Read Online In Legend Born by Laura Resnick - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Laura Resnick
Ads: Link
didn't even always control those very well. The southern Moorlands were peopled by fierce, barbaric tribes of hairy, blue- and green-eyed giants who, a thousand years ago, had sailed across the Middle Sea in search of gold and slaves.
In those long-ago days, the Moorlanders were united under one Great Chief to whom all chiefs swore their allegiance. They became a mighty and powerful people, driving back the older civilizations north of their lands until their empire extended well into what was now Valdania. Other Moorlander tribes pushed south, claiming the lands all the way up to the Sirinakara River, the great river that forever divided them from the Kintish.
Still dissatisfied, they had ventured across the sea, lured by the wealth and prosperity of Sileria, the vast, mountainous island floating in the Middle Sea. Daurion, the last great Yahrdan of Sileria, chosen by the Guardians to hold this island with a fist of iron in a velvet glove, drove the invaders back, killing most of them before they could return to their ships and the open sea. Legend whispered that Daurion himself had been a Guardian, possessed of their strange gifts and dangerous powers. A great warrior, he repeatedly repelled Moorlander invasions—until he was betrayed by his own kind, slaughtered by one he trusted. After Daurion's death, internal conflict, claims, counter-claims, and the chaos resulting from a divided leadership gave the determined Moorlanders the opportunity they needed. The Conquest was achieved almost overnight as Moorlanders swarmed across the land, taking what they wanted and burning down the rest.
For two centuries, the Moorlanders carried gold, crops, livestock, and slaves out of Sileria. A once proud and free people resisted this servitude, and Sileria became a violent, lawless land. When the Moorlanders' empire eventually began dissolving into warring tribes, their power collapsed and they lost their hold on Sileria. They retreated back to the sea from which they had come, leaving behind the round stone towers and thick-walled palaces they had built throughout the southern and western regions of the island. Along those same shores, some eight centuries later, one occasionally still saw another legacy of the Moorlanders, too, in a green- or blue-eyed man, in a woman whose hair was the fair shade of a Moorlander rather than the brown or black of a Silerian, or in a youth who towered over his companions.
The city of Adalian boasted its fair share of such people, as well as a brooding stone palace overlooking the city, which building was now occupied by Outlookers. The traders Tansen met at the inn outside of Cavasar were on their way to Adalian's famous Temple Market—so called because the market was set up in and around five vast crumbling temples built by the Guardians centuries before the Conquest, desecrated by the Moorlanders, and abandoned long, long ago.
Before leaving the inn, Tansen sold the traders the horse that Koroll had given him. Born and raised a shallah , he had never particularly liked horses, although his training as a shatai had included combat on horseback, and he had practically lived atop a horse while in the Moorlands; such were the ways of Moorlanders. But this was Sileria, so the horse would be a burden where he was going. Donkeys, goats, and shallaheen fared well on the narrow mountain paths and rocky slopes he'd be traveling, but horses slowed down a man up there—which was why mounted Outlookers were generally so inept at preventing smuggling and black market trade in the mountains.
The Kintish word for Sileria meant "The Horseless Land." The shallaheen had no use for horses, and the lowlanders wanted them but could seldom afford them. The aristocrats and wealthy merchants only used them in the countryside, preferring to walk or be carried in palanquins when traveling through the crowded, narrow streets of Sileria's cities. The sea-born folk went everywhere by boat, having no interest in any
In those long-ago days, the Moorlanders were united under one Great Chief to whom all chiefs swore their allegiance. They became a mighty and powerful people, driving back the older civilizations north of their lands until their empire extended well into what was now Valdania. Other Moorlander tribes pushed south, claiming the lands all the way up to the Sirinakara River, the great river that forever divided them from the Kintish.
Still dissatisfied, they had ventured across the sea, lured by the wealth and prosperity of Sileria, the vast, mountainous island floating in the Middle Sea. Daurion, the last great Yahrdan of Sileria, chosen by the Guardians to hold this island with a fist of iron in a velvet glove, drove the invaders back, killing most of them before they could return to their ships and the open sea. Legend whispered that Daurion himself had been a Guardian, possessed of their strange gifts and dangerous powers. A great warrior, he repeatedly repelled Moorlander invasions—until he was betrayed by his own kind, slaughtered by one he trusted. After Daurion's death, internal conflict, claims, counter-claims, and the chaos resulting from a divided leadership gave the determined Moorlanders the opportunity they needed. The Conquest was achieved almost overnight as Moorlanders swarmed across the land, taking what they wanted and burning down the rest.
For two centuries, the Moorlanders carried gold, crops, livestock, and slaves out of Sileria. A once proud and free people resisted this servitude, and Sileria became a violent, lawless land. When the Moorlanders' empire eventually began dissolving into warring tribes, their power collapsed and they lost their hold on Sileria. They retreated back to the sea from which they had come, leaving behind the round stone towers and thick-walled palaces they had built throughout the southern and western regions of the island. Along those same shores, some eight centuries later, one occasionally still saw another legacy of the Moorlanders, too, in a green- or blue-eyed man, in a woman whose hair was the fair shade of a Moorlander rather than the brown or black of a Silerian, or in a youth who towered over his companions.
The city of Adalian boasted its fair share of such people, as well as a brooding stone palace overlooking the city, which building was now occupied by Outlookers. The traders Tansen met at the inn outside of Cavasar were on their way to Adalian's famous Temple Market—so called because the market was set up in and around five vast crumbling temples built by the Guardians centuries before the Conquest, desecrated by the Moorlanders, and abandoned long, long ago.
Before leaving the inn, Tansen sold the traders the horse that Koroll had given him. Born and raised a shallah , he had never particularly liked horses, although his training as a shatai had included combat on horseback, and he had practically lived atop a horse while in the Moorlands; such were the ways of Moorlanders. But this was Sileria, so the horse would be a burden where he was going. Donkeys, goats, and shallaheen fared well on the narrow mountain paths and rocky slopes he'd be traveling, but horses slowed down a man up there—which was why mounted Outlookers were generally so inept at preventing smuggling and black market trade in the mountains.
The Kintish word for Sileria meant "The Horseless Land." The shallaheen had no use for horses, and the lowlanders wanted them but could seldom afford them. The aristocrats and wealthy merchants only used them in the countryside, preferring to walk or be carried in palanquins when traveling through the crowded, narrow streets of Sileria's cities. The sea-born folk went everywhere by boat, having no interest in any
Similar Books
