and becomes even rowdier than he was before.

Râm and Pawdra are the Mouths. She is introduced to the journal, and reads Râm’s recent entries. She is sobered by the level his passion reached for a few days. They have to concentrate on their studies, but she is almost sorry she turned him down. She talks to Lêmy and Calo, and they talk her out of changing her mind. Râm turns a lot of effort to cricket. He is rewarded when he is made captain.

Mostly taken up with the various maps Roccondil has prepared of Ũna. Included also is a starmap of the Ũnan sky. It is almost but not quite completely unrecognisable. Roccondil also elaborates (for a page or two only) on the nature of international relations.

Niloc recounts some of the stories that have been circulating around the Empire about a colonial governor in Cuytantal. Cuytantal has been split between the superpowers for a few centuries; this man has apparently caused some stir there. He is, of course, Cruojûmâî. Roccondil is hesitant to publish such speculation, but decides to leave nothing out. The cricket team is powering home to the finals under Râm’s leadership.

Caloranîr is almost raped (if one girl can rape another) at a disastrous party. The girl concerned, Meybrêl Pîdowmeu, attempts to cover herself by destroying Calo’s credibility, and claims that Calo is herself a dyke. When placed under a truthspell, she confesses, and is kicked out of the school. Roccondil explores the Nidhotan attitude toward sex.

Quândom, who has disappeared temporarily from the story because he has been studying, scores highly on his final exams. He had been intending to keep up his performance full-time; now he is invited to attend the Artists’ Academy. Vêndu grudgingly returns and asks Niloc out again. He is hesitant, but her family issues have worsened and his sympathy turns to love.

The end of the story. Quândom takes up the Academy’s offer. Niloc and company prepare for their final year of school. Niloc finally decides that the diary is taking up too much effort, and is a waste of time. He therefore brings it to a close; but of course there is no neat tying-up of story threads.

More of an appendix than a chapter really; a description of the languages of Nidhota (Tacretta and Palonno, plus shorter descriptions of Chungando and other Ũnan tongues), their alphabets and grammar, and some of their idioms and eccentricities.

Book II: On the Border

The volume title is from Al Stewart’s song (not the Eagles’!). Niloc has closed his journal for the last time, he thinks. The Three Lights visit Vêôscanta for a month or so. Dom assures the others that final year is not as hard as they think.

Niloc and company return to school. Quândom proposes to Santrello. She is the envy of the school. Niloc and Hofâlle Howpa lock horns over Vêndu. This chapter and the first are in the third person.

The Firsts win their final. Râm, now freed for the time being from the constraints of his captaincy, persuades Niloc to begin his journal again, and he gives an account of events over the two-month gap. As it has already been told, Roccondil greatly abridges this to only a page or so, to comment on points of especial interest.

Niloc starts by venting his feelings about how Hofâlle is a control freak and how he could look after Vêndu so much better than her own father. He remarks that she has not been herself recently. He talks to Pawdra, Lêmy and Dom about this; they think nothing of it.

It is discovered that Vêndu has been under the influence of a druglike spell. Her father confronts her about this, and kicks her out of home. She goes to live with an older friend on campus at the Academic quarter. She loses her connection with the sorcerer who has cast the spell for her. She tries to steal the required magick from Niloc. He is shocked, and refuses to talk to her.

Vêndu disappears from the story from this point. Without her to lean on, Niloc concentrates his full attention on his studies, and decides that Dom was wrong, and final year is hellish. He has no idea.

The sibling in question is Tressand Lorell, Quândom’s brother. He is spouting some strange ideas, and their origin is questioned. It transpires that he has fallen in with an odd crowd at school; a mate has put him in touch with a religious sect like the Amish, which proclaims that magick is inherently evil.

Chapter title from Jackson Browne’s Lives in the Balance. Mostly a plotless interlude, in which Roccondil summarises the stories revolving around the man who is to be the downfall of the world, the renegade governor Dhewêûl Sahrunna. It is discovered that Sahrunna has annexed a large section of Cuytantal for himself.

The final exams are looming, and our heroes are studying harder than ever. Quândom figures in this chapter; he has gone from strength to strength, and is annoyed that all his bandmates are studying. ‘You did it to us,’ they say, referring to Dom’s leaving the band while he sat his finals.

