The room on the other side was full of small figures— waiting for him, Vansen thought at first, but when he saw the startled look on the little men’s faces he knew that was not true. Servants of Kernios, perhaps? But there had also been tiny men like this in Jikuyin’s mines. Vansen held up his hands, wondering if they could speak any language he knew. “Can...you...understand...me?”
“What in the name of the Earth Elders were you doing in the Council Chamber, stranger?” one of the little men asked him, frowning. “You’re not allowed in there.” His eyes grew wide with alarm and he turned and scuttled out the far door. The rest of the little men followed him, looking back fearfully as they fled, as though Vansen were some kind of dangerous beast.
He stared after them and a chill traversed his spine from tailbone to skull and back. Not only was it his tongue the little man had spoken, it had been a perfect Southmarch accent. What was happening? What kind of trick was being played on him?
Vansen stood for a long time letting his heart slow, staring around the wide room and trying to make sense of what had happened to him, but almost afraid to find out. At last the door of the large chamber opened and a group of the little men, this time carrying shovels and picks and other weapons, came cautiously toward him across the shiny stone floor. Vansen lifted his hands to show he was unarmed, but his attention was caught by the stout man who came with them—a normal man, someone Vansen’s own height. There was something oddly familiar about his face... “I know you, sir,” he said as the big man and his child-sized army approached. “You are...gods save me, you are Chaven, the royal family’s physician.”
“So you say,” the man said. He did not look the type to be leading any armed band, even one this size. “But I do not admit it. You are trespassing here, you know. What are you doing in the Funderling’s guildhall?”
“Funderlings? Guildhall?” Vansen could only stare at the man. “What madness is this? Where am I?”
“By all the gods,” Chaven said, and stopped. He put out his arms to hold back the nearest Funderlings, or perhaps to support himself—he looked as though he had been struck a blow. “I know this man, but he was lost in the battle against the Twilight People. Are you not Captain Vansen, sir? Are you not the captain of the royal guard?”
“I am. But where am I?”
“Don’t you know?” The physician shook his head slowly. “You are in Funderling Town, of course, underneath Southmarch Castle.”
“Southmarch...?” Ferras Vansen looked around the chamber again in stunned amazement, then took a staggering step toward Chaven and the Funderlings, causing some of the little men to raise their weapons in alarm. Vansen fell to his knees, raising his arms in the air to praise all the gods, then the crowd of Funderlings watched with worried faces him as he threw himself down on the floor, laughing and weeping, and pressed his face against the blessed solidity of the stone.
Appendix
Aduan—former king of March Kingdoms, husband of Ealga, and builder of M’Helan’s Rock lodge
Aesi’uah—Yasammez’ chief eremite, of Dreamless blood
Aislin—a Skimmer tanglewife
Alessandros—Anissa’s father, grand viscount of Devonis
Ananka—baroness, former mistress of King Hespter, now Enander’s.
Angelos—an envoy from Jellon to Southmarch
Anglin—Connordic chieftain, awarded March Kingdom after Coldgray Moor
Anglin III—king of Southmarch, great-grandfather of Briony and Barrick
Anissa—queen of Southmarch, Olin’s second wife
Annon—a demigod, son of Kernios, killed by Jikuyin
Argal—Xandian name for Perin
Argal the Dark One—Xixian god, enemy of Nushash
Arimone—the autarch’s paramount wife
Arjamele—one of Qinnitan’s neighbors at her childhood home
Ashretan—Qinnitan’s sister
Autarch—Sulepis Bishakh am-Xis III, monarch of Xis, most powerful nation on the southern continent of Xand
Avin Brone—count of Landsend, the castle’s lord constable
Axamis Dorza—a Xixian ship’s captain
Ayona, Countess—wife of Perivos Akuanis
Azinor of the Onyenai—a god, one of Zmeos’ sons by Zuriyal
Baddara—an innkeeper in Lander’s Port
Barrick Eddon—a prince of Southmarch
Barrow—a royal guard
Barumbanogatir—a demigod, child of Sveros
Baz’u Jev—a Zandian poet
Bazilis, Favored—envoy for autarch
Beetledown—a Rooftopper
Berkan Hood—the Tollys’ lord constable
Birin, Lord of the Evening Mist—a god, one of Perin’s sons, killed in the God War
Bloodstone Smoke Quartz— magister of Smoke Quartz family
Brabinayos Boots-of-Stone— Hierosoline name for Barumbanogatir
Brigid—a serving woman at the Quiller’s Mint
Briony Eddon—a princess of Southmarch
Brother Lysas—Pelaya’s and Teloni’s tutor
Caprock Gneiss, Highwarden— important Funderling of the Fire Stone House
Captrosophist Order—school of mirror-lore, founded in Tessis
Caradon Tolly, Duke of Summerfield—second oldest Tolly brother
Caylor—a legendary knight and prince
Celebrants of Mother Night—Qar order/subspecies/cult
Chakkai—a people of the southern Perikalese mountains
Chaven—physician and astrologer to the Eddon family
Chert Blue Quartz—a Funderling, Opal’s husband
Cheryazi—Qinnitan’s sister
Children of the Emerald Fire—a Qar tribe
Cinnabar—a Funderling magister
Collum Dyer—one of Vansen’s soldiers
Conary—proprietor of the Quiller’s Mint
Conoric, Sivonnic, and Iellic tribes —“primitive” tribes who lived on Eion before conquest by the southern continent of Xand
Crooked —Qar name for Kupilas
Daikonas Vo—a Perikalese White Hound
Dandelon—a character in Hewney’s King Nikolos
Dawet dan-Faar—envoy from Hierosol
Dawtrey—a legendary knight, sometimes called “Elf-spelled”
Devona—a goddess, aka “Devona of the Harp”
Devonai kings—ancient line of Hiersoline royalty
Dimakos Heavyhand—one of the last chieftains of the Gray Companies
Doirrean—young Prince Olin’s nursemaid
Donal Murroy—onetime captain of the Southmarch royal guard
Dowan Birch—a player in Makewell’s Men
Dreamless—also known as “Night Men”
Drows—a race behind the Shadowline, related to Funderlings
Durstin Crowel—baron of Graylock
Ealga Flaxen-Hair—former queen of March Kingdoms, wife of King Aduan
Earth Elders—Funderling guardian spirits
Effir dan-Mozan—a Tuani merchant
Eilis—Merolanna’s maid
Elan M’Cory—sister-in-law of Caradon Tolly
Ena—a young Skimmer girl, Backon-Sunset-Tide clan
Enander II—king of Syan
Eneas—son of Enander, prince of Syan and heir to throne
Erasmios Jino—Marquis of Athnia, aide to King
Enander of Syan Eri—Chaven’s oldest brother
Eril—an Akuanis family servant
Erilo—god of harvest
Erivor—god of waters
Erlon Meaher—a court poet in Southmarch, rival of Tinwright
Eshervat—Xixian name for Erivor
Estir Makewell—sister of Pedder Makewell
Fanu—a relative of Idite