Read Path of the Eclipse Online
Authors: Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Tags: #Fiction, #Horror, #Fantasy, #Historical, #Dark Fantasy
Path of the Eclipse
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Contents
Part I:
T’en Chih-Yü
Part II:
Shih Ghieh-Man
Part III:
Tamasrajasi daughter of Rajah Kare Dantinusha of Natha Suryarathas
Other Tor books by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
“It would make you what I am…”
for
Joan Hitzig,
who, four books ago,
took a chance
on an honourable vampire
This is a work of fiction, albeit one concerned with actual historical events. No character should be construed as representing or intended to represent any actual person or persons living or dead.
In thirteenth-century China there were no less than one hundred six different almanacs in common use, and for that reason assigning dates to events has been difficult. I have arbitrarily used the current Chinese dating system and cycled it back to the time of the narrative. India was no less complicated, for though there was a standard calendar in occasional use, regional systems were prevalent. Reliable records for conditions in Tibet are few, but I have made use of translations of contemporary reports wherever possible.
Although there were female warlords in Tang Dynasty China in the seventh and eighth centuries of the Christian calendar, the tradition had, in fact, died out by the time of this story. The writer hopes that the reader will not be too disturbed by this anachronism, or any others that may have inadvertently crept into the text.
In
A.D.
1211 the Mongolian chief known as Temujin invaded China, and three years later captured the Northern Capital, Pei-King. He proclaimed himself Khan (Lord), taking the personal name Janghiz. His grandson became Emperor of China, founded the Yuan Dynasty and is known to history as Kublai Khan.
This story begins in the spring of 1216, in the old Tang Dynasty capital of Lo-Yang. At that time, Lo-Yang was the administrative center of northern China, but K’ai-Feng was the Imperial capital, which essentially divided the bureaucracy, a strategic error that contributed significantly to the poor resistance to the invasion by the Chinese army.
Though China was in the throes of the Mongol invasion and conquest for more than twenty-five years, and the Mongol Empire by 1218 extended from China to Persia, the west, and Europe in particular, was in a much more chaotic state. In England King John died leaving England still in debt to France and the Pope. Spain was Moorish in the south and Christian Visigoth in the north. In 1215 the Dominican Friars were founded in Spain, beginning the six-hundred-year rule of the Spanish Inquisition. Other major religious orders founded at about this time include the Franciscans and the Carmelites. In Brussels, Rheims, Amiens and Salisbury, cathedrals were being erected. Fully a third of the armed forces of Europe were in the Near East on Crusade against the sultanate of Egypt, which senseless effort ended in failure. In France, persecution of the Catherists or Albigensian heretics had been going on for almost a century and had at last become a matter of state policy as the Catholic Church struggled to gain absolute ascendancy over the Christian communities of Europe.
The revolutionary three-field system of planting was spreading through Europe, and the Romanesque society was slowly being replaced by the Medieval society. Though the Black Death had not yet arrived in Europe, smallpox, cholera, typhus and malnutrition claimed thousands of lives annually. For the average peasant or artisan, life expectancy was about 32–35 years, for the military nobility, assuming one did not die in battle, the average life expectancy was roughly ten years longer. Most women, if they did not enter the church, were married by age 13 and produced an average of eight children before dying of childbirth or related causes at age 27. Childbirth was by far the most common cause of death for women in Europe, and there is little difference between the survival rates for upper- and lower-class women.
By contrast, China at that time had attained an average life expectancy of 41–44 for peasants and artisans, 55 for the martial nobility and 62 for the academic and bureaucratic classes. Though childbirth and its complications claimed a fair number of women, the average life span was somewhat longer—about 38 years, and upper-class women had life expectancies about equal to that of their husbands.
In India, the Delhi Sultanate had been founded, bringing the still-unresolved conflict between Hindu and Moslem to that subcontinent. Most of India was divided into a number of minor principalities, of which Natha Suryarathas is a fictional example, though there were a few large and fairly strong states in the thirteenth century. China, Tibet and India each possessed its own version of Buddhism, though only in Tibet did it become the state religion, where, in the fifteenth century, the institution of the Dalai Lama replaced the monarchy. There were also a few small communities of Nestorian and Thomist Christians throughout Asia, though they had little or no contact with the Western branches of their faith, and in time died out.
The hard-pressed Byzantine Empire had been eclipsed by the Holy Roman Empire in Europe, though it still commanded a degree of lip service from the west, more for military than cultural reasons, since the Greek-speaking Byzantines, though they thought of themselves as Romans, were essentially an Asian society.
In the west such cities as Pei-King and Moscow were generally thought to be legendary, though some slight communication between east and west had been maintained since the second century
B.C.
, and commerce between China and Europe did exist.