The exams pass, and our heroes anxiously await news of whether they have done the same. Dom gears the band up again. He is far more enthusiastic about it than any of the others. ‘You’ve got your ruddy degree going now, what do you need us for?’ But this is just needling. Our heroes receive their various results and invitations to the Academies.

One major aspect Roccondil has not elaborated on thus far, though he has alluded to it on a few occasions, is religion. This second interlude is a detailed study of the various beliefs, myth systems and customs that underlie most Ũnan societies.

Not an interlude on the same scale; we see the Magickal Academy through Niloc’s eyes as he acclimatises. All the Academies are in the same quarter, so there is little trouble keeping up with friends; but all of them make new friends as well, of course.

Tressand opens this chapter with an entry of his own. Roccondil is excited to get such a different viewpoint; the characters simply do not understand how Tressand has come to think this way. In addition to his strange beliefs, he is becoming more disillusioned with his society and heading into clinical depression.

Tressand runs away. Dom assures his mates (and himself) that Tressand has run away before; he’ll come home when he gets hungry. This casual attitude disappears when after two days he has still not come home.

The combined forces of the Legal Guild (including the cops) and the Trade Guild (with its formidable spying force) trace Tressand to Hrastonna. He has got some sort of menial job there. He refuses to come home.

Niloc is better at magick than some of the professors at the Magickal Academy. His study is tailored so that he will be conferred a fourth-degree rank, which one usually gets after about six years’ study, after two and a half. After this, he will take a break from the Academy to study overseas with the Trade Guild.

Roccondil narrates the history of colonial Cuytantal, as well as the colonies that are semi-autonomous states in Yûmâînna. We get a hint at how Cruojûmâî may have come about, especially if we have read Heart of Darkness.

The Empire is losing in Cuytantal. At the 2377 Ostara festival – which marks the midpoint of the present twelve-year Cycle of Setsûlla – the Emperor calls for enlistees to join the Army, to aid it in containing the self-styled ruler of Cuytantal. Cruojûmâî has begun invading the territories of other empires. The High Priestess gives him his name.

Râmbuol, patriotic in the best of times, decides to join up. He is accepted as an officer and begins training. Our other heroes receive regular updates on his progress; the rest of them continue with their lives, but with the shadow of Cruojûmâî beginning to loom in the background.

Now we can get an inside view. I’m going to need to do a fair bit of research on how the Nidhotan Army might work. I need to show, among many other things, that it is in some ways a relic: several centuries ago it was a full-blown Guild. In more recent times, it has dwindled in size and importance, and depends upon the other Guilds for support in government.

Book III: The Horns of Bacchus

The horns of Bacchus represent reason versus instinct, or freedom versus anarchy. Hence the title. The opening chapter tells of the rise of Dhewêûl Sahrunna until he was made a governor in Cuytantal. We don’t find out he’ll become Cruojûmâî until the end of the chapter.

Not a rehash of Blood on the Wire or Colonies, but rather a look at different perspectives. We realise that Cruojûmâî is not, as he may have seemed, an idealist; he subscribed for a time to Tressand’s cult, but as soon as he found it inconvenient he ditched it.

This chapter brings the reader up to speed on occurrences in Cuytantal over the months Kerong-Soyfâl-Lassel 2377 – seen from the perspective of the soldiers serving Cruojûmâî. It is a warning against taking things for granted, or trusting authority without justification – as is the song by System of a Down for which it is titled.

Râmbuol has joined up and is in the final stages of his training with the Army. He sails to Cuytantal and his unit is put in a relatively quiet area of fighting – they are, after all, new recruits.

The title says it all, really. We are leapfrogging between Râm in Cuytantal and Niloc (et al) in Sahrenõta. Only some of the chapter is devoted to thoughts of Râmbuol; these people have their own lives to live too. The city (and indeed the whole Empire) is growing more and more uneasy about the war in the colonies.

Hrônte decides to join up. Quândom and Santrello are married. The title refers to Tressand’s return for the wedding. He leaves in disgust because his family still uses magick. ‘The rest of the world is not my care, but think of your own souls! I cannot live with myself.’ Dickhead.

News reaches home of unsuccessful campaigns against Cruojûmâî. He has essentially taken the whole of Cuytantal. Râmbuol and his unit are sent to Jatpass, where Cruojûmâî has begun his invasion of Baosahrei. The fighting is messy.

