The Map of All Things

Book 2: Terra Incognita

by Kevin J. Anderson

Genres: Fantasy action & adventure; Epic Fantasy

Synopsis

After terrible atrocities by both sides, the religious war between Tierra and Uraba has spread and intensified, irreparably dividing the known world. What started as a series of skirmishes has erupted into a full-blown crusade.

Now that the Uraban leader, Soldan-Shah Omra, has captured the ruined city of Ishalem, his construction teams discover a priceless ancient map in an underground vault - a map that can guide brave explorers to the mysterious Key to Creation. Omra dispatches his adoptive son Saan to sail east across the uncharted Middlesea on a quest to find it.

In Tierra, Captain Criston Vora has built a grand new vessel, and sets out to explore the great unknown and find the fabled land of Terravitae. But Criston cannot forget his previous voyage that ended in shipwreck and disaster . . . and the loss of his beloved wife Adrea, who - unbeknownst to him - fights to survive against palace intrigues and constant threats against her life in far-off Uraba. For Adrea is now the wife of the soldan-shah and mother of his adopted son . . .

The Map of All Things continues Kevin J Anderson's epic fantasy of sailing ships, crusading armies, sea monsters and enchanted islands.

Release date: June 21, 2010

Publisher: Orbit

Print pages: 624

Sample

According to legend, before ONDUN (the creator of all things) departed from the world, He sent out His sons AIDEN and UREC
each in a separate great arkship to explore His entire creation, while His third son, JORON, remained behind in the Eden-like
land of Terravitae.


Today, the known world has two continents, Tierra and Uraba, connected by a thin isthmus of land, on which the sacred city
of Ishalem was built. The people of Tierra believe themselves to be the descendants of Aiden’s crew, while Urabans are convinced
that their ancestors originally sailed on Urec’s ship. The wreck of an ancient vessel sits on a high hill in Ishalem, and
each people insists it belongs to them.


After generations of strife, KING KORASTINE of Tierra and SOLDAN-SHAH IMIR of Uraba agree to sign an Edict that divides the
world in half, above and below Ishalem. This will remove all need for conflict, and both leaders look forward to peace at
last. Korastine sails from Calay, the capital of Tierra, with his young daughter PRINCESS ANJINE and her childhood friend,
MATEO. Soldan-Shah Imir sails from Olabar, Uraba’s capital, for the formal signing ceremony.


King Korastine and Soldan-Shah Imir meet at the wreck of the Arkship on the hill above Ishalem, accompanied by PRESTER-MARSHALL BAINE (representing the Aidenist church) and UR-SIKARA
LUKAI (representing the Urecari church). The Edict is signed, peace is declared between the two continents, and the celebrations
begin.


Back at the Olabar palace, Imir has left his son and heir, OMRA, in charge. Omra’s beloved wife ISTAR is pregnant and will
soon bear their first child. The sikaras—priestesses of the church of Urec—bless the unborn baby, and Omra is very happy.
His cousin BURILO comes from the distant soldanate of Missinia to deliver the head of a slain bandit leader from the Great
Desert; the bandits have been plaguing the soldanate for years, but though their leader is dead, Omra knows the problem isn’t
solved. Before Soldan-Shah Imir can return from signing the Edict in Ishalem, tragedy strikes: Istar collapses and dies from
a difficult miscarriage. Omra is devastated.


In Ishalem, we meet PRESTER HANNES, a fanatical follower of the Aidenist church, who has spent years in disguise among the
Urecari. He was given this spying mission by Prester-Marshall Baine to gather information about the rival religion. Hannes
hates the followers of Urec with a passion. During the celebrations after the signing ceremony, an accidental fire starts
and quickly spreads across the city. Both Tierrans and the Urabans assign blame for the disaster and spend more time fighting
each other than trying to extinguish the fire. As flames rage through the main Urecari church, Prester Hannes breaks in to
steal a religious relic. In the process, he is caught in the inferno, terribly burned, and barely manages to stagger away,
delirious.


Korastine flees the city with Anjine and Mateo, while Soldan-Shah Imir calls for an evacuation of his people. On her way to the harbor to escape the fire, ASHA (one of Imir’s wives) finds the injured Prester Hannes; believing him to be
a devout follower of Urec because of his tattered clothes and the Urecari relic he took from the burning church, she decides
to bring him along and nurse him back to health. As Korastine and Imir sail away in opposite directions, the holy city of
Ishalem burns behind them, and both leaders know the war is just beginning….


