The Shining Ones
David Eddings
the Tamuli book 2
Years ago, the Child-Goddess Aphrael had hidden Bhelliom, the Stone of Power,
at the bottom of the sea. Yet now it is needed again to stop a malign force
from spreading evil and destruction across the lands. Sparhawk, Queen’s
champion, sets out to retrieve the Stone. But others seek the gem for their
own diabolical ends. Most fearsome of these are the Shining Ones, whose mere
touch melts human flesh from bone. Now Sparhawk finds himself stalked by these
creatures out of myth . . . whose touch is all too real.
PROLOGUE
Excerpted from Chapter Three of the ‘ Cyrga
Affair: An Examination of the Recent Crisis’.
Compiled by the Contemporary History Department
of the University of Matherion.
A compilation such as this is the work of many scholars, and
thus inevitably reflects differing views. While the author of this
portion of the work in hand has enormous respect for his eminent
colleague who so ably composed the preceding chapter,
the reader must be candidly advised that this writer differs from
his colleague in the interpretation of a number of recent events.
I most definitely do not agree that the intervention by the agents
of the Church of Chyrellos in the Cyrga Affair was entirely
untainted by self-interest.
I must join with my colleague, however, in expressing my
admiration and respect for Zalasta of Styricum. The inestimable
services to the Empire of this wise and faithful statesman cannot
be overly praised. Thus it was that when the full import of the
Cyrga Affair burst upon his Majesty’s government, it was quite
natural for our ministers to turn to Zalasta for counsel. Despite
our admiration for this pre-eminent citizen of Styricum, however,
we must admit that Zalasta’s mind is so noble that he
sometimes fails to perceive less admirable qualities in others.
There were grave doubts in some quarters of his Majesty’s
government when Zalasta urged that we turn our attention
beyond the borders of Tamuli in our quest for a solution to the
problem which was quite rapidly approaching the dimensions
of a crisis. His suggestion that the Pandion Knight, Sir Sparhawk
was best suited to deal with the situation troubled the
more conservative members of the Imperial Council. Despite the
man’s military genius, he is nonetheless a member of one of the
Militant Orders of the Church of Chyrellos, and prudent men
do not lower their guard when compelled by necessity to have
%
Second Zemoch War between the Knights of the Church of
Chyrellos and the minions of Otha of Zemoch. Not even Zalasta,
whose wisdom is legendary, can tell us precisely what took
place in the City of Zemoch during Sir Sparhawk’s fateful confrontation
with Otha and with the Zemoch God, Azash. There
have been some garbled hints that Sir Sparhawk may have utilized
an ancient talisman known as ‘the Bhelliom’ in the struggle,
but no reputable scholar has been able to uncover any details
about the talisman or its attributes. However he managed to
perform the astounding feat, it is undeniably true that Sir Sparhawk
was successful in his mission, and it was clearly that
remarkable success which stampeded his Imperial Majesty’s
government into turning to this Pandion Knight for aid in the
early stages of the Cyrga Affair – despite the grave reservations
of some highly respected ministers, who quite correctly pointed
out that an alliance between the Empire and the Church of Chyrellos
might well be fraught with unseen dangers. Unfortunately
perhaps, the faction headed by Foreign Minister Oscagne currently
has the Emperor’s ear, and our Prime Minister, Pondia
Subat, was unable to prevent the government from embarking
on a potentially dangerous course of action.
Foreign Minister Oscagne himself headed the mission to the
seat of the Elene Church at Chyrellos to petition Archprelate
Dolmant for Sir Sparhawk’s aid in dealing with the crisis. While
no one can question Oscagne’s skill in diplomacy, his political
views have been called into question in some quarters, and it is
widely known that he and the Prime Minister have disagreed
Violently in the past. The politics of the Eosian Continent are murky, for
there is
no central authority there. Quite frequently, the Church of
Chyrellos finds itself at odds with the reigning monarchs of the
separate Elene kingdoms. As a Church Knight, Sir Sparhawk
would normally be under the command of Archprelate Dolmant,
but that simple and direct line of command was clouded by the
fact that Sparhawk is also the Prince Consort of the Queen of
Elenia and therefore subject to her whims. It was here that
Foreign Minister Oscagne was able to demonstrate his virtuosity
in the field of diplomacy. Archprelate Dolmant clearly saw the
contiguity of interest with the Empire in the matter, but queen
Ehlana remained unconvinced. The queen of Elenia is young,
and her emotions sometimes cloud her judgement. She clearly
viewed the notion of a prolonged separation from her husband
with a profound lack of enthusiasm. In a brilliant stroke, however,
Foreign Minister Oscagne proposed that Sir Sparhawk’s
journey to the Daresian Continent might best be masked by a
state visit of Queen Ehlana to the imperial court in Matherion.