Hrônte, in his own journal, tells of his experiences in the training camp. Râmbuol has arranged for him to be assigned to his own unit, in which Râm has achieved the rank of Captain. Hrônte writes also of his experiences in the actual war.

There is scarce a family in Sahrenõta that does not have one member at least involved in the war, either directly fighting or on other duties. The tone is like World War II – the last great war where you knew who the good guys were. We have the sense that this is going to be all right. But underneath, things will change, like they changed after that war.

From Heart of Darkness, of course. Râm is involved in a special assignment. He is wounded badly behind enemy lines. Disobeying orders, Hrônte brings him back. Râm is flown to the military hospital, where he recieves treatment from a dedicated team of doctors. It is not a M*A*S*H-style outfit; the hospital is well-equipped and far behind the lines. But his injuries are such that he is awarded a discharge.

Chapter title is from the 10-minute ‘epic’ song on Green Day’s American Idiot. Hrônte visits Râm at the hospital. ‘Give ’em hell!’ Râm encourages him. The trip home, by ship, takes a couple of weeks. His friends, who had of course heard nothing of his injury until days after the event, are thrilled to see him again. Niloc has achieved his fourth-degree rank. Both Niloc and Râm need some serious R&R.

And the perfect place is a retreat in the western fields, on the other side of the mountains. Râm takes Niloc, Quândom, Santrello and the Three Lights along. His friend takes them up in his aeroplane. Calo is having a crisis of faith. Râm suggests a place a day’s walk along the beach for her to go to. She asks Niloc to go along; since the Meybrêl incident in Book I he has been her closest confidant.

Niloc and Calo take the fifteen-mile trail along the beach. They talk all day as they walk. Roccondil does not interject at all. They fall in love. The whole chapter is, in a word, timeless. They spend a week in the beach hut. It becomes, I suppose, their ‘Rivendell’: a perfect, passive, timeless, and sacred place.

Is a charm. I don’t know what it is or how it works. I know it has something crucial to do with the quest; but like the rumours of Cruojûmâî in Book I, Roccondil merely includes it at the time because of his overriding aim, summed up in the word ‘holistic’. In fact you could say he is something of a Dirk Gently: he believes in the ‘fundamental interconnectedness of all things’. So do I, for that matter.

Niloc and Calo have been together for only two months. (They have slept together.) Now he is going overseas for a planned twelve months. Each promises to be faithful to the other. They both have doubts, about themselves and about the other. But their expression of trust in itself becomes trust.

Niloc takes a train to Hrastonna, the biggest city and chief port of the Empire. He spends a week there. Roccondil gives a detailed account of those aspects of the city that Niloc naturally skips over.

Self-explanatory really. The voyage however is not without incident. This chapter also covers the first few weeks of his stay; he is living with Santrello’s cousins. He begins writing his journal in Chúngando, the better to practice: which creates headaches for Roccondil!

Niloc and Calo express in their respective journals their hope that they can be faithful across the thousands of miles of ocean between them. They manage to create a rudimentary link between their minds; for they are truly soulmates. Hence the title. Santrello falls pregnant.

Title from Edgar Allan Poe’s short story. It is designed to be rather like the end of the first act of an opera; we are on the edge of the brink; the story will only accelerate from hereon in. We see a snapshot of the world from everyone’s perspective – including Cruojûmâî’s.

Book IV: The Rains Have Come Early

Actually I was lying when I said it would only accelerate from now on; Niloc does not even appear in the first four chapters of Book IV. They are all exposition. Roccondil has decided to put them at the start so as not to interrupt the narrative flow once the story does get going. The volume title is from Don Henley’s Goodbye to a River.

We have glimpsed a little of Jatpass’s history; it was the Vietnam of its world in the first century RP, thanks to Kĩnodd. Now we hear of the Baosahreian republic’s more recent history. It is by this stage almost completely overrun by Cruojûmâî. Hrônte is in the thick of it.

Chúngan, like Nidhota, is descended from the Kîhul Empire of millennia past. Ólyonav has no cultural connexion to either empire. It is the third largest power in the world (behind Chúngan and Nidhota). The two empires trade fairly freely, but have a rivalry that is not completely good-natured at its heart.

