THE REVENANTS Sheri S. Tepper www.sf-gateway.com Enter the SF Gateway … In the last years of the twentieth century (as Wells might have put it), Gollancz, Britain’s oldest and most distinguished science fiction imprint, created the SF and Fantasy Masterworks series. Dedicated to re-publishing the English language’s finest works of SF and Fantasy, most of which were languishing out of print at the time, they were – and remain – landmark lists, consummately fulfilling the original mission statement: ‘SF MASTERWORKS is a library of the greatest SF ever written, chosen with the help of today’s leading SF writers and editors. These books show that genuinely innovative SF is as exciting today as when it was first written.’ Now, as we move inexorably into the twenty-first century, we are delighted to be widening our remit even more. The realities of commercial publishing are such that vast troves of classic SF & Fantasy are almost certainly destined never again to see print. Until very recently, this meant that anyone interested in reading any of these books would have been confined to scouring second-hand bookshops. The advent of digital publishing has changed that paradigm for ever. The technology now exists to enable us to make available, for the first time, the entire backlists of an incredibly wide range of classic and modern SF and fantasy authors. Our plan is, at its simplest, to use this technology to build on the success of the SF and Fantasy Masterworks series and to go even further. Welcome to the new home of Science Fiction & Fantasy. Welcome to the most comprehensive electronic library of classic SFF titles ever assembled. Welcome to the SF Gateway. Contents TITLE PAGE GATEWAY INTRODUCTION CONTENTS MAP INTRODUCTION BOOK I: The Quest CHAPTER ONE: JAERA CHAPTER TWO: JAER CHAPTER THREE: MEDLO CHAPTER FOUR: JAER CHAPTER FIVE: LEONA CHAPTER SIX: MEDLO CHAPTER SEVEN: THEWSON CHAPTER EIGHT: JAER CHAPTER NINE: MEDLO CHAPTER TEN: LEONA CHAPTER ELEVEN: LITHOS CHAPTER TWELVE: JASMINE CHAPTER THIRTEEN: THEWSON CHAPTER FOURTEEN: JAER CHAPTER FIFTEEN: THE CITY OF CANDOR CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE CITY OF BYSSA CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: THE RIVER DEL CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: THE GRYPHON CHAPTER NINETEEN: INSIDE MURGIN CHAPTER TWENTY: OUTSIDE OF MURGIN CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE SISTERHOOD CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: THE COUNCIL CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: MAGISTER BOOK II: The Gate CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: THE AWAKENING CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: KELNER CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: THE NORTHERN WAY CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: THE WARTY MEN CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: PO-BEE CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: LITHOS CHAPTER THIRTY: THE DOG KING CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: THE ABYSS OF SOULS CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: THE SOUTHERN WAY CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: THE EASTERN WAY CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR: TCHENT CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE: BEYOND THE CONCEALMENT CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX: THE STONE CITY CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN: ORENA CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT: ORENA ARMED CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE: THE TWO CITIES CHAPTER FORTY: THE GATE WEBSITE ALSO BY SHERI S. TEPPER EPILOGUE APPENDIX THE HISTORY OF THE KNOWN WORLD THE ROAD OF THE AXE KING AUTHOR BIO COPYRIGHT INTRODUCTION This is the story of the Seven Who Presumed – those called the Remnant in Orena-and of Thewson, proud warrior of the southland, driven by gods; and of Leona, Queen of Beasts, whose reign among the animals was stranger than even she knew; and of Jasmine, who loved her child; and of Medlo, prince and outcast, pro-heritor of a kingdom yet unfounded. And it is the story of a million anonymous sufferers under the whip of Gahl. And of Nathan and Ephraim, whose only frailty was age. And of Terascouros, whose only indiscretion was curiosity. And it is the story of Jaer, innocent bearer of a terrible burden. But to come to Jaer, we must begin with Jaera. BOOK I The Quest CHAPTER ONE JAERA Years 1137-1153 The girl, Jaera, should have been smothered within hours of her birth, but she was not. If the family Widdek had been a little poorer, the birthers might have paid more attention; for it was well known that the poor were capable of anything. If there had been any prior rumour of deviation, any gossip or questions, the child might have lived no longer than her first breath; but the family Widdek was so middling, so ordinary, so meeching in its virtues and so mincing in its faults, as to provoke unconcern amounting almost to boredom. Besides which there were already three Widdek daughters and four Widdek sons. Who looks for deviation among such a herd? The Keepers of the Seals of Separation had last visited the village a decade before, and it was thought likely they would not return for a decade more. The cringing old man whom they had appointed as Deputy Observer was now half blind and spent most of his days before his own hearthfire sipping warmed wine and muttering imprecations against old friends long dead. So it was that Jaera came into the firelight of a late evening in the month of wings returning, squalled promptly, always a good sign, and suckled strongly when put to the nipple. If she was a bit pale, it was not remarked upon by the birthers. Of course the room was dark. She had a head of good black hair, too, and was as wrinkled as any newborn. The birthers took their silver cheerfully, did not go by the house of the Deputy Observer to report, and were not heard to speak of the baby thereafter in any but ordinary terms. The Deputy Observer neglected to call upon mother and babe, his duty demanding no more in this case than it had done in a half hundred others, equally neglected. The black hair must have fallen out very soon for it was recalled later that Jaera had always worn a cap tied over her head. That was not, in itself, unusual. There were always mothers who put caps on the babes to protect their soft little heads from chill. It was recalled later, also, that soon after Jaera’s birth, the Wanderer had returned to the woods surrounding the village, this time, it seemed, to stay. At least she built a small house in a glade not far away and seemed to be there whenever someone went to buy a cure for a fever or a balm for a sprain, not that anyone from the village would approach too closely to her house or do anything to break the Seal. This was the woman they came to call ‘The Woman
