The Scarab Path

Acknowledgments

Again, I couldn’t have done it without Simon Kavanagh, constant fount of
cautions and advice, Peter Lavery of the masterful pencil and wine glass in
equal measures, Julie Crisp and Chloe Healy and everyone else at Tor, and Jon
Sullivan for his sterling work on the covers. I should also thank Lou Anders of
Pyr for all his help and support across the water. Furthermore, anyone who
turns up at signings, conventions, or posts on
www.shadowsoftheapt.com
, is also entitled
to no small measure of thanks.

For the
better edification of the reader, there is a complete cast list at the back of
the book, as well as a complete cast list for the series on the website.

People

Accius
Vekken Ant-kinden ambassador

Achaeos
Moth-kinden, lover of Cheerwell, deceased

Akneth
Khanaphir Beetle-kinden tax gatherer

Amnon
Khanaphir Beetle-kinden, First Soldier of Khanaphes

Angved
Wasp-kinden engineer

Arianna
Spider-kinden former agent, Stenwold’s lover

Berjek Gripshod
Beetle-kinden scholar

Brugan
Wasp-kinden Lord General of the Rekef

Cheerwell Maker
(“Che”)
Beetle-kinden scholar, niece of Stenwold

Corolly Vastern
Beetle-kinden Rekef agent

Corcoran
Solarnese Beetle-kinden factor for the Iron Glove

Dannec
Wasp-kinden Rekef officer

Dariandrephos
(“Drephos”)
halfbreed artificer, former Imperial officer

Dariset
Khanaphir Beetle-kinden soldier

Ethmet
Khanaphir Beetle-kinden, First Minister of Khanaphes

Faighl
Solarnese Beetle-kinden Iron Glove guard

The Fisher
Khanaphir halfbreed information broker

Genraki
Scorpion-kinden warrior

Gjegevey
Woodlouse-kinden advisor to the Empress

Gram
Wasp-kinden Rekef agent

Hakkon
halfbreed helmsman with the Iron Glove

Halmir
Khanaphir Beetle-kinden soldier

Harbir the
Arranger
Khanaphir Beetle-kinden assassin

Helmess Broiler
Beetle-kinden statesman, enemy of Stenwold

Hrathen
halfbreed Rekef agent

Jakal
Scorpion-kinden, Warlord of the Many of Nem

Jodry Drillen
Beetle-kinden statesman, ally of Stenwold

Jons Allanbridge
Beetle-kinden aviator

Kham
Khanaphir
Beetle-kinden soldier

Kadro
Fly-kinden scholar

Kovalin
Scorpion-kinden chieftain

Malius
Vekken Ant-kinden ambassador

Marger
Wasp-kinden Rekef officer

Mannerly Gorget
(“Manny”)
Beetle-kinden scholar

Meyr
Mole
Cricket-kinden Iron Glove factor

Mother
halfbreed Fir eater

Osgan
Wasp-kinden supply officer

Parrols
Beetle-kinden aviator

Petri Coggen
Beetle-kinden scholar, Kadro’s assistant

Praeda Rakespear
Beetle-kinden scholar

Pravoc
Wasp-kinden colonel

Ptasmon
Khanaphir Beetle-kinden soldier

Seda
Wasp-kinden Empress

Stenwold Maker
Beetle-kinden statesman

Sulvec
Wasp-kinden Rekef officer

Tathbir
Khanaphir Beetle-kinden Minister

Te Berro
Fly-kinden spy, former Rekef agent

Te Rallo
Alla-Maani (“Trallo”)
Fly-kinden caravan master

Te Schola
Taki-Amre (“Taki”)
Fly-kinden aviatrix

Tegrec
Wasp-kinden ambassador from Tharn to the Empire

Teuthete
Mantis-kinden Chosen

Thalric
Wasp-kinden Regent of the Empire, former Rekef officer

Tirado
Fly-kinden Iron Glove messenger

Tisamon
Mantis-kinden Weaponsmaster, deceased

Totho
halfbreed artificer, leader of the Iron Glove

Tynisa
halfbreed Weaponsmaster, daughter of Tisamon

Vargen
Wasp-kinden governor of Tyrshaan

Vollen
Wasp-kinden Rekef agent

Places

Alim
forest, source of the river Jamail

Capitas
chief city of the Wasp Empire

Chasme
city on the Exalsee, noted for its mercenary artificers

Collegium
Beetle-kinden city in the Lowlands, noted for its academics

Commonweal
Dragonfly state north of the Lowlands, part-occupied by the Empire

Darakyon
forest, formerly Mantis-kinden hold and, until recently, haunted

Exalsee
inland sea east of the Lowlands

Helleron
Beetle-kinden city in the Lowlands, noted for its merchants

Jamail
river running from the Forest Alim to Khanaphes

Khanaphes
Beetle-kinden city far to the east of the Exalsee

Maynes
Ant-kinden city, formerly occupied by the Empire

Myna
Beetle-kinden city, formerly occupied by the Empire

Ostrander
Ant-kinden outpost on the Exalsee

Porta Rabi
Solarnese outpost on the Sunroad Sea

Sarn
Ant-kinden city allied with Collegium

Shalk
Fly-kinden city in the Empire

Solarno
Spider-ruled city on the Exalsee

Sonn
Beetle-kinden city in the Empire

Spiderlands
wide expanse south of the Lowlands, ruled by the Spider-kinden

Szar