The young Tierran sailor CRISTON VORA and his new wife ADREA sail his cargo boat from the coastal fishing village of Windcatch
to Calay. Criston dreams of sailing the seas and visiting new lands and, though he hates to leave lovely Adrea behind, joins
the crew of the new exploration ship, the Luminara; CAPTAIN ANDON SHAY plans to sail to the edge of the world and find the lost land of Terravitae and Holy Joron. Criston sells
his boat so Adrea will have money to support herself while he’s away; she gives him a lock of her hair, and he promises to
write her letters, which he’ll throw overboard in bottles. The sympathetic magic binding the hair to Adrea should bring the
bottles to her. She says farewell, and the Luminara sails off. Only after she goes back to Windcatch to live with her younger brother CIARLO (who has a lame leg) and Criston’s
old mother does Adrea discover that she’s pregnant….


Another group of people, followers of neither Aiden nor Urec, are the Saedrans—scientists, craftsmen, philosophers. They believe
their ancestors left Terravitae voluntarily, long after the two brothers sailed, and settled on another continent, from which
they established a maritime civilization. But the Saedran continent sank beneath the waves, and the only survivors are the descendants of traders who were away from home at the time of the catastrophe. Saedrans
have settled in both Uraba and Tierra but don’t espouse either religion.


One young Saedran in Calay, ALDO NA-CURIC, is being trained by the old scholar SEN LEO NA-HADRA to become a chartsman (a navigator
much in demand by ship captains). Aldo passes his test, having memorized all of the generations of navigational data as well
as volumes of the Tales of the Traveler—journals written by a mysterious wandering stranger, said to be either Aiden or Urec
himself. Excited to become a chartsman, Aldo goes to the Calay docks, where he meets the con man YAL DOLICAR, who sells him
a fake map of unexplored lands. When Aldo eagerly shows Sen Leo his discovery, the scholar denounces Dolicar’s map as a forgery,
and then proves it by taking Aldo to a secret chamber beneath the Saedran temple. There, covering the walls and ceiling, is
an intricate map of everything the Saedrans have compiled about the world: the Mappa Mundi, or the Map of All Things.


In Olabar, Asha nurses the burned Prester Hannes back to health, praying over him, giving him Urecari sacraments. When he
recovers his strength and learns that she has fouled him with the hated rival religion, Hannes becomes enraged, kills her,
and escapes into the night. Grief-stricken to learn that his young wife was murdered by the mysterious man she tried to help,
Soldan-Shah Imir calls out his guards… but Hannes is gone.


Omra is despondent over having lost his own young wife Istar, but his father arranges another wife for him, CLIAPARIA, the
daughter of the Yuarej soldan. Though she is beautiful and ambitious, he cannot bring himself to love her. Instead, Omra fixes his anger on the Tierrans for burning Ishalem. Many in Uraba feel the same rage and call out for
war. Soldan-Shah Imir increases production of metals at the Gremurr mines, a secret facility on a rugged coast that should
technically belong to Tierra, but is inaccessible to them due to a mountain range. Because Uraba is poor in metals, the people
are forced to mine the ores in enemy territory.


Hoping to rebuild Ishalem, Prester-Marshall Baine and a group of volunteers from Tierra set up camp in the burned ruins and
set to work clearing away the rubble. They are beset by an angry Uraban soldan, who feels the Tierrans are further desecrating
the holy city. Baine and his followers are murdered horribly, and only one man, an Iborian shipbuilder named KJELNAR, escapes
to tell the tale. When King Korastine learns what has happened to the well-meaning Aidenists, he has no choice but to prepare
for all-out war. Though his ward Mateo is still young, he sends the young man off to be trained in the Tierran military, while
his daughter Anjine will have to study to be a leader, the next queen.


Learning of the ill-advised massacre at Ishalem, Soldan-Shah Imir dispatches a diplomat with an apology and a proposed peace
treaty to Korastine, but the diplomat is intercepted by TAVISHEL, destrar of Soeland Reach, who brashly takes his revenge
against the Uraban man for the slaying of Prester-Marshall Baine and his followers. The retaliatory murder of the diplomat
is an atrocity that further inflames the Urabans.