This is relevant to both Books IV and VI, plot-wise-speakingly. Roccondil knows that there are underexploited mineral resources under the permafrost at the (landcovered) north pole of Ũna. Cruojûmâî knows this too; and he thinks nothing of melting the megatons of ice (and raising the global sea level by several feet) to get at them.

Has been hinted at at the end of Book III. A charismatic leader named Sando’e has come to the fore. Niloc is able to talk to him, by chance it would seem. Sando’e tempts him to join him. Niloc is uncertain. Some of Sando’e’s mob decide for him.

Sando’e’s group grows ever more powerful. Rumour comes of Cruojûmâî’s melting of the polar ice; there is concern over what this will do to the sea level. Sando’e’s premise is that the King is ineffectual in fighting Cruojûmâî. The Revolution ensues. Niloc tries to stay out, but is forced to take the side of the Empire. Sando’e is killed, and his lieutenant takes control of the Empire as best he can.

Many low-lying areas are permanently flooded. An area in central Chúngan is actually below sea-level. The new leader desperately tries to restart the process of building a giant dam in the lowest pass. But the dam is sabotaged and destroyed, and the area is flooded. The title is from Yeats’ The Second Coming.

Bruce Springsteen is one of my favourite singers; I decided that if I wasn’t going to call Book VII ‘No Surrender’, then I ought at least to have some reference to his music. Lost in the Flood could be an allegory of the Winter Revolution, especially ‘Saint Jimmy’ = Sando’e. With Chúngan in near-anarchy, it is almost a pushover for Cruojûmâî. This Empire was even a year ago thriving, the most powerful nation in the world. The enemy steadily approaches Cli’ijart; preparations are made to flee the city. Refugees are passing through already, advising the populace to get moving.

The refugees from the north tell of the horrors inflicted by Cruojûmâî’s minions. Trains are leaving Cli’ijart for Tressenod, a city in the depths of the jungle near the border with Ólyonav. From here communication is established with the Ólyonavi government. The jungle is beautiful; we get as much description as is plausible given the conditions under which it is seen.

The Ólyonavi Emperor refuses to allow the refugees to cross his borders. We are referred to Chapter 3, and given an expanded account of the recent animosity (since the 2295 border dispute). The needlessly convoluted bureaucratic hypocrisy and ass-kissing that ensues is sickening.

A few Ólyonavis feel sympathy for the displaced Chúngandam. Yet the border is as tight as that between the Koreas; there is next to no chance of getting through alive. But non-Chúngando refugees, including Niloc, are now allowed through. He is reluctant to leave the Cli’innon-Rells (Sant’s cousins) behind, but they urge him to take his chance.

More refugees are arriving daily, and they report that Cruojûmâî has taken Cli’ijart and hasn’t slowed. He covers the thousand miles between Cli’ijart and Tressenod in three months. We see the fall of Tressenod now through the eyes of the Cli’innon-Rells. The temples are being desecrated; the streets and alleys are the only places where the disorganised Chúngando army can come close to matching Cruojûmâî’s disciplined force. The family is all killed in the destruction of one of the temples.

Tressenod is decimated; Niloc reports the black smoke that is seen over the treetops from the town he is billeted in. He goes to Ólyonav City with several fellow Nidhotans. They appeal to the Emperor to allow the Chúngandam through.

This jeopardises their own asylum. The Nidhotan Emperor now attempts to intervene. Ólyonav kicks them out, but at least it sends them home rather than back to the remains of Chúngan. Niloc reluctantly boards a ship bound for Hrastonna. Ólyonav is itself attacked. It manages to repel the enemy for only a short while.

The chapter brings us up to speed on events in Sahrenõta. We haven’t heard from our friends there for the entire book so far. Dom and Sant have had some problems in their marriage, but worked through them. Santrello’s child was stillborn. They were going to name him Lâînõre, that is ‘Hope’. Râm has returned to combat.

Hrônte is killed in a bungled operation in Yûmâînna (lit. ‘Heartland’, where the line between the Allies and Cruojûmâî now has stabilised) that turns into a massacre. Râm describes his shock and fear in an emotional letter home. He completes his tour and returns home.

Niloc returns to a partially flooded Hrastonna. The ship arrives at a makeshift dock, five miles inland from the old mouth of the river. Hence the ironic chapter title. He returns home to Sahrenõta by train. He settles in as best he can with his family. He proposes to Caloranîr, who has been faithful, and who could but be in her state?

