Hey guys!
Well, I promised you an excerpt from Retribution, so here it is! It takes place while Aodhan and Caill are sailing past Cosaint Deiscirt. Caill asks Aodhan about why the Saldirs hate the Cosantorians so much. The following conversation occurs as Aodhan explains his family’s history.
Hope you enjoy it!
“Why do they hate us so much?” Caill asked suddenly. “What have we ever done to them?”
“I’m not sure,” Aodhan admitted. “I think it has something to do with the fact that my family rebelled all those years ago, taking with them the most fertile parts of the land.”
“Saldirgan must have been huge!” Caill gasped.
“It was. That was part of the problem. Uzak was still the capital back then, so any news or orders took months to get wherever it needed to be.”
Caill grunted in understanding. “What happened? I don’t know how Cosantor came to be.”
Aodhan sighed. “It’s a long story.”
Caill shrugged. “We’re not going anywhere.”
Aodhan smiled at the boy, amused at his curiosity. “Alright. You’ve heard of King Cosain, I imagine?”
“Of course,” Caill replied. “I used to take people up to the King’s Pool in Cosain’s Tears all the time.”
Aodhan nodded. “I’ve never been to Siochana myself, but that’s part of the story, I suppose.”
“I know that he was there when he found out about the death of his family, but I don’t know the rest of the story.”
“The story gets more and more blurred every generation, but the general idea remains the same. Basically, the Saldirs and Cosantorians aren’t even from the same bloodlines, obviously. It is said that their people came from the Bos Desert while we came from beyond the Toirmiscthe Mountains. The Saldirs, warlike from the very beginning, took over the land quickly.”
“How long ago was that?”
“No one knows for sure,” Aodhan mused, almost to himself. “Anyway, Cosain was part of that group of people. He lived in Iontach when it was still a small village. The story says that he was a village elder, already advanced in age when the rebellion started.”
“What happened?” Caill asked, excited.
“Supposedly, the representatives from Uzak abused their power, always using the distance between Iontach and Uzak as an excuse for the miscommunication that was happening. One day, Cosain witnessed one of the officials rape and almost kill a girl in the streets. Supposedly, the law decreed that those who represented the crown could have any girl they desired, though that has been disputed by the writers of history.”
“And Cosain didn’t like that, I take it.”
“Not one bit,” Aodhan nodded. “See, he had a wife and two or three daughters. We’re not sure how many exactly. Anyway, the poets say that he couldn’t fathom the fact that his own daughters could be victims of the depravities of the Saldir lords.”
“He attacked the man, I take it?”
Aodhan nodded again. “Slit his throat right there in the street. From here, the story gets a little blurred. Most believe that the people of Iontach took that action as a call to war and massacred any Saldirs within five miles of the village. Others say that Cosain himself instigated the slaughter. Either way, the king in Uzak sent an army to raze Iontach to the ground, which they did.”
“What happened to Cosain?” Caill wondered.
“Supposedly, he withstood the siege for as long as he could. However, when the city fell, only he and his son managed to escape. His wife and daughters were captured, along with all the village elders.”
“What was his son’s name? I’ve never thought to ask, even after all these years.”
Aodhan smiled. “It was Aodhan.”
“Really?” Caill said, amazed. “Is that why that name is so common in Cosantor?”
“Yes,” Aodhan replied. “It is a reminder that the blood of the kings of Cosantor flows through Cosain and his son, Aodhan. It was my grandfather’s name as well.”
Caill gasped in amazement. “What happened next?”
“Well, Cosain and his son were forced to flee. They managed to make their way south with a small group of survivors and found the passage that the Roinnt made through the Iniata Mountains. They discovered the hot springs and camped there.”
“And that’s when his family was slaughtered?”
“Yes. Along with all of Iontach as a punishment and a warning. History tells us that it didn’t have quite the effect that was intended.”
Caill barked a laugh. “That much is obvious!”
Aodhan smiled at the boy’s enthusiasm. “The rest of his people rallied around him. The Saldirs were obviously outnumbered by the people in this part of the country. Over the next few years, Cosain managed to drive the Saldirs back. The final battle took place on the ruins of Iontach, where they crushed those that destroyed his family.”
“And then?”
