Seachild (Volume 1)

By Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

When two of the high elite of the Sunrise Shore have an illicit, torrid affair, they start a chain reaction that could consume their lives—and their realms. A child is born—which according to the carefully-guarded genealogies should never have been—and Koryati, the mother, and her infant daughter must vanish into hiding to prevent disaster.

But her daughter is Shanga of ancient prophecy—potentially a weapon with the power to shake down the thrones of the Earth.

And those ever lusting for power will pursue her with relentless patience and the master tracker's art.

With demons, traitors, and soulless zealots on her shortening trail, Koryati—and her few friends—must race to keep herself and her child out of clutches that would turn the girl into a slave exploited for the powers given her by the gods.

A fan of Game of Thrones or The White Tower? Then you'll love Seachild.

Complete with maps, timeline, glossary, and other appendices—like all good epic fantasies.

Not suitable for readers under 14.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sixth Planet Productions
• Release date: Sep 19, 2020
• ISBN: 9798201640781

Kevan Kenneth Bowkett

Kevan Kenneth Bowkett is a Winnipeg writer and researcher. His writing has ranged from an International Convention on the Evaluation of New Technologies to poetry to Elizabethanesque drama in Time’s Fancy: The War of King Henry V and Joan of Arc. He’s also done door-to-door sales, built and slept in an igloo, and run for Parliament. .......... To sign up for Kevan's e-newsletter to keep in touch with his new books, productions, and other projects, please go to http://eepurl.com/g1dX6z

Book preview

A MAP OF THE SUNRISE SHORE

This is the Sunrise Shore (the east coast of the southern-hemisphere continent of Xilampan), from the vicinity of Kokorye in the tropics to the Gulf of Leaves just north of the Empire of Cothirya, in the south.

Tauaklutai is the large island off the southern reaches of this portion of the coast.

This is a representation of this region at the time of the great Imperial embassage to the Gevonneans.

Chapter 1 :

The Embassage

Cothirya and the Sunrise Shore, 2473-75 Since the Refounding of Cothirya (SRC or SR)

1.

Rainbow Woman lived in the Southern Country. She was a princess of the Empire, daughter of a noble house. She grew up under the Southern Lights, and became an ambassador of the land. She came from Sopenya in the grasslands of the West, but married a man of Cothirya on the Golden Inlet, and there she dwelt with him in a fine house, when she was in the capital. Anishva-orlo, Rainbow Woman, was her name in the Southern speech.

One day word came to the Emperor, who sat upon the malachite throne and wore a crown of pearl: the King of Gevonnea, afar in the North beyond the sun-drenched lands, would converse with you.

Has he entered the peaceful seas? asked the Emperor: for all along these sunrise shores of Xilampan the Empire and Gevonnea have set a region where their warships are forbidden.

No, Presence, intoned the Prime Minister. He sits off the rice-lands of Vanamirk, in the Gevonnean waters, and desires only to converse with your Exaltedness.

Summon Anishva-orlo, said the Emperor.

She came before him.

Lady, go thee before the Gevonnean King, and bear him Our good wishes and worthy gifts: for I, as thou knowest, cannot leave these floors of coral, these walls of amethyst. Pray do what is possible for the safety of the land, for the Gev are mighty, mighty as the Tasks in their halcyon days, when I wore a bit in my mouth. Their land they call the Second or Holy Earth, for there the emanations of the Cosmos are held to be finer and stronger than elsewhere in this world. We Blue People claim this of our own land also, but indeed it is no longer so: or maybe barely so. Assess them; return and report to Us.

Presence, may I know why you send me, a young woman? asked Anishva-orlo.

Thy family is the friend of his kindred at some remove. Do you not recall the Prince Boronvo of Gevonnea, that we held in the red pits of Ayara in our old wars with his people? Did not your family afterward free and comfort him, and he dwelt among us before vanishing into the wild? Fevena, that prince’s sister, was grandam to this present King. This may make his heart softer toward us.

She bowed and went. She returned to her garden, where the air bore the scent of lilac-blossom, and sat with Sonarko, her husband. She said:

I must sail across the peaceful seas. Two years, maybe three, til I see our house again. I would wish you, and our little ones, to come with me, but I would not deprive you so long of the bounty of the Southern Lights. And there are dangers in this journey.