Ignoring his new wife Cliaparia, Omra leads violent raids along the Tierran coast. In Windcatch, as her pregnancy progresses,
Adrea misses Criston, who has sailed far away in the Luminara; her brother Ciarlo is training to become the next prester of the village. Everything seems at peace, until Omra and his raiders
strike Windcatch, setting fire to the buildings, massacring many of the townspeople, and destroying the small Aidenist kirk.
Ciarlo, unable to run with his injured leg, barely escapes and hides. The men are about to kill Adrea, but when Omra sees
she is pregnant, he thinks of his own wife Istar who died in childbirth, and he spares her. Omra takes Adrea captive, along
with many Tierran children, who are herded aboard the Uraban raiding ships. They sail away, leaving the wounded Windcatch
behind. Eventually, they reach Olabar, and Omra tells Adrea that this is her new home.


Meanwhile, voyaging aboard the Luminara, Criston sees many new and strange things. Captain Shay takes him under his wing, showing off the journal in which he sketches
the sea serpents he has encountered. Criston also becomes close with PRESTER JERARD, a kindly old priest. He writes his letters
to Adrea, seals them with a strand of her hair, and throws the bottles overboard. The ship has been gone for months, seeing
no sign of Terravitae, when they encounter a terrible storm—along with the most terrifying sea monster of legend, the Leviathan.
The Leviathan attacks and destroys the Luminara.

Criston and Prester Jerard are the only survivors. For days, they drift on a makeshift raft, fighting off sharks. Then a black-and-gold
sea serpent devours the prester, but Criston manages to snag it with an iron hook. The enraged beast races through the water,
dragging Criston’s hodgepodge raft for many leagues before the rope breaks. Fortunately, the serpent has towed Criston back
into Tierran shipping lanes, and he is rescued. When he finally makes his way home to Windcatch, desperate to see Adrea, he finds the town recovering from the Uraban raid. Ciarlo reveals that
Adrea was either kidnapped or killed; she is long gone and there is no chance of getting her back. A broken man, Criston leaves
Windcatch, rejects the sea, and goes up into the mountains to live alone.


Four years later, Aldo na-Curic is an experienced Saedran chartsman and has sailed on many Tierran ships. When his captain
ventures south of the Edict Line, however, the ship is surrounded by Uraban war vessels. Aldo, with his rare talent as a chartsman,
is captured and taken to Olabar, where Soldan-Shah Imir asks a wise Saedran woman, SEN SHERUFA NA-OA, to convince the young
man to serve Uraba. But both Aldo and Sherufa owe their loyalty to the Saedran quest to complete the Map of All Things, and
she gives him all of her information about Uraban geography, then secretly helps him escape back to Tierra, where he can share
his knowledge.


Since recovering from his burns and murdering his benefactor Asha, Prester Hannes has adopted a new mission: stranded in a
foreign land, he vows to harm the enemy as much as possible. Moving like a shadow, he burns churches, poisons wells, and wreaks
havoc among the followers of Urec. They are spooked and assume that the Tierrans have sent many spies and saboteurs among
them.


Over the years, Omra has kidnapped many Tierran children and—under the guidance of a sinister and mysterious masked figure,
the Teacher—has brainwashed and transformed them into zealous assassins and saboteurs, called ra’virs, which he intends to turn loose on Tierra. Adrea is a household slave at the palace, and all this time she has pretended to be unable to speak. She has given birth to Criston’s son, SAAN, whom she is allowed to raise; the boy is now
almost four, and is being schooled in Uraban ways and the teachings of Urec. Ur-Sikara Lukai informs her that when the boy
turns four, Saan will be taken away from her and sent to a special training camp to become a ra’vir. Adrea is panicked, but there is nothing she can do.


She accidentally discovers a plot hatched by Ur-Sikara Lukai and VILLIKI, another wife of Soldan-Shah Imir, to poison Omra,
frame Cliaparia, and then set Villiki’s good-natured and unambitious son TUKAR (Omra’s half-brother) on the throne. Adrea
reveals the plot to Omra and, as payment for the information, demands that Saan be kept out of the ra’vir camps and raised in the palace instead. Their scheme exposed, Ur-Sikara Lukai is killed, Villiki is stripped of all possessions
and cast out, and Tukar (who had no real part in the plot) is exiled to live at the harsh Gremurr mines. Saan is brought back
to Adrea, but the old soldan-shah is broken by the revelation of the murderous scheme, and so he retires, handing over the
leadership to Omra.


