The Throne of Scone Read online

  Also by Patricia Kennealy

  The Copper Crown

  The Throne of Scone

  A BOOK OF THE KELTIAD

  Patricia Kennealy

  Bluejay Books

  A Bluejay Book, published by arrangement with the Author

  Copyright (c) 1986 by Patricia Kennealy Morrison

  Jacket art (c) by Tom Canty

  Book design by Martha Schwartz

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the express written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. For information, contact Bluejay Books Inc., Suite 306, 1123 Broadway, New York, New York 10010.

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First Bluejay printing: May 1986

  This book is printed on acid-free paper. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources.

  ISBN: 0-312-94424-1

  To my mother and father

  Notes on Pronunciation

  The spellings and pronunciations of the names and words in The Keltiad are probably unfamiliar to most readers, unless one happens to be thoroughly steeped in things like the Mabinogion or the Cuchulainn cycle. The Celtic languages (Irish, Scots Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, Manx and Breton) upon which I have drawn for my nomenclature are not related to any tongue that might provide a clue as to their derivation or spoken sound. Outside of loan-words, they have no Latin root as do the Romance tongues, and they are in fact derived from a totally different branch of the Indo-European linguistic tree.

  Therefore I have taken certain, not always consistent, liberties with orthography in the interests of reader convenience, though of course one may deal with the names any way one likes, or even not at all. But for those who might like to humor the author, I have made this list of some of the more difficult names, words and phonetic combinations.

  One further note, to those (and they are legion) whose Celtic linguistic scholarship exceeds my poor own: The words used herein are meant to be Keltic, not Celtic. I have appropriated fairly even-handedly from most of the Celtic languages--and from Elizabethan English and Lowland Scots (Lallans) as well where it seemed good to do so--both archaisms and words that are in common modern usage, and in not a few cases I have tampered with their meanings to suit my own purposes. Therefore do not be unduly alarmed should familiar words turn out to be not all they seem. Words may be reasonably assumed to change over time and distance; Keltia is very far away by both measures, and who is to say (if not I) what words they shall be speaking and what meaning those words shall have.

  But just in case that does not suffice to avert the wrath of the purists, I hereby claim prior protection under the Humpty-Dumpty Law: "When I use a word... it means just what I choose it to mean--neither more nor less." Now you are warned.

  Vowels

  Generally the usual, though a is mostly pronounced "ah" and i never takes the sound of "eye," but always an "ee" or "ih" sound. Thus: "ard-ree" for Ard-righ, not "ard-rye." Final e is always sounded; thus: "Slay-nee" for Slaine, not "Slain;" Shane is pronounced as in English.

  Vowel Combinations

  aoi: "ee" as in "heel"

  ao: "ay" as in "pay"

  au: "ow" as in "cow," never "aw" as in "saw"; thus Juan rhymes with "crown," not with "fawn."

  ae, ai: "I" as in "high." Exceptions: the proper names Aeron and Slaine, where the sound is "ay" as in "day."

  a: The accent gives it length. Thus, dan is pronounced "dan."

  io: "ih" if unaccented. If accented (io), then "ee."

  Consonants

  c: always a "k" sound. (To avoid the obvious problem here, the more usual Celt, Celtic, Celtia have been spelled Kelt, Keltic, Keltia, throughout.)

  ch, kh: gutturals as in the German "ach," never "ch" as in "choose"

  g: always hard, as in "get" or "give"

  bh: pronounced as "v"

  dd: pronounced as "th" in "then," not as in "thin"

  Some of the more difficult names

  Aeron: AIR-on

  Aoibhell: ee-VELL

  Gwydion: GWID-eeon

  Rioghnach: REE-oh-nakh

  Caerdroia: car-DROY-uh

  Taoiseach: TEE-shokh

  Sidhe: shee

  Annwn: annoon

  Nudd: neethe (sometimes spelled Neith)