Let the children go with you as far as your great-aunt’s home in Akyeltha. Then the elder ones can go on with you to the Prince’s court in Tauaklutai, said Sonarko. They can there remain til I come for them. I am due a long leave, and can travel thither; and in any event I may be sent on religious business to those waters. But I cannot get away yet – the secret strangler is too deep a scourge in Cothirya. For her husband was of the Emperor’s guard that sought out and punished infractions of his laws, and was busy with this work.

A murderer comes between a woman and her husband, said Anishva-orlo. The Emperor is right, then, and what Cosmic emanations once touched our land and hearts are sadly dimmed. What then is the virtue of remaining beneath the Lights?

He answered: Eighteen times has the strangler done what you say. It is to stop it I must remain. And surely when the Emperor’s agents find the talismans the Tasks took from him long ago, our land will be renewed. I am a member of the sacred Society of the Ear, guardians of the sea-lore, and we believe it shall be so.

But Rainbow Woman was silent.

She sailed, and had the joy of all her children as far as Akyeltha, the island of healers and spear-women. There she left the younger ones with her great-aunt’s folk, and went on with her eldest daughter and son across the peaceful seas. Past all the lands on this sunrise shore of Xilampan she sailed: past the Soaring white mountains and purple fjords of South Haarla and the fierce rivers of the North Haarlans, past sweet Palah Fjord and the blue jewels of the Sturgeon Isles, and so to the silver-cliffed, green-valed Great Isle of Tauaklutai, where her kinsman the Prince received her and her children at his ivy-covered house of rosy stone; and they had two months of delight. But she must go thence alone; and the fleet went on along the sunrise shores, past the woods of Little Guos, with its accursed Chalran ruins, across wide Chenderuil’s Bay, round the great peninsula of Evobarau, where the Emperor dwelt of old when the Ice had covered his amethyst halls, and so to the sun-drenched Great Guos, of emerald rainforests and giant rivers filling up the sea.

They came near Kokorye, the trading city sprawling under the sky’s inferno, the sweltering entrepôt of a thousand treasures and ten thousand rackets. Estorlo, Anishva’s confidant, said:

Your cousin Koryati Ebeda’orlo is rumoured to be here, styled the Girl of Kokorye. Your family has rejected her, and it seems she’s become a trull and a cutthroat and a pirates’ doxy. After our business let us weigh anchor fast, and avoid her.

No, said Rainbow Woman. For my family’s sake I must see her. And I love her.

She’s wild and deadly with a blade, it’s reported, said Estorlo. The mere sight of you will set her off. Let me face her first.

No, Esto. This is a family matter. And the waif of the waters may still become a lady of the sea.

Waif? She’s more a wolverine.

Gold snapped the sails of the Emperor’s fleet; oars flashed silver; sapphire gleamed: Anishva at the helm, as into Kokorye they came. The ships danced in the eyes of Koryati, the Girl of Kokorye, the cutlass’s mistress, as without an invitation she sauntered down to the quay where they were to be received.

They met on this quay, Koryati and Anishva.

Hello, cousin, said Rainbow Woman. Are you then the Girl of Kokorye?

Yes, Anishva. I have been. But now my heart gropes for something else.

Grope then, cousin, if you will ever find aught with so changeful a heart.

And your heart is so constant, cousin, said Koryati, "dwelling ever on how best to lick the boots of the Emperor and your noble family."

While you no doubt merely vomit on the boots of your pirate pimps.

Eyes flashed: then blades: they rang, steel on spell-tempered ruby. The waterfront stopped, watched Kokorye’s belle and the Southern princess rip for each other’s blood. The fighters sprang apart, circled, closed, and clashed: a dazzling rainbow of hate.

They sprang back at last, but bleeding only sweat. Anishva cried:

You ran away to sea, Koryati, to our grief. And shame. A daughter of the Sopenyaku whoring it on the corsair coast? And I had to look on your mother’s face when she heard the news. Now you come down here unsolicited and seek my company? Or at least til another sea-change drowns your heart, is that it?