After saving Omra’s life, Adrea is taken into the new soldan-shah’s household. Despite the obvious jealousy of Cliaparia,
Omra asks Adrea to marry him as well, and in return he promises to raise Saan as his own. Seeing this as the only way to ensure
a future for her son, she grudgingly accepts. But a Tierran name will not do for the wife of a soldan-shah, and Omra insists
that she change her name to Istar.


Meanwhile, Criston Vora lives in isolation in the mountains, going to other villages only when he needs supplies. Once each
year he makes the trip to the seashore, where he casts another letter in a bottle into the sea, clinging to hope that someday, somehow, Adrea might receive them….


Up in Tierra, Mateo undergoes years of military training, including arctic survival with the destrar of Iboria, BROECK. Broeck
takes a liking to Mateo, and when his daughter ILRIDA agrees to be the new bride of lonely King Korastine, Mateo escorts her
down to Calay. Anjine is thrilled to see Mateo back in the city (they are very fond of each other but cannot admit their feelings),
and Korastine is delighted with his new bride, who is fascinated by legends of Holy Joron in Terravitae. As a special gift
for Ilrida, the king constructs an Iborian-style kirk so that she can worship as she did in her own land.


Over the years, Omra becomes very fond of Saan and raises him as a true son, despite the boy’s Tierran heritage. Adrea/Istar
and Cliaparia develop a rivalry as wives: no matter what she tries, Cliaparia can’t make Omra love her, and the soldan-shah’s
true affection is reserved for Istar. He now has three daughters—ADREALA and ISTALA by Istar and CITHARA by Cliaparia, but
the soldan-shah still needs a male heir.


Back in Calay King Korastine and Ilrida are very happy together and produce a son, TOMAS. One day, as she prays in the special
Iborian kirk that Korastine built for her, Ilrida scratches herself on a rusty nail. The wound becomes infected, and Ilrida
dies of tetanus; Korastine is so paralyzed by grief that Princess Anjine shoulders more and more of the burdens of ruling
Tierra. Knowing how much Ilrida revered Holy Joron, Korastine announces a quest in her honor: Tierra will build another great
exploration ship that will sail off in search of Terravitae. Anjine thinks this is an expensive fool’s quest in a time of war, but Korastine takes her to a high tower and shows her a relic that has been
kept secret for generations: Aiden’s Compass, a magical object that will reveal the location of the lost homeland. Anjine
sees that the plan isn’t so foolish after all….


At the southern boundary of Uraba, at the edge of the Great Desert, a strange man staggers in from the dunes, speaking no
tongue that anyone can understand. The Saedran woman Sen Sherufa eventually learns his language. His name is ASADDAN and he
has crossed the Great Desert; his people, the Nunghals, live on the other side of the expanse of dunes. Asaddan becomes a
court sensation and convinces Omra to sponsor an expedition so he can return to his side of the desert, using a balloon-borne
sand coracle to ride the winds. Saan, now twelve, accompanies him, along with the retired soldan-shah Imir and a reluctant
Sherufa (who would rather stay home and read about adventures). The group crosses the desert and is received among the Nunghals.
As guests of KHAN JIKARIS, they travel to a large clan gathering on the coast of the southern ocean, a body of water that
Sherufa never even guessed existed. From seafaring Nunghals, she obtains maps and begins to suspect that the southern ocean
may in fact connect with the coastline of Uraba, far to the north. Sherufa, Imir, and Saan return home with their exciting
news.


Prester Hannes continues his depredations against the followers of Urec, leaving a path of death and destruction behind him
as he makes his way back to Tierra. He reaches the burned ruins of Ishalem, which have remained uninhabited for more than
a dozen years, and he weeps to see what has become of the holy city. Before he can leave the ruins, though, Hannes is captured
by a Uraban patrol, and he is sent with other prisoners to work in the Gremurr mines. They do not know he is the man who has caused them so much harm;
they just need more slaves. Hannes toils for a long time, always looking for a way to escape, and finally slips away from
the mines into the supposedly impassible mountains that lead to Tierra. No man has ever survived the trek, but Hannes is not
like any other man. Frostbitten, starving, and near death, he stumbles into a high mountain meadow, where he is rescued by
the hermit Criston Vora. Criston nurses him back to health, and then helps the prester make his way to Calay.


