Tribute (22 page)
Authors: Ellen Renner
The swift circles.
Otter leads the exodus. A small thief strides beside the mage girl. The Maker walks beside the silversmith, carrying her son on his shoulders.
I walk in the dirt and I fly. I'm Zara and I'm Swift.
I see the shanty town, its stinking smoke trailing sideways in the wind, disappear into the distance. I see the white towers of Asphodel diminish and fade. I see a small army of Tributes and a huddle of Knowledge Seekers plod towards the northern horizon. And there, where the earth curves to meet the sky, I see a wall of stone dividing the land. It marches over hills, through valleys and across rivers â unbroken and unswerving, as though built by the gods themselves. The Wall of the Makers.
GLOSSARY
adept
: The most powerful mages (magic users). Mage children are tested from infancy to determine the level of their telekinetic ability (the facility to mentally manipulate the atoms and molecules of the physical world). Those with exceptional talent are chosen to train at the city's Academy, and upon graduating become adepts. Adepts are the political and social elite of mage society.
Asphodel
: The most powerful of the mage city-states and geographically closest to the northern plains and the Wall of the Makers.
archmage
: The ruler of a mage city-state. Historically chosen through mortal combat, an archmage holds near supreme political power in their city. At any time, a pretender may challenge the incumbent archmage to a magical battle to the death. The winner retains power until defeated in his or her turn.
city-state
: The main political unit of both mage and Maker societies. Each city-state is equivalent to an independent country.
counters
: The accountants of the mage world, counters are the non-magic guild in charge of counting and measuring restricted materials or resources, such as precious metals, paper, iron ore or coal. Counters report directly to their mage overlords in mage Council. In return, counters are given special privileges and held in suspicion and dislike by other guilds and the general non-magic populace.
Elsewhere
: Going to âElsewhere' is a mental ability possessed by members of the Thieves' Guild. It makes them âmentally invisible' and therefore invulnerable to mind-control by mages. Depending on how far into Elsewhere a thief goes, they can enter a form of deep hibernation, used for self-healing. If a thief goes too deeply into Elsewhere they may not come out again and will eventually die.
the first precept
: A mage must never mind-control another mage, on pain of death.
Gengst-on-the-Wall
: The largest and most powerful Maker city. Its city wall is part of the great Wall of the Makers itself. Gengst is Aidan's home town and the cultural and industrial centre of Maker culture.
guard
: A Tribute child chosen at the age of five to be trained to be a mage guard. Guards undergo severe physical training and regular brainwashing to ensure loyalty. They serve as prison and city guards or as officers in the Tribute army.
Guardian
: A former guard who has been chosen by one of the seven archmages to be her or his personal servant, bodyguard and assassin. Chosen for their physical and mental abilities, Guardians, like guards, are brainwashed from the age of five and totally loyal to the archmage they serve.
guild
: The main unit of social structure in the non-magic society on both sides of the Maker Wall. Girls and boys are apprenticed to guilds around the age of eight. They learn their trade and live with the family of a âmaster' of the guild. By the age of sixteen, most young people will have âgraduated' to become a journeyman or woman and continue to work with their master until they attain sufficient knowledge, skills and experience to be declared a master themselves. They may then set up their own business. Guilds in the mage world are strictly overseen and taxed by the mages through the Counters' Guild. Literacy is forbidden in the mage world, so all learning is practical. Technology is strictly controlled and anything which might challenge mage supremacy is forbidden.
kine
: The mage word for non-magic people â the approximately eighty per cent of the population without telekinetic powers. The word itself means âcattle'.
the Kine Rebellion
: Several centuries prior to Zara's birth, the non-magic population in the north of the continent rose up in a mass rebellion. The rebellion was bloody and prolonged. Many thousands died but, in the end, the sheer numbers of the non-magic majority overwhelmed their mage masters and every last mage in the north was hunted down and killed.
Knowledge Seekers
: A rebel group of guild leaders in Asphodel who are working for the overthrow of the mages in order to end their feudal state of slavery and gain the freedom to learn in a society where literacy is a capital crime.
mage
: Approximately twenty per cent of people in Zara's world are born with an ability to perform telekinesis. Because the ability is genetic, strict legal and social taboos exist that outlaw sexual relations between the magic and non-magic (the fourth precept), although mage-on-commoner rape is a frequent occurrence. The crime is neither socially nor legally acknowledged by mage society and therefore never punished.
mage marks
: Three abstract designs magically carved in the face of a mage in a ritual naming ceremony performed upon the child's third birthday. The marks are formed by inserting fine strands of silver into the skin of the child's face. The mother's mark goes on the right cheek; the father's on the left, and the child's own personal mark â the soul sign â on the forehead. It is a dangerous and painful ritual performed by up to six adepts working in unison. Rarely, a child will die.