After a complete absence from Niloc’s life of four and a half years, she returns to the scene and begs his forgiveness, which she was not game to do before. She knows he is now engaged, and does not expect him even to forgive her. But he does. They reforge what friendship they can. The old troupe is reunited once more when Râm returns from the war.

And that concludes the plot of Book IV. All that remains is to set up The Great Quest. Something is stirring at the heart of the world. This chapter is an ‘historical reflection’. Roccondil explores, unhurriedly (holistically) the world that made Cruojûmâi, and what he in turn would make of the world. Title from the song by 1200 Techniques.

Four of our leads – Niloc and the Three Lights – begin having strange dreams. Each reports them separately to the reestablished ‘communal’ journal, but it is not until Quândom actually goes over the last few pages that any is aware of the dreams of the others. The title is, of course, a play on the ‘Three Lights’.

The pieces of dream fit together like the pieces of a jigsaw. This is externalising, I suppose, something that happened within a dream of my own, which I will not detail here. The Three Lights visit the High Priestess, who tells them what they must do. They set out on the quest.

Book V: The Great Quest

If Cruojûmâî knew what our heroes know, they would be dead. The eight of them are on board a train bound for Hrastonna, which will be the first stage of the quest. They have not even told their families, beyond their parents and siblings, what they are doing; and no-one at all knows where they are going.

This book mimics the style of Book I as much as possible, though less of the actual plot is told through journal entries – as if Niloc, and even Roccondil, is trying to hold onto the past. This chapter belongs mostly to Roccondil, and he tells of the last year of Nidhotan history in more detail than the brief glimpses we got in the last book.

This chapter does have plot, despite its title (similar to the interludes in Book I); it deals with the nature of the magick at the heart of the quest. Roccondil does interject however in the second half of the chapter, and explains the elements of the magick concerned that our heroes have, quite naturally, skipped over.

Niloc can feel confident in taking the lead here. Only he and Râm have been in Hrastonna before, but Râm has not seen it since the floods came. Niloc finds a place for them to rest. They will stay in Hrastonna for almost a month.

He is now but a beggar. He made his way to Hrastonna, where there were more of his ‘kind’ – his cult – but without success it seems. He knows that if he abandoned his mad belief he would be able to turn his life around; but madness does not work like that. He is taken in by Quândom and the company.

Tressand labels our heroes ‘hedonists’. This is the word that his cult uses to refer to unashamed users of magick. ‘You were always living on borrowed time.’ ‘You’d better include yourself in that, bub,’ Râm says. He is deeply wounded by Tressand’s accusation. He nearly throttles him, but Dom and Sant wrestle him off.

After all have retired to bed, Tressand rises. He sees Lêmâjîr and Pawdranîr in the process of preparing a spell, and bursts through the door. ‘Have you fools learned nothing!?’ he shouts. He smashes up the set-up, and runs away. They cannot find him again.

‘Maybe we are mad.’ This was going to be this chapter’s title, and it is the thought that troubles our heroes for the remainder of their stay in Hrastonna. Vêndu decides to return to Sahrenõta. I was wondering what would be the catalyst for this decision, for I knew it had to happen; now I know, of course, that it is Tressand.

They see her off on the train home. They themselves board one bound for the eastern empire; but trains only go five hundred miles further on. They will have to make their own way, at a far slower pace, from there on. There is track, but no trains anymore except for those the Army uses.

They therefore turn to Râm, who tries to get them taken aboard an Army train. Unsuccessfully. They have to stow away. They are almost discovered a few times, and the chase in question is through the streets of a city whose name we do not yet know.

Again, Roccondil’s commentary is significant. But the title, as I have hopefully made clear, refers also to the geographical area that they are now entering. The fighting has now spread some way on either side of the front. The comrades are leaving the Empire now.

They cross the border. There is no Ólyonavesque border guard; every free nation has united, and the Imperial Army is fighting right on the front, alongside the forces of the heartland nations.

Of a pack of strange beings. They are fire-dæmons. Each carries a staff, at the top of which is a mace-like head. It seems that they are creatures of Cruojûmâî. Râm sees one of the beasts shoot flames from the head of its staff. The company approach the city of Drussan. Râm doesn’t tell anyone about the creatures.

They know that the fighting is approaching, and they decide to take shelter in the city until it has passed. They find the city almost abandoned by its citizens. ‘The Empire must be getting crowded by now.’