As Prince Consort, Sir Sparhawk would quite naturally accompany
his wife, and his presence would thus be fully explained.
This proposal sufficiently mollified Sparhawk’s queen, and she
finally agreed.
Travelling with a suitable escort of one hundred Church
Knights and various functionaries, Queen Ehlana took ship and
sailed to the port of Salesha in eastern Zemoch. From there
the royal party travelled north to Basne where an additional
escort of horsemen from eastern Pelosia awaited them. Thus
reinforced, the Elenes crossed the border into Astel in western
Daresia.
The accounts we have received of the queen’s journey have
shown some glaring inconsistencies. Objections have been
raised that, should we accept the word of these Elenes, we
would clearly be faced with an absurdity. After some consideration,
however, this writer has become convinced that these
apparent discrepancies can be easily reconciled if those who so
violently object will but take the trouble to examine the differences
between the Elene and the Tamul calendars. The Queen
of Elenia did not, in fact, pretend to have flown across the continent,
as some have scornfully suggested. her progress was quite
normal, and it will be recognized as such if the learned gentlemen
will but take note of the fact that the Eleine week is longer than
ours.
At any rate, the queen’s party reached the capital of Astel
at Darsas, where Queen Ehlana so charmed King Alberen that
Ambassador Fontan humorously reported that the poor man
was on the verge of giving her’ his crown. Prince Sparhawk,
meanwhile, began to actively pursue the real purpose behind
his journey to Tamuli, the gathering of information about what
the Elenes had melodramatically come to call ‘the conspiracy).
The queen’s party was joined ‘at Darsas by two legions of Atan
warriors under the leadership of Engessa, the commander of the
garrison at Genae, and they journeyed to Pela on the steppes of
central Astel to meet with the nomadic Peloi. From thence they
set out for the Styric city of Sarsos in northeastern Astel.
A disturbing note emerges from the accounts of this journey,
however. The Foreign Minister, either duped or willingly conspiring
with the Elenes, reported that, somewhat to the west of
Sarsos, the royal party encountered Cyrgai This clear evidence
of an intent to deceive his Majesty’s government has raised grave
questions, not only about Oscagne’s loyalty, but about the sincerity
of the Elenes as well. As Prime Minister Subat pointed
out, Foreign Minister Oscagne is, though brilliant, sometimes
erratic, a common characteristic of the overly gifted. Moreover,
the Prime Minister added, Prince Sparhawk and his companions
are Church Knights, after all, and the Church of Chyrellos iS
widely known to be a political as well as a spiritual force on the
Eosian Continent. Dark suspicions began to arise in the halls of
his Majesty’s government, and many have expressed grave
doubts about the wisdom of our course. Some have even gone
so far as to raise the possibility that the disruptions here in
Tamuli might be of Elene origin, providing as they did a perfect
excuse for an incursion onto the continent by the Church
Knights, the acknowledged agents of Archprelate Dolmant.
Could it be, they ask, that this entire affair has been contrived by
Dolmant to provide his Church with the opportunity to forcibly
convert all of Tamuli to the worship of the Elene God and thus
advised this writer that he is seriously concerned about this
possibility. At Sarsos, Queen Ehlana’s party was joined by Sephrenia,
who was formerly the tutor of the Pandions in the Secrets of
styricum, but who is now a member of the Thousand, the ruling
council in that city. They were also joined there by Zalasta himself,
a fact which has quieted some of our anxieties in regard to