Though this story takes place before the travels of Marco Polo, many of his observations are extremely useful to any student of this period, for though the Chinese court was Mongol instead of Tartar by the time Polo arrived there, most of the culture was as it had been fifty years before. What is particularly revealing about Polo’s records is his own attitude—the reaction of a Western Christian from the important maritime Venetian Republic to the vast and ancient civilization of China. For Indian sources, works of certain Persian scholars and travelers of the period are highly informative, and the journey of the alchemist Ch’ang-Ch’un from China to India gives a reverse perspective and has the advantage of occurring at the same time as the events in this novel.
Acknowledgments
The writer would like to thank those people who gave generously of their time and expertise in the preparation of this book, in particular:
Barton Whaley, for his inexhaustible scholarship, in several languages, specifically his information on the rise of the Mongols;
David Nee, researcher extraordinaire;
Jo Feldman, for providing access to Chinese vampire love;
and
Charles Smith, for knowing where to find the unfindable.
Any errors in fact or misconceptions are certainly not the fault of any of these good people.
PART I
T’en Chih-Yü
Text of a letter from the literary candidate Feng Kuo-Ma to the Magisterial Tribunal of Lo-Yang.
On the day of the Dragon Boat Festival in the Year of the Rat, the Thirteenth Year of the Sixty-fifth Cycle, to the August Magistrates:
The inquiry of the August Magistrates regarding the foreigner known as Shih Ghieh-Man has been given to this humble person in order that he may render a full account to the Tribunal and the Imperial Court at K’ai-Feng of what he has observed as a student of this foreigner.
While it is true that Shih Ghieh-Man is a wholly appropriate name for this man, and he informs me that it is not dissimilar to the name he was given as a child, he also has been known by the barbarous name Ra-Go-Shkee, which syllables not only come most inelegantly to the tongue, but imply nothing of his nature. As Shih suggests, he is something of a magician, and may be possessed of various magical secrets, though this humble person wishes to assure the August Magistrates that he has said nothing of this directly. As Ghieh implies, he is a man of courage, and though his beauty is that of the West, yet it is a fine beauty, so that Man is not unsuitable. The August Magistrates have undoubtedly been informed that this Shih Ghieh-Man prefers to dress in black, which he relieves with red and silver, making him a most striking person as well as honoring our laws. Though this Shih Ghieh-Man has mastered many alchemical arts, he has never offered the effrontery of wearing yellow or gold, which would be singularly offensive. Shih Ghieh-Man has told this humble person that it has long been his custom to wear black, red and silver, and all of his students have honored him for his tact in this matter.
However, in regard to the question of the origin of this Shih Ghieh-Man, Candidate Feng is desolated to be unable to provide the requested information. The foreigner Shih Ghieh-Man has often indicated that his native land is in the West, though he has revealed little more. He has the appearance of the West in the shape of his eyes and the shade of his skin, and though his hair is dark, it curls. His accent, while quite good for one not born to the language, is similar to that of the Western Black Robes who came here in the Year of the Horse.
In regard to the question of his possible affiliation to that demonic rabble that follows the despicable criminal Temujin, whose forces now occupy Pei-King, Shih Ghieh-Man has often said that he has been in the desolate city of Karokorum, the capital of the Mongol forces, though he indicates that it was some time ago, and from the description he has offered, it would appear it has been many years since he was last in that place. He has never professed to admire Temujin or the rapacious war that has been waged against us by the malignant northerners.
Candidate Feng respectfully reminds the August Magistrates that he has had the privilege of studying with this Shih Ghieh-Man for little more than four years, and there has been a proper reserve in the relationship. Some of that reserve may be due to his foreignness, but this humble person has often thought that the loneliness he has perceived in Shih Ghieh-Man goes far beyond that of a foreigner. Apparently Shih Ghieh-Man is content to endure this, for he has never approached this person or any of his other students with offers of friendship beyond the respect of master and pupil.
In regard to the natures of the studies of Shih Ghieh-Man, the Candidate Feng is not yet sufficiently qualified to speak with any authority, but he begs the August Magistrates to consider his unworthy and uneducated opinions, bearing their value in mind. Shih Ghieh-Man has shown himself to be most skilled in all the alchemical arts, far more than any other such from the West has been, though his techniques are often unorthodox. This may be due to his Western training, but this humble person has had no opportunity to discover whether or not such is the case. These considerations aside, Shih Ghieh-Man excels. His is the intellect of discernment and discrimination. He has not engaged much in the production of dangerous substances, preferring to create jewels and gold from the application of his skills rather than to tamper with burning powders. He has also, when respectfully requested to do so by the garrison captains, provided alloys for their armor and weapons which the distinguished captain Lao Gan-Ti has commended as being capable of piercing the hides of elephants and crocodiles. The captain has spoken to the foreigner Shih Ghieh-Man of late, and though this humble person is not privy to their discussions, he had made a number of assumptions that he will reveal to the August Magistrates. This humble person believes that the captain Lao Gan-Ti is interested in a new method of laminating bows for greater force and resilience. The foreigner Shih Ghieh-Man has said that he knows of an ancient method that would indeed produce the required characteristics, but he has yet to demonstrate an example of this material.