  Sorcha: SURR-uh-kha

  Taliesin: tal-YES-in

  Kynon: kinnon

  Pryderi: pree-DARE-ee

  duhin: doo-heen

  Irin Mage: EE-rin MAH-gay

  Scone: properly, skoon; but, as you please

  Characters

  Kelts

  Aeron Aoibhell, High Queen of Kelts

  Gwydion ap Arawn, King of Keltia, Prince of Gwynedd, First Lord of War

  Morwen Douglas, Duchess of Lochcarron, Taoiseach of Keltia

  Rohan, Prince of Thomond, Aeron's brother and heir

  Sorcha ni Reille (Sarah O'Reilly), former Terran

  Desmond, cousin to Aeron, son to the late Elharn Ironbrow

  Shane, cousin to Aeron

  Indec, an Abbess-mother of the Ban-draoi

  Bronwen, a Ban-draoi novice

  Sabia ni Dalaigh, friend to Aeron

  Grelun, an officer in Gwydion's service

  Powell, Prince of Dyved

  Pryderi, Lord of Caradigion, his son

  Caradoc Llassar, High Admiral of the Keltic starfleet

  Gwennan Chynoweth, Captain of the flagship Firedrake

  Denzil Cameron, commander in Rohan's service

  Struan Cameron, his brother, Master of Horse

  Fedelma ni Garra, Fian general

  Donal mac Avera, Captain-General of the Fianna

  Helwen Drummond, Kin to the Dragon

  Cumara, a merrow

  Allyn son of Midna, a lord of the Sidhe

  Declan, brother to Aeron

  Fionnuala, sister to Aeron

  Gavin, Earl of Straloch, Lord Extern

  Kynon ap Accolon, Kymro and traitor

  Rioghnach, Princess of the Name, sister to Aeron

  Niall O Kerevan, Duke of Tir-connell, her husband

  Kieran, brother to Aeron, twin to Declan

  Eiluned of Garioch, his wife

  Melangell, cousin to Aeron

  Slaine, cousin to Aeron, sister to Desmond

  Ithell, a woman of Upper Darkdale

  Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the Sidhe

  Etain, his queen

  Terrans

  Haco Grex, Terran Ambassador to Keltia

  Thomas de Valadon, consul

  Deonora Maronchuk, consul

  Warren Hathaway, Lieutenant, FSS Sword

  Athenee Mikhailova, Ensign, FSS Sword

  Sarah O'Reilly, Lieutenant, FSS Sword (now Sorcha ni Reille)

  Theo Haruko, Captain, FSS Sword; deceased

  Coranians

  Jaun Akhera, Emperor of the Cabiri

  Strephon, his grandfather and predecessor as Emperor

  Helior, his mother

  Sanchoniathon, his brother

  Tinao, his mistress

  Hanno, Captain-General of the Imperial armies on Tara

  Garallaz, aide to Jaun Akhera

  Irin Mage, chief priest of the Cabiri order

  Indarrak, servant to Tinao

  Fomori

  Elathan, King of Fomor

  Camissa, his queen

  Talorcan, his half-brother

  Basilea, Queen-Dowager of Fomor, Elathan's mother

  Rauni, sister to Elathan

&n
bsp; Thona, concubine to the late King Bres, mother to Talorcan

  Borvos, captain of Elathan's guard

  Treic, his lieutenant

  In The Copper Crown:

  It is the Earth year 3512. The FSS Sword, a probe ship from Earth sent out to make diplomatic first contact with alien civilizations, arrives unknowingly in what turns out to be Keltic space.

  An interstellar kingdom comprising seven star-systems, Keltia was founded in 453 A.D. by Kelts from Earth led by St. Brendan the Astrogator. It is ruled at present by the young High Queen Aeron, who, seeing in the Sword's arrival a chance for Keltia to re-establish friendly relations with the world from which her people came so long ago, sets about achieving an alliance.

  Aeron's wish is by no means universal, however, neither within her own realm nor beyond the Curtain Wall, the psionically-maintained forcefield that conceals Keltia from the rest of the galaxy. The Cabiri Imperium and the kingdom of Fomor, ancient and bitter enemies of the Kelts, have been informed of the contact with Earth by the traitor princess Arianeira, sister of Aeron's consort-to-be, Gwydion; and now Jaun Akhera, heir to the Cabiri Emperor Strephon, and Bres, the king of Fomor, join forces to invade and occupy Keltia before Keltia can ally with Earth.