“The Saldirs were driven back to Iskence, which was, at the time, the most powerful city in the world. It was there that Cosain stopped his retribution of the Saldirs and withdrew. He organized a council of the elders in Iontach, where they declared him king and named their new country after him.”
“That’s incredible,” Caill gasped. “How can one man accomplish all that?”
Aodhan smiled. “It’s said he accomplished more after the rebellion than he did during.”
“What do you mean?”
“The first thing he did was to commission the building of the River Tehlik and the Defenses, though he didn’t live to see either completed. He also began the practice of training every young man when they turned sixteen in the ways of war should the Saldirs ever choose to invade again. He also managed to broker peace with the Vales, who were threatening to invade.”
“I thought the Vales kept to themselves,” Caill commented, confused.
“Back then, they were great conquerors. They controlled all of the northern shores of Saldirgan and Cosantor, from the Toirmiscthe Mountains all the way to Bastan. But they were outnumbered, so they agreed to allow Cosain and the Saldirs have their shores back if they were allowed to trade freely.”
“Sounds like he was a great ruler,” Caill said, awed.
“He was,” Aodhan sighed. “But what he is really remembered for was the love he had for his family. He managed to locate the bodies of his wife and daughters and took them to Mount Cosain in the north. He buried them there, and joined them himself when he passed. All of the Cosains were buried in Mount Cosain until the Spire Castle was completed in Iontach. We are now all buried in the crypts below the keep.”
“Have you ever been to Mount Cosain?”
“Long ago,” Aodhan said reverently. “My father took our family on a pilgrimage. The path to the crypt is treacherous. I remember that my mother couldn’t make it up because she was carrying my sister at the time. Davin and I had to be carried most of the way up by my father’s guards. Despite my youth, even then, I could feel the presence of my family there. It is a very… spiritual place, I suppose you could call it.”
“But your wife said you didn’t believe in the gods,” Caill said.
Aodhan shook his head. “I believe in them, but I don’t like them. They did nothing to defend my father, even though he was before the shrine of the God of Light Himself. The only time of felt any godly presence at all was in those crypts on Mount Cosain. And even then, I was so young that I can’t even picture what they looked like.”
“Hmm…” Caill muttered. “Maybe we ought to visit them?”
Aodhan smiled despite himself. “Maybe when this is all over. The closest major city is Uaigneach, and it’s a good distance away. Still, we may yet have time.”
“I’d like that,” Caill nodded. “They’re not my blood, but I’d love to feel what you did. The gods have ignored me too, it seems.”
“If the Saldirs haven’t defiled it yet,” Aodhan sighed sadly. “My family are all traitors in their eyes, so they may have ground their bones to dust by now.”
“How did your family take the Cosain name then?” Caill asked, sensing the morbid turn in the conversation.
“Back then, family names weren’t very common. They only existed if there was a great man in their history that they could be proud to carry his name. People identified themselves with the city where they were from. I suppose the king would have been Cosain of Iontach, then.”
“How long did it take for your family to take his name?”
“Fairly soon, actually,” Aodhan acknowledged. “It began with Hian.”
“The king that murdered his father?”
“Yes,” Aodhan nodded. “Most people remember Hian for that, but he was also the first of my family to take the Cosain name. He was the first Aodhan’s grandson, but felt that Cosain’s principles were too conservative. He pushed for aggressive expansion into Saldirgan, possibly taking Iskence. His father disagreed, so he killed him and took the throne.”
“I remember that his brothers weren’t too happy about that.”
“No, they weren’t,” Aodhan chuckled. “His brother, Scailt, was a great leader in the army and laid siege to Iontach.”
“Against his own people?” Caill started.
“Well, it was against the small keep that was in Iontach at the time. The people supported him, in fact. Anyway, Hian met Scailt in battle and was defeated and killed by him. The people begged Scailt to take the throne, but he refused. The throne passed to their youngest brother, another Aodhan.”
“There were a lot of kings named Aodhan, weren’t there?” Caill said with a smile.
“There were,” Aodhan nodded. “I used to be able to tell you exactly how many, but I’ve all but forgotten now. A thousand years of kings gets lost when you don’t expect to be one yourself.”
“You’ll have to learn them again,” Caill said with a laugh.
Aodhan smiled back at his half-brother. “Maybe I will.”