Maker
: The people who live on the technologically-oriented non-magic side of the Maker Wall.
middlings
: Thief children below the age of puberty.
mind-magic
: Although ordinary mages have almost no ability to read or control the minds of others, most adepts have some degree of telepathic abilities. Mind-control of animals is used for intelligence gathering and sport. Mind-control of non-magic commoners is lawful, although even among mages it is considered unsavoury and is seldom used except for the gathering of official intelligence.
not-seen-not-heard
: The ability of thieves to become, to all extents and purposes, invisible and soundless. This is achieved through two means: 1) retreating partly into Elsewhere; and 2) great skill in the physical art of smooth, controlled movement.
safe-sworn
: The leader of the Thieves' Guild may declare an individual under his or her personal protection. That person is then âsafe-sworn' and any thief who harms them will be cast out of the guild. A pendant (the safe-sworn) belonging to the guild leader is worn around the neck of the protected person.
the second precept
: Any child born as a result of sexual union between a mage and commoner is considered a religious abomination by mage society and must be killed at birth. Of course, since rape is so prevalent, half-mage children are sometimes born and escape detection. More often, the commoner mother will expose or kill the child herself, such is the loathing and hatred felt towards mages.
Thieves' Guild
: Although the thieving community call themselves a âguild', they are more accurately described as a tribe. Unlike the other guilds, there is no intermarriage between thieves and other commoners. Thieves prey on the magic and non-magic alike and their community is close-knit and secretive. They are considered the lowest social order in both Maker and mage worlds, and are mistrusted and feared by all. The greatest achievement and honour for a thief is to kill a mage, and their folklore centres on recounting tales of the great mage-killers of the past, both historical and allegorical.
Time
: One of the seven gods of Zara's world, and the mages' primary god. Mages both worship and resent Time. Although they possess near god-like powers, mages are not immortal and Time will kill even the greatest adept in the end.
the third precept
: A mage must never physically assault another magic user. All combat must be mental, on pain of dishonour. A mage so assaulted may challenge their assailant to magical combat.
Tribute army
: An army of children sent to patrol the Maker Wall and keep the Maker threat under control. The greatest fear of any mage is that the Kine Rebellion will spread to the remaining mage city-states.
Tribute child
: Non-magic children given to the mages at the age of five. Tribute children are both slaves and a guarantee against rebellion, as every family must give their firstborn. The children serve as domestic servants when young; at the age of twelve, they are sent to serve in the Tribute army, to fight and die in the war against the Makers.
Tribute tax
: A child tax levied by the mages of the seven city-states on their commoner populations.
Wall of the
Makers
: An enormous wall that spans the continent from ocean to ocean. Built by the Makers in the aftermath of the Kine Rebellion (called the Great Rebellion in the Maker world), it is patrolled by Maker soldiers and armed with war machines such as catapults and giant crossbows. Much of the Maker economy is given over to arming a defensive force and the creation of machines of war to protect their borders.
wards
: A magical alarm system that adepts can use to guard certain rooms or buildings. If disturbed, the alarm will alert the adept who set it. Usually, animal mind-control is the preferred method: a mouse, rat or cat (more rarely, a bee or wasp) will be set to watch for intruders.
I would like to thank my agent, Jenny Savill, for the constancy of her support, the intelligence of her advice, and the warmth of her friendship.
My thanks to everyone at Hot Key Books for what has been an engaging creative collaboration; but particularly my two editors: Sara O'Connor, for loving the book and saving me from at least one total rewrite with her unerring guidance; and Jenny Jacoby, for holding my hand so very patiently during the copy editing process.
Thanks to my SCBWI online crit group, for help and support with the first draft; and especially to my writing buddy, Sharon Jones, for always being at the other end of the phone.
Finally, I wish to offer my love and gratitude to my family, William and Kit, for their stoicism during the obsessive and grumpy stages, and for believing in me.
Ellen Renner was born in the USA, but came to England in her twenties, married here, and now lives in an old house in Devon with her husband and son. Ellen originally trained as a painter and surrounds herself with sketches of her characters as she writes. She spins wool as well as stories, knitting and weaving when time allows. She plays the violin, fences (badly!) and collects teapots and motorcycles.
Her first book,
Castle of Shadows
, won the Cornerstones Wow Factor Competition, the 2010 North East Book Award and was chosen for both the
Independent
and
The Times
summer reading lists and, along with the sequel
City of Thieves
, was included on
The Times
list of best children's books of 2010.
Follow Ellen at www.ellenrenner.com or on Twitter: @Ellen_Renner
First published in Great Britain in 2014 by Hot Key Books
Northburgh House, 10 Northburgh Street, London EC1V 0AT Copyright © Ellen Renner 2014
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
All characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-1-4714-0032-2
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