At least perhaps til your blade drowns my heart in its own blood,’ replied Koryati. ‘You fight well, coz, and nearly had me twice. And you insult better than you did. But for mastery of the point of blade and tongue, well – you’ll need to take me aboard your golden fleet. And I came down here to save you time and trouble, Nishva; for why else would you come to Kokorye but to seek me out?

Impertinent and self-important wench! shouted Anishva, laughing. Now you want free passage to home and respectability? You are a scandal, my dear.

And a maker of gossip for old hens and turkey-necks in their houses in the capital, said Koryati. Where would they be without such as me? And I can pay passage, cousin. I can scrub the decks and polish boots as well as you. And yours is an embassy, I hear. You might need an aide to swear at the Gevonnean King. Make me Assistant Boot-licker and Special Plenipotentiary for Cussing, and it’s a bargain.

It is a bargain, Ebeda-orlo Koryati, dearest, dearest cousin, murmured Anishva, as they embraced, and wept. Come aboard now, and come away if you will.

On the gang-plank, Anishva said: You were wrong, my dear. It’s not just Emperor and titled parents with me. It’s also my husband now. And he has boots, and so do I, but he insists on his own spit and polish on them both.

The Cothiryan fleet continued north; and at last Rainbow Woman left the peaceful waters, and entered the Gevonnean seas off the rice-terrace-land of Vanamirk, which the Tasks established long ago. Anishva spoke of the Tasks, and sang the Song of Na’ilaveh who freed Cothirya from them. And Koryati said:

When you are done here, Anishva, you go home and liberate the Empire, like the Na’ilaveh of today.

Liberate it? said Anishva. Surely we have no need of that in this age.

Koryati smiled.

2.

In these waters they were expected: the warships of the Gev escorted them in to the Rice Islands, where he awaited them: Cligainad Nimalza, King of Gevonnea, Nephew of the Sun.

He sat in the hall upon a throne of teak inlaid with sapphires; lions leapt from his brow: the Gevonnean crown. Around him stood his councillors and seafaring chiefs of the Second Earth; as in water they waited in green light: the sun falling through the tinted windows.

Anishva-orlo, with her own advisors, Koryati beside her, walked into the green light. They bowed before the King, two dozen blue-skinned nobles of the Empire.

He smiled at them, and it seemed the Sun had leapt up above a misty lake, lighting up the morning.

Koryati’s heart turned over; and Cligainad, gazing on her, grew perfectly still, and then blinked twice. Presently his eyes swept back and forth across the embassy, and settling on Anishva he asked, Why has the Emperor himself not graced us with his presence?

He is an ancient man, your majesty, said Anishva, and it is against our oldest customs for him to leave his house in Cothirya. He has sent me in his stead, with full powers and warrants of negotiation. Indeed we are in every way the representative of the Southern Lights. I am of the Rethru of Sopenya, a princess of the land. My company are all royalty and high nobility of the Empire.

No doubt, ambassador, said the King. I recall that even when the Empire and its allies of Runavea in the West had flattened us and taken possession of our country long ago, even then His Presence did not deign to tread our shores.

That is so, your majesty, replied Anishva.

Yes, he said. It was so. But now – in any cate we are happy to receive you, ambassador, and all your other representatives. You said Rethru – pray elaborate on that.

It is the title of my family of Sopenya in our West-country. It means the High House in your tongue. Our name is Sopenyaku. But I am also of the Rethru of Aarhuskur, which family liberated Boronvo Akara, your great-uncle, your majesty, that we had imprisoned in the red pits below Firnu in the old wars and who after lived among us for a time.

A murmur ran through the King’s councillors. He raised his eyebrows. He seemed to muse for a space. Then he smiled again, and Koryati’s breath caught.

We have heard tales of Prince Boronvo’s sojourn among you. Did he marry there?

Indeed, O august majesty, the prince did not marry among us, and after a time disappeared into the wilds of Xilampan. It is rumoured in my family that he became a hermit.

But in any case such a marriage would not be canonical under the laws of our Holy Earth, said the King. So I need not fear a child of Cothirya supplanting me on the throne!