As the Iborian Kjelnar constructs Korastine’s new Arkship, Destrar Broeck goes out into the northern wastelands to track down
and kill the fabled ice dragon, whose horn supposedly has magical properties. Broeck returns to Calay with the shimmering
horn, which will be mounted on the prow of the Arkship. Both Broeck and Korastine intend to sail on the vessel, and Aldo na-Curic
will be the chartsman. Before the new Arkship can depart, though, ra’virs strike in the night and burn the ship in the harbor. The Tierran dreams are dashed.


Soldan-Shah Omra decides to recapture the barren city of Ishalem for his people and puts together a major assault. His wife
Istar gives him a son at last, whom she names Criston, which only increases the jealousy Cliaparia holds toward her. Omra
has recently taken a third wife, NAORI, who is also pregnant. The soldan-shah bids them all farewell, and heads off with his
armies to conquer Ishalem. His operation works perfectly. Before the Tierran army can respond effectively, Omra destroys the
enemy military outposts and kills all the Aidenist pilgrims. He claims the ash-strewn ground in the name of Uraba.


Back in Olabar, Cliaparia schemes to oust Istar, but she fails… which only forces her to try even darker treachery. After
Naori gives birth to a baby boy—another heir for the soldan-shah—Cliaparia slips a poisonous sand spider into the crib of
Istar’s year-old son Criston, and the boy dies. Saan returns from the land of the Nunghals to discover that his mother has
been nearly driven mad by the death of the baby, while Cliaparia remains smug. When Istar learns that Cliaparia was the murderer,
she does not hesitate. Thinking of nothing but revenge, she goes to the market, where she finds Cliaparia laughing with her
ladies-in-waiting. She stabs the hateful woman to death in broad daylight and dumps her body into the harbor, then staggers
away in shock, covered in blood. As she wanders through the market stalls, Istar is stunned to discover a merchant selling
a letter found sealed in a bottle. One of Criston’s letters to her.


Having saved Prester Hannes, Criston at last decides to return to his former life. Over the years living alone in the mountains,
he has dabbled with making models of sailing ships, exploring different designs. King Korastine and all of Calay are reeling
from the heinous burning of the Arkship, but Criston presents himself to the king with new models and offers his services
to create, and captain, a new ship.


Suspended in a rope cradle abeam of the vessel, a grizzled craftsman used mallet, chisel, and rasp to fashion the ornate lettering.
He followed charcoal lines drawn on the sanded surface, coaxing the ship’s name from the wood.


Dyscovera. The word embodied everything that the magnificent new ship was meant to be, evoking the hopes pinned on her mission and her
captain.


Criston Vora stood on the dock in Shipbuilders’ Bay, regarding the whole ship. His ship. Soon, she would sail across the unexplored seas to find the lost land of Terravitae. And he would succeed this time.


Using hooks and a block-and-tackle, seasoned workers scurried up the shroud lines, stringing a cat’s-cradle of ropes to support
the masts and spars. From inside and outside the curved hull, caulkers hammered oakum between boards to prevent saltwater
from leaking in; carpenters sanded and planed the golden wood that furnished the cabins, while painters and gilders added
finishing touches to the exterior, making every detail as beautiful as possible—for Holy Joron.


Even under the bright sun, the late spring air remained crisp and cool. Work progressed on the three-masted carrack, six years
after hateful Urecari saboteurs had burned the new Arkship that King Korastine had commissioned. A few blackened hull timbers
could still be seen at the bottom of Shipbuilders’ Bay, where the ruined exploration vessel had sunk.


But this new ship proved that hope was not gone, merely delayed. This wasn’t the first time Criston Vora had resurrected hope
from the ashes….


The bare-chested Iborian shipwright, Kjelnar, walked up and down the deck, indifferent to the chill. For a man who had grown
up in the cold northern reach, this was a balmy day. Waving to Criston on the dock, he yelled over the bustling noise of construction
work. “The fittings are ready, Captain! The ice-dragon horn will have its home on the Dyscovera’s prow.”


Criston cupped his hands around his mouth and called back, “Let’s hope your Iborian legends are as reliable as your craftsmanship.
We need all the protection we can get.” The horn had originally been meant for Korastine’s first Arkship; fortunately, the
relic had not been installed when the ship burned in the harbor. Now the horn would be kept under guard inside the main Aidenist
kirk, until just before the Dyscovera sailed.


Feeling a tug on his sleeve, Criston looked down to see his young companion. “Are we going aboard, sir? I want to see what
they’ve finished in your cabin since yesterday.”