Bee-kinden city, formerly occupied by the Empire

Tark
Ant-kinden city, formerly occupied by the Empire

Three City
Alliance
coalition of Myna, Szar and Maynes

Tyrshaan
Bee-kinden city in the Empire

Vek
Ant-kinden city, traditional enemies of Collegium

Zafir
Khanaphir city on the Jamail

Organizations and things

Assembly
governing body of Collegium, elected

Consortium of the
Honest
the mercantile arm of the Empire

Great College
academic establishment at the heart of Collegium

Iron Glove
a merchant house trading out of Chasme

Mercers
agents of the Commonweal’s Monarch

Rekef Inlander
the Imperial secret service arm devoted to internal security

Rekef Outlander
the Imperial secret service arm devoted to external security

Scriptora
the seat of Khanaphir government

Skryres
the magi-rulers of the Moth-kinden

Speaker
the leader of the Assembly

Twelve-year War
the campaign waged against the Commonweal by the Wasp Empire.

Summary

The war that the Wasp Empire brought against all the
cities of the Lowlands has ended in a stalemate and an uneasy truce.

The Mantis-kinden weaponsmaster Tisamon, in his dying moments,
destroyed the Shadow Box that held all the darkness of the Forest Darakyon and
the twisted history of his race. In the same clash, the Emperor himself died,
as did the Mosquito-kinden Uctebri, who had sought to use the Box to make the
Emperor’s sister, Seda, an immortal puppet-queen. Now Seda has become Empress
of a people never ruled by a woman before, and while she tries to hold onto
power, the rest of the world is safe from Imperial ambition.

At Seda’s side is Thalric, once an his so-calledofficer in the
Rekef, the Imperial secret service, and then a fugitive on the run from his own
people. His war record is one of dubious deeds done for both sides, but he
provides Seda with a male figurehead while she rebuilds her Empire.

In Collegium, Stenwold Maker works on preparing his city for a
return of hostilities that he sees as inevitable. Reminders of the toll that
the war took are all around him, though. As well as Tisamon himself, it is the
loss of the Moth-kinden, Achaeos, that cuts most deeply. Dying of his injuries
during a ritual that invoked the power of the Darakyon, Achaeos left behind two
women whose lives are shattered by his death. One is Stenwold’s niece
Cheerwell, Achaeos’s lover. The other is Tisamon’s daughter, Tynisa, who gave
him the wound that eventually killed him.

The Road to Khanaphes

He was Kadro, Master Kadro of the Great College of the city of Collegium,
which was half a world away and no help to him now. A little Fly-kinden man,
long hair going grey and face unshaven, waiting for the pitchest dark before
beginning his work.
Oh, I have striven all my life against
the way my race is seen
. The perception of Fly-kinden as thieves, as
rogues, as a feckless, rootless underclass in any city you cared to name. He
had thought that he was beyond that, Master Kadro the antiquarian and
historian, who had stood before a class of twenty avid scholars and propounded
his learning. He had stood on a box, certainly, so as to be seen over the
lectern, but he had stood there nonetheless.

And here
he was, skulking like a villain as the evening drew on and the city below him
grew quiet and still. The farmers would have come in from their fields by now.
They would be lighting the beacons along the great wall. They would eventually
be going to sleep. Those sentries that remained would be blind to the night
hanging beyond their small fires. Kadro, who could see in the dark as the
locals could not, would then strike. It was a poor way for a guest to treat his
hosts, but he was beginning to believe that his hosts had not been entirely
honest with him.

We sighted the
walls of Khanaphes today. After the wastelands it was a view to take the breath
away. Golden stone raised higher than the walls of Collegium or of any Ant
city-state – and with statues piled on that – architecturally bewildering but,
given the people that live here, I suppose it’s not surprising. Huge buildings
and broad avenues; every major building constructed vastly out of scale. For a
man of my stature it was daunting – even for the locals it must make them feel
like midgets. Beyond the walls, the strip of green that is the river’s
attendant foliage runs north, a single channel of life in the desert.