Rainbow Woman smiled, and bowed. The rule of the Holy Earth of Gevonnea could not be better held than by your family the Ra Osu, my lord.

I pray, indeed, that my great-uncle attained a happy destiny, said Cligainad. But now, ambassador, what are the names of your companions?

They spoke together, ambassador and King, that day, and many days that followed, preparing a new treaty between their nations. Koryati they consulted continuously, for she knew everything about the shipping on the sunrise shores of Xilampan, and also the King desired it. All day they laboured, monarch and ambassador’s aide. And after, they dined together, the Girl of Kokorye, the Nephew of the Sun, and laughed and smiled amidst the candles and sparkling goblets; and their eyes sparkled. On the roof they walked one night; the stars they admired, and the golden Moon of the tropics glowing out of the sea. Still more each the light in the other’s hair and eyes admired. And after, they went down, woman and man, to one bedroom, and one bed.

Ecstasy arched her blue back; passion soaked his brown skin.

They lay in each other’s arms. He said:

"I am betrothed to a woman of Senquaith; as it stands, only as a secret mistress could I take you home to Gevonnea. She would consent neither to your openly being my mistress nor to you and I forming one of our lesser or ‘stream’ marriages. I know she wants the fullest of our ‘river’ marriages, the exclusive form, sulun-hetherva we call it."

"Sulun-hetherva, frowned Koryati. ‘Glorious goose-wedding?’"

Yes, replied the king, shifting restlessly. The most intimate of the ten nuptial forms. And you and I cannot continue as lovers once that bond is formed, even in secret. That is how things stand.

And I am destined for a good man, no doubt, Koryati said. And I am wed also to the free wind and foam of this Sunrise Shore.

And I to the lion-crown, he said.

This fruit then may only last the season, she said to him.

Let us enjoy it while it is ripe, said he.

They tasted, drank.

The season proceeded. Three Moons cast their light down onto their bed. The treaty was fashioning; presently was full fashioned. The season neared its end. Matters were all but concluded. Then Koryati went to Anishva-orlo and said:

I beg you would spin out affairs here awhile longer, kinswoman, if it can be done at all. I believe King Cligainad’s betrothed is coming here soon, and I should very much like to meet her. She paused. Then said, Though, I know, maybe it’s asking too much. You seem ill, cousin. What’s wrong?

I am away for a year and a half of precious days of my children’s lives, and you want me to ‘spin affairs out,’ Ebeda’orlo Koryati?

I—if it’s too much –

I hope when you have a child you will be better able to appreciate a mother’s feelings. No, Ebeda, not one hour, not one minute will I delay our leaving. And there are others here to think of, all separated from their families. And we still may not get home; it’s a long and dangerous shore, as you know, though we call it ‘peaceful.’ Anishva stood up, knocking back her chair. And I will certainly not do anything to promote your sleeping with his majesty beyond what I have done already in bringing you to him. Do not dream I don’t know your motive, Girl of Kokorye. Want to meet Lady Ta’Chamara, King Cligainad’s betrothed? You want to be here when she comes so he can see the two of you together, and help him decide he fancies you most. Damn you, resign, or cut your throat, I really don’t care. I shall not abet you in your project. Please leave.

Anishva, I’m sorry. I didn’t think. But you should know I have done nothing to compromise the proper working of this embassy. I’ve been very careful –

God damn you, Koryati. How loathsome you are! I should’ve sent you to hell that day on the quay. Don’t think I couldn’t, gutter-queen! God-cursed trull, you go from a pirate’s bed to the King of Gevonnea’s in one leap? – and I invited you. I’m sick, I’m sick all full of hate. I’m jealous, it’s burning, God damn it! My blood’s burning.

Jealous —? breathed Koryati.

Yes. Are you so blind and self-obsessed you didn’t know, you open putrescent sore? You think you’re the only one he smiled at? I only want to say this once, Ebeda, and you shall not repeat it: You are not the only one who’s wanted that smile to be only for herself. Now get out and shut up or do not disbelieve me when I say I will rip out your tongue.

Koryati went.

A messenger summoned her that evening. Please come to an after-dinner conference in his majesty’s Receiving Room, my lady. Some unexpected complications have arisen regarding rights and shipping in Chenderuil’s Bay. It looks like a lot of new work, and my lady Anishva-orlo wants to get on it as fast as possible.