Criston gave Javian an indulgent smile, feeling a bond with him. He remembered when he himself was fourteen, excited to sail
out on fishing boats with his father. He would stare out to sea, imagining mysterious lands just beyond the horizon. “You’ll
have more than enough time to memorize every splinter and every knot in every deckboard. I suggest you spend your time on
dry land while you can, take advantage of what Calay has to offer.”


But Javian could not take his eyes off of the ship. “The sea has more to offer, sir.”

The young man had lost his mother in the last major gray fever epidemic that scoured the streets of Calay and had run away
from his desperate and abusive father. Javian had told Criston how, since the age of ten, he had haunted the docks and eked
out a living by doing odd jobs, begging afternoon scraps from fishmongers’ stalls.


The young man was curious, determined, and—most important of all—made himself useful. During the Dyscovera’s construction, if one of the craftsmen grumbled about an unpleasant task, Javian bounded off to do it without being asked.
After observing him, Criston had offered to make Javian his personal cabin boy for the voyage.


So much like me, when I was his age…

It had been more than eighteen years since the Luminara sailed under Captain Andon Shay with similar dreams and determination. Back then, Criston and his crewmates had gone beyond
the boundaries of any known map… and he had lost everything. Though he survived the shipwreck, his life was forever changed.
After many quiet years as a hermit, Criston had decided to face life again and return to the sea. He’d been back among humanity
for six years now, but he never stopped feeling alone. His focus, his obsession, set him apart from others: Criston was sure
that the Luminara had been close, very close, to her sacred destination. With the Dyscovera, he intended to go back and search again.


A hush drifted across the docks like an unexpected breeze. A group of blue-uniformed royal guards escorted an old man in plush
maroon robes. King Korastine leaned on a carved walking stick, though he seemed embarrassed to be using it. The king had closely
watched the progress of the Dyscovera, from the laying of the keel to the setting of ribs and the mounting of hull planks. Criston knew how badly Korastine wanted to sail away from Tierra. Years ago, the king had
planned to go aboard the new Arkship, along with Destrar Broeck, both of them hoping to find peace from the tragedies in their
lives. But that was not meant to be.


At Korastine’s side walked a smiling ten-year-old boy, blond-haired and thin-faced. Equally fascinated by the ships in the
harbor, Prince Tomas often joined his father in Shipbuilders’ Bay. The boy’s pale hair and eyes reflected those of his Iborian
mother, who had died when he was but four.


The king hobbled after his son, favoring his left knee. In recent years, the gout had become so bad that he could barely walk,
though he refused to be carried on a palanquin. “What news today, Captain Vora? Are we on schedule?”


Criston bowed formally. “With Kjelnar as our shipwright, Majesty, of course we’re on schedule.”

Korastine ran his wistful gaze over the lines of the vessel. With a forced smile, he patted his swollen leg. “Much as I’d
like to be part of your crew, Captain, I will stay here and await your reports.”


Prince Tomas took a step ahead of his father. “I want to go along.”


Korastine smiled at him. “I don’t doubt that would be more amusing than court functions, but the voyage will be too dangerous.
You have to stay here in Tierra, where it’s safe.”


Criston pulled his jacket tight as a cold breeze wove through the docks. By sailing in early spring, the Dyscovera should have months of good weather to take them farther than any man had ever gone. “We depart in three weeks, Sire, when
the winds should be most favorable for a long westward voyage.”


Korastine caressed his beard. “I have high hopes for you, Captain Vora.” He squeezed Tomas’s shoulder, resting some of his
weight on the boy. “Find Holy Joron. We need his aid in the crusade against the evil followers of Urec.”


The great wall across Ishalem blocked the isthmus from the Aidenist enemy. Behind God’s Barricade, the holy city would at
last be safe in Urecari hands, and on the other side Tierra would wither and die like a branch broken from a tree.


From the high hill where once had stood the ancient wreck of Urec’s Arkship, Soldan-Shah Omra watched his construction workers
and Tierran slaves continue their labors. The sweating men used log rollers lubricated with mud to pull blocks into place.
In the western harbor, a barge rode low in the water, carrying heavy blocks hewn from cliffside quarries.


In charge of the project, Kel Unwar had nearly completed a towering barrier seven miles long, stone after stone after stone,
now that the Uraban army had recaptured the blood- and ash-encrusted land. Though trained to be a military leader, Unwar was
more gifted as an engineer and organizer, commanding w