Cruojûmâî’s forces begin seeping through the front lines and enter the city. They blow up the Army’s HQ, where our heroes have been sheltered after Râm appeals to a General whose life he once saved. In the confusion, Lêmâjîr and Niloc are separated from the group. A few divisions are brought back from the fighting to defend the city.

Niloc is quickly found; Lêmy is not. The title refers to both the war and a freak storm – summoned, no doubt, by magicians in the service both of the Allies and Cruojûmâî. It is noted once again that Cruojûmâî, having begun by shunning magick, now uses it with abandon whenever he needs/wants.

Our heroes are frantically searching for Lêmy. The Army aids them as best they can, but they have a psychopath to fight. She has been gone three days. It is very early in the morning of the fourth day. Râmbuol finds her unconscious in a bombed-out building. She is pale. There is blood on the floor.

She awakes, but is plainly dying. She says she saw monsters, and describes them. They are the same type that Râm saw. But he tells her there are no such things. By the time the others arrive, she has fallen unconscious for the last time. Her heart stops before the medics can arrive. They set about burying her body.

Book VI: Brothers in Arms

Opens with Pawdra’s emotion-charged account of the loss of Lêmâjîr. They hold what memorial service they can over her grave. What hits us most is the callousness, almost randomness, of her death. And it could so easily have been our hero; the two of them were lost together.

They move on from Drussan. The Army supplies them with horses. Râm is acting strangely. More so than usual, I mean. He is wrestling with his conscience. He eventually loses, and tells them of the fiery dæmons that he and Lêmâjîr saw.

The Perpetual Smile is of course Pawdra’s. It is coming home to our heroes, and to the reader, that they might not make it after all. Their number has dwindled by two since Vêndu gave up and Lêmy died. They are now in enemy territory, and having to be secret and furtive about their movement.

One of the oldest and largest cities on the planet is now occupied by Cruojûmâî. Our heroes arrive by cover of night, and find a deserted temple with a crypt in which to stay and rest. Cruojûmâî does not hold with such places; but out of fear of the gods he has left them intact. Dickhead. There can be no fear without respect.

They discover another band of survivors. They have established a network of sorts, by means of special telegraphs, with other cities. It is patchy at best. But this network brings news of where the front lines presently are. These survivors help our heroes to build a telegraph of the same sort. It becomes a lifeline for their minds. They move on from Kĩnodd.

They head inland from the port city. They pass within the range of many other ‘cells’ of refugees. But after a few weeks, as they approach what was the edge of the polar icecap, the roads and signals both peter out. They make for where they think the Gulf of Ice should be – the angle between Baosahrei and Sinõdla.

The northern wastes are dotted with factories and mines, to make use of the resources which Cuytantal and Baosahrei lacked and which are to be found in abundance under the Pole. The company sneak into one of these, about fifty miles inland from the Gulf, with the twin purposes of replenishing supplies and getting their bearings. They are discovered. Santrello is injured in their hurried escape.

They make it to the shore after three more days. Sant’s injury is not improving, but she can still ride. They ride along the coast for two weeks, but then they reach an area too rocky for their horses to traverse. They head inland again, and strike a road (made by Cruojûmâî) that runs along the ‘spine’ of Baosahrei.

They begin to encounter refugee cells again, but this time the refugees are escaped slaves from the factories.

They are discovered with a group of refugees sheltering in a deep cave. It is the fiery dæmons again. Their horses bolt. Râm takes a stand against the monsters, allowing the others to escape out of the other end of the cave. Of course, he doesn’t stand a snowflake’s chance in hell. Everyone knows that.

Râm’s death is recounted three times. The first is in third person; the second is Niloc’s entry, and the third is Pawdra’s. They stay in the place for four days, until the monsters have gone. They return to the site of the battle, and discover that Râm killed one of the creatures before he himself died. All that remains of him now is a pile of ash and broken bones, his left shoulder badge, and his signet ring, which Niloc takes.

Everyone is worrying that they have been standing on ceremony too much, but as Niloc says, that is what separates them from the callous Cruojûmâî. They get ready to move on. Without horses they have to leave many of their belongings behind. The refugees they were staying with accept them gladly. Title from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series – the Total Perspective Vortex episode.