  Theo Haruko, the Japanasian captain of the Sword, and his lieutenant Sarah O'Reilly, who by now have become Aeron's friends, discover to their horror that Hugh Tindal, one of their fellow crewmen, has been seduced into joining Arianeira's treasonous plot. But before they can tell Aeron of this, Arianeira uses black sorcery to breach the Curtain Wall and let in the Imperial and Fomori fleets.

  In the savage battles that follow, the Kelts, though successful in space, cannot throw back the invaders from the Throneworld of Tara. Aeron herself engages in a fierce duel of vengeance with Bres, the Fomorian king, who has just slain her friend Haruko, and who, three years before, ambushed the Starship carrying her parents and her first consort, Roderick, all of whom perished.

  She kills Bres, whose son Elathan, now King, immediately withdraws from the war and takes his armies home to Fomor; Elathan had been opposed all along to the war with the Kelts, to the angry disgust of his father and his half-brother, Talorcan, and now that he has become King he can do as he wishes. Aeron, however, has been terribly wounded in the fight with Bres, and she is saved only by the sorcery of Gwydion, who uses his considerable powers to create a magical pool to heal her of her injuries.

  Caerdroia, the Keltic capital, finally falls to Jaun Akhera's own desperate use of sorcery--which art Aeron has steadfastly refused to employ in resistance--and Aeron, Gwydion and Morwen, the Keltic prime minister, are all taken prisoner by the Imperials.

  Arianeira, however, repents of her treachery, and, with Gwydion's complicity, arranges an escape for Aeron and Morwen. Although Aeron refuses to leave without Gwydion, at last he manages to trick her into going, and she and Morwen flee. When Jaun Akhera discovers that the Queen and her prime minister have both fled the City, and that his supposed ally Arianeira was the one who effected their escape, he is enraged, and fully intends to kill Arianeira for her betrayal. But Arianeira has already killed herself to atone for her treason to Aeron, and to thwart Jaun Akhera's vengeance, and she dies in her brother Gwydion's arms.

  The planet Tara remains in Imperial hands, with Jaun Akhera and his brother Sanchoniathon in occupation of Caerdroia--and with Gwydion as a willing hostage. He does so to keep Keltia for Aeron and in hopes of organizing a resistance; before the City's fall he dispatches the royal family and others--including the Terran lieutenant O'Reilly, who has elected to remain in Keltia after the Sword's return to Earth--to parts unknown for sanctuary.

  After a long and terrible flight over the mountains, in deep snow and bitter cold, Aeron and Morwen manage to reach a secret spaceport where Arianeira has hidden Aeron's Starship Retaliator, and in that ship they escape from the planet and from Keltia.

  They are bound on a long and difficult quest, even the reality of which is uncertain: to find the lost and legendary Treasures of Keltia, taken away from the kingdom fifteen centuries before by the great King Arthur himself--magical weapons that will enable Aeron to win back her realm from Jaun Akhera, and, if such is her final choice, to destroy Jaun Akhera and win an empire of her own for herself and for Gwydion. But first she and Morwen must find Arthur...

  Ni bu Arthur ond tra fu.

  ("Arthur himself had but his time.")

  -- 1 --

  In the days following his coronation, Elathan of Fomor had had little time to call his own. The Iron Crown of his ancestors had been set upon his head, the fealty of his barons had been accepted, the body of his father, Bres, had been placed in the dim dusty vaults beneath the palace with the fifty-four kings and queens who had preceded him as monarchs of Fomor. Time now to begin to rule, not merely to reign.

  In truth, there was much that had need of being ruled, and well did Elathan know it. In his first hour as king, he had taken a decision that would without question shape not only his own reign but the destiny of Fomor for generations and reigns to come: Thousands of star-miles away, upon the Keltic throneworld of Tara, Elathan had called his armies from the war with Keltia--had whistled them off like hounds from the hunt--and against all advice had quit the war, taking his forces home to Fomor with the body of his father. But the war had gone on all the same without him, a war neither of Elathan's making nor to Elathan's liking--a war begun in treachery by Jaun Akhera, heir to the Cabiri Imperium, and joined in by Bres out of vengeance and a long, long hatred.