3.

Days passed, then weeks –talks by day continued, ecstasy by night – until Koryati realized, lying with Cligainad’s head on her breast, that the Moon looked much as it had done the night before Anishva’s anger.

It is enough, she thought. I cannot permit her to linger any more. We can weigh anchor tomorrow. Or I will resign.

Later that night, Cligainad told her Ta’Chamara, his betrothed, would be there the next morning.

She was. A lady of Senquaith, north and west of Gevonnea: dark-locked, copper-fleshed, steel-limbed, tall, stately, among women a queen. Beside the King in the hall of audience she looked down at the assembly of Gevonnean and Cothiryan nobles, and Koryati had to catch her breath again.

I hope you shall bear away rich treasures from this meeting with the King, O ambassadors,’ she said, ‘even as you have bestowed them on him and on his country. For my own part I am humbled to meet true representatives of the Southern Lights, renowned in song. And I’m pleased, fair friends, to meet those whose kin of old fought the Gev to a standstill, as did my own people. And she gave them a fierce smile; for she was of the Amazons of Senquaith.

No common concubinage was to be her bond with the Kng, but a fully equal and exclusive marriage, a sulun-hetherva, which would make her Queen of the Holy Earth of Gevonnea, and her children its rulers.

"Let Koryati try getting a wedge in that," grumbled Anishva to her pillow, thinking of Sonarko far away, and their children, their growing-up speeding by.

Ta’Chamara fought for exercise in the combat-yards; she clashed with Koryati, and with others of the embassy, trying them with sword, dagger, lariat, spear, axe, bow, and other battle-modes armed and unarmed. One afternoon at the end of a bout she said to Koryati:

I like you, my lady. Please humour me with your company in a walk?

They walked along the cliffs of that island. The sea boomed far below like the exploding palisades of shattering cities. Gulls, terns, gannets, fulmars, cormorants, shearwaters, ninety-seven kinds of sea-bird called and wheeled.

Listen to the birds, Koryati, said Ta’Chamara. Each different voice cries out what might have been.

And the ruins of hope crash below like falling cities, as usual, added Koryati. And full of guano, which is as often as not.

Ta’Chamara laughed. She paused, looked away. Then: I like you a very great deal, my lady; very very much. And if you will pardon my being so forward I want to say, to say that, had things been different, I would like—very likely have asked you to be my battle-mate and partner, which we call the blending of the two fires. It is a marriage of a high order in my country and in Gevonnea, though maybe not in yours, unless among the women of Akyeltha. I would have hoped deeply you would accept. You have a fire that I love, O Southern woman. This might have been: it cannot now be: but I beg your pardon because I wanted to say it so. She paused again. Please, do not think I thus open my heart casually, or at every turn; indeed it is no light matter to me.

She looked back at Koryati, and truly it seemed the Southern woman was made of fire, so heavy was her blush. She stammered, and could not speak, until at last she got out: I thank you, my lady. I do not take this lightly; it is a great honour. Indeed I might have said yes. And Ta’Chamara smiled gladly.

You cannot, I suppose, give King Cligainad up? said Koryati.

No.

Are you sure of him?

Yes.

"Sure sure?"

Yes.

Koryati was silent.

As sure as he is of me, said Ta’Chamara. Why these questions, Koryati? Do you think what I feel for you has unhinged my feelings for him?

No, replied Koryati. But his for me may have.

Ta’Chamara stared at her speechless, open-mouthed. Koryati slipped into a pre-battle stance. But Ta’Chamara did not move. She glared into Koryati’s eyes, breathing deeply, her own brows burning, fists balled at sides. You – and Cligainad? she whispered, lips white, incredulous.

Koryati said nothing, but gazed back steadily, gauging what blood might flow from this wound. And what might-have-been might be wrecked.

Then Ta’Chamara was inside her defences and Koryati was down from a great wallop that scored the side of her head; and Ta’Chamara ran off, silent.

In a cedar-hedge close by, Anishva-orlo lowered her blowpipe. "Two blows and I’d have shot, but she deserved one