Santrello knows that with her injury, which has not fully healed, she is slowing the group down more and more. She tells Niloc, Calo and Pawdra to keep going. Dom will never leave her, and stays behind. They plan to surrender in the hope of getting her some medical attention. The irony is that the other three manage to stow aboard a train two days later; if she’d stayed she wouldn’t have had to walk much further anyway. But could they have stowed away with Dom and Sant?

The train arrives in the middle of the night in a port town on the south coast of Baosahrei. They lie low for a few days, scrounging just enough to stay alive. Disguised as slaves (which isn’t hard; they just grubby themselves up a bit more), they board a ship bound for Cruojûmâî’s island.

Well not really; they are going right into the belly of the whale in fact, but the feeling is definitely that the finale is coming. The feeling is of course shared by the reader, who knows that there are five chapters left in ‘what may be the last’ volume. This comment, made by Roccondil in the Introduction, is crucial. The awful voyage lasts nineteen days.

The ship lands. Niloc has heard of this place before – an island raised artificially by Cruojûmâî after he had taken over all of Cuytantal. It is supposedly five hundred miles north of that continent. But there is a mountain to the south, which no one knows anything about. It is the first major landmark without a recorded name.

Is of course Pawdranîr. She fell ill on the ship, and though they do what they can, her fever only increases. She dies on the fifth day in the city. Niloc loses it. Calo tries to console him, to little avail. She takes Pawdra’s ring, just as Niloc wears Râm’s.

Niloc is finally able to contain himself. They set out on the road out of the city, that seems to lead to the mountain. The mountain must be the object of their quest. Its lack of a name is significant; the naming of things is important to Niloc, and he lists the name of every place they pass in the journal. They have not gone far before they are captured, and piled in the back of a truck like meat.

They are sent to Faporra, where Cruojûmâî has begun exploiting the mines of the Kerongâtrim. They are put to work slaving in the prison camp. They discover that Quândom is there also. Santrello is dead. Dom tells them their story.

Chapter (and volume) title is from the song by Dire Straits. Tressand is brought into the camp as a prisoner – not an ordinary one either, but under maximum security. So there – no big finale after all, you who expected it! The despair is coming thick and fast, and we are leaving them at almost the lowest point; because in the post-apocalyptic Book VII, the only way is up.

Book VII: The Catacombs

An abridgement, by Roccondil, of the book by Hakiyp Ludân of the same title. She is an important character in this, the final book. It is relevant because The Children of Pascuyn is in essence a dissertation on fate; Pascuyn is the God of Time, and his children are the Fates.

We read a brief synopsis of the events in the Faporran prison camp. Rumours are circulating among the prisoners that Cruojûmâî is coming to Faporra. Tressand, broken and confused now, is sent to work the same patch as his brother and Niloc.

Cruojûmâî inspects the camp. He is regarded with a sickening sort of awe by some, with fear by most, and with mere loathing by our heroes. ‘To fear something, you have to respect it. I shan’t give the bastard that satisfaction,’ Calo says.

And he lost Tressand’s respect the moment he began to use magick, but that goes for most people. Tressand has been thinking, as best you can inside a corkscrew. He commits the same hypocrisy as his enemy, though he does not realise it. He kills himself.

Dom and Calo nearly manage to orchestrate an escape. She refuses to leave without Niloc, but he has been separated from them. Little do they know that he has already escaped, and is busy trying to get them out. Dom has the journal, so Roccondil is following his thread.

We realise that Niloc has escaped. He watched helpless as Calo turned back. He casts a difficult spell in an attempt to tune into her mind. After a lot of suspense and tension, it works; and the next time they get the opportunity, Calo and Dom break out. They get moving as fast as they can to put some miles between them and the camp.

Double meaning, of course: the Faporran subcontinent is riddled with underground caverns and mines. Our heroes make it to Játnoi Gurrán, the biggest underground city of them all. They try to get together what they’ll need to return to Sahrenõta. It will be a long trek.

Many of the refugees in Játnoi Gurrán leave with them. They stay in the foothills as much as possible. They approach the front line, which is steadily being pushed back along the mountains.

‘What about the quest?’ Calo says, almost to herself. ‘What would it achieve now?’ is Niloc’s response. ‘We have a new one,’ is Dom’s. ‘To get home again.’ They pass the border, which has stabilised following a massive influx of Faporran aid – but not without incident.