  A shadow of sorrow crossed Elathan's face at the thought of his father. They had never been close--Bres had reserved such affection as he could feel, or show, for his youngest child, his blond daughter Rauni, and for Talorcan, his son by his longtime concubine Thona--and in these last few months they had been not merely estranged but actively antagonistic. All the same, Bres had been Elathan's King as well as his father, and the loss was a real one.

  Well, Bres was beyond all vengeance now, slain upon Tara by the Keltic queen herself, in a combat that had put paid to a quarrel seventy years old, and had nearly put paid to Queen Aeron as well. But she had not died: She had been taken prisoner by Jaun Akhera, and then she had escaped--fled off-planet, her friend and First Minister Morwen Douglas with her and all the Imperial fleets after her.

  And they had not found her! Elathan felt a surge of elation at the thought: hopefulness that she would continue to elude capture, and no astonishment whatever that he should feel so.

  He would not mind an escape of sorts himself: to flee the Court and his capital of Tory, to slip away to his favorite country seat in the southern hills--no attendants, no courtiers, no guards, just him and Camissa his lady. They had been happy there before--before Bres had seen fit to throw Fomor into unholy alliance with the Imperium and vengeful war with the Kelts--and they would be happy there again; though of course any such idyll would now have to wait until after their wedding, and that itself would have to wait on the six months' official mourning for Bres. But after that... The thought of Camissa brought a peace to his spirit and an ease to his bearing, and he smiled.

  The chamberlain who had stood so patiently before him all this while took the smile as recognition, and coughed discreetly.

  "The ambassadors from Alphor wait outside, Majesty. Shall I show them in?"

  Elathan came back into the present with a start, nodded reluctant assent and rose from the ivory chair as the doors opened on the Coranian envoys. He had been dreading this official encounter since the day of his crowning, had put it off, in fact, as long as he had dared; but he could keep Strephon's minions waiting no longer, not without risking insult--or retaliation.

  He had broken with protocol so far, however, as to receive them here, in his private office, at his desk with all its working clutter, instead of in the Presence Chamber as was customary. It was a subtle reminder--not too subtle, he hoped--that the ambassadors would be certain to pass on home to the Emperor Strephon.

 
He watched them as they came gliding across the room. It was the dead of winter here in Tory; yet the Coranians had defied the bitter cold and leaden skies to appear in full regalia of their home planet: long, ankle-hobbling skirts of intricately pleated white linen over narrow trousers of rich figured cloth, chests half-bared under short jackets, gold-embroidered sleeveless coats falling below their knees. Upon their heads were small shapeless caps like velvet bags, banded with jewelled cords, and their gold-capped slippers too were velvet. Their garb looked extremely foreign by contrast to the simply cut robes of the Fomori; their faces were gilded by the variable sun that had made their homeworld of Alphor by turns into a freezing desert and a burning waste. Beneath the velvet caps, their hair was thick, straight, dark.

  They stopped on the other side of the desk and bowed deeply to Elathan as the chamberlain withdrew. He returned the obeisance with the curt nod of a sovereign, concealing his distaste, and indicated that they might sit in his presence. But they carefully waited until he had resumed his own chair before they did so.

  "My lords," murmured Elathan, freeing them to speak.

  "We extend the felicitations of the Cabiri Emperor Strephon, long may he reign, to his noble cousin of Fomor," said the emissary who seemed senior of the two. "And, of course, the Imperium's deepest sorrow for the untimely demise of Your Majesty's royal father, in so abhorrent a manner."

  Elathan did not reply at once. "We thank our cousin Strephon for this earnest of his sympathy and concern," he said then. "You are here to take up your diplomatic duties, my lord--?"

  "I am called Emen Gaitz, Majesty," said the ambassador, looking more than a little chagrined, for Elathan should certainly have known his name, and, the envoy almost instantly realized, undoubtedly did... "May I present my colleague Chamara?" he murmured, chastened.

  "Your credentials?"

  Silently Emen Gaitz extended a gold diptych to Elathan, who broke the thin seal and gave the contents a cursory scan.

  "Your Majesty will find all in order... We are indeed appointed duly by the Emperor to the court of Fomor, but we have also another errand, of somewhat more delicacy, entrusted to us by another member of the Imperial family."