They approach Sahrenõta from the west, via the fields and Calayn. The enemy has approached to within three hundred miles of the city, but has slowed and is apparently being unusually cautious. He will concentrate his forces on breaking through the southern passes into the westlands.

The first thing Calo does, even before she looks for her family, is visit the High Priestess. Quândom discovers that the Emperor is now helpless, because his youngest daughter has been abducted by Cruojûmâî. ‘Wake up! People are dying all around you, you aren’t the only one to have suffered a loss!’

The High Priestess befriends all our heroes. She is the one running the show; the Emperor has had a nervous breakdown over his daughter, and is useless. She tells them not to dwell on the failure of their quest, but to turn their minds to survival.

Cruojûmâî takes the last pockets of land east of the mountains. He consolidates his armies outside the gates of the city. He starts launching incendiary shells into the city, but to little avail. The terrain is difficult; they cannot reach beyond the lowest few terraces. Sahrenõta begins preparations for a siege. The farms in the westlands are working overtime to produce grain for the city’s silos.

Niloc and Quândom join volunteers to help in the siege preparations. Those people who don’t strictly need to be in the western fields are moved to the city. It is now holding over twenty-five million people: fewer than one per cent of the global population, but one third again as big as it was before the war. Cruojûmâî breaks through the southern passes after a massive battle.

The last refugees, including Quândom, pass through the Chriyã Pass into the city. Dom looks back to see the fields beginning to burn. The rail tunnel is blocked up. A great operation, in preparation for months, is carried out to collapse the pass. Our three heroes assist in the operation.

Probably my favourite song of all time is Pink Floyd’s High Hopes, cowritten by Douglas Adams. We reflect on the world Ũna was – the world it should still be. Roccondil points out that it had many flaws – but many of them depend on one’s point of view. It works, and people were happy, and that’s what matters the most.

This chapter will have to be a long one, if only because it covers six months of history. I want it to be long-winded where necessary, but not tedious; on the contrary, it must maintain the suspense through all that time. A nail-biter. I just hope I’m up to the writing challenge. We hear, drifting on the wind, a terrible hymn to Cruojûmâî.

Strikes in mid-winter. It has been a tough winter. The Râôtles Pascuyn is completely destroyed, the Râôtles Chriannod partly so. The city is beginning to starve, and capitulates toward the end of winter. Our heroes, who have put up the High Priestess since the fall of the tower, go underground again, and take her with them.

Literally underground, again – permanently, it seems. Much of the chapter is taken up with a description of the catacombs under the city, how they came to be and how they are (dis)organised. They teach other pockets of survivors how to build the special telegraph devices they made in Yûmâînna.

Hakiyp Ludân devises, or discovers, a spell. She warns them that it is supposed to be beyond the capacity of any man alive. Niloc scoffs: ‘So’s what that bastard Hollowheart has done to Ũna. So what’s changed?’ It involves a lot of complex preparation, and ends with Niloc and Calo having sex. She runs out of the private chamber they were in, crying uncontrollably. Niloc fell unconscious as he climaxed.

This chapter, the true climax (oh ha bloody ha ha) of the story, is split into seven parts – one for each day Niloc is out of his body, rather imaginatively labelled ‘The First Day’, ‘The Second Day’, etc.. Niloc now appeals to the gods and even the Allmother; but it is his own attitude that is changed before he awakes.

Niloc returns to the physical world. His first words are to Hakiyp: ‘You might have told me what we were trying to do!’ Now he can fight Cruojûmâî. The monster discovers him. Quândom challenges him to do his worst. Boom, he dies. Much of the battle is conducted by dialogue, though there is a lot of physical action too. In the end, Niloc submits and dies.

Calo now channels all the energy of her lost comrades, and her husband whose very body lies by her side. She is invincible against Cruojûmâî. She drives the charm that he so feared right through his heart. His last words are a cryptic reference to Pascuyn, the exact wording of which I don’t know, but which is very wide-open and unanswered (including by Roccondil). It is left as an ‘exercise for the reader’.

The title is a quote from Les Misérables. The Epilogue is short, and though everyone is now dead, it is almost all in the first person. Now there are no more men, there can be Man. To Niloc, it is as though he has merely discarded his material shell. We end with Roccondil’s reflection on our own fate, but it is very low-key.