The Lions of Al-Rassan. Guy Gavriel Kay

      Guy Gavriel Kay

      The Lions of Al-Rassan

      Copyright

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      HarperVoyager

       An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

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      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1995

      THE LIONS OF AL-RASSAN. Copyright © Guy Gavriel Kay 1995

      Guy Gavriel Kay asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780007342068

      Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2011 ISBN: 9780007352227

      Version: 2019-01-15

      Dedication

      For Harry Karlinsky and Mayer Hoffer,

       after thirty-five years

      Epigraph

      The evening is deep inside me forever.

      Many a blond, northern moonrise,

      Like a muted reflection, will softly

      remind me and remind me again and again.

      It will be my bride, my alter ego.

      An incentive to find myself. I myself

      am the moonrise of the south.

      —PAUL KLEE, THE TUNISIAN DIARIES

      Contents

       Cover

      Title Page

      Copyright

      Dedication

      Epigraph

      Principal Characters

      Map

      Prologue

      It was just past midday, not long before the third…

      Part One

      Chapter I

      Always remember that they come from the desert.

      Chapter II

      After somehow coping with the disastrous incident at the very…

      Chapter III

      From within Husari ibn Musa’s chamber late in the afternoon…

      Chapter IV

      The small-farmers of Orvilla, twelve of them, had come to…

      Part Two

      Chapter V

      “There’s trouble coming,” said Diego, as he ran past the…

      Chapter VI

      Esteren was a catastrophe of carpenters, masons, bricklayers and laborers.

      Part Three

      Chapter VII

      “Well then,” said Almalik of Cartada, the Lion of Al-Rassan,…

      Chapter VIII

      Ivories and throngs of people, these were the predominant images…

      Chapter IX

      The wind was north. Yazir could taste salt in the…

      Part Four

      Chapter X

      Nino di Carrera, young, handsome and adept, the most favored…

      Chapter XI

      “Where’s Papa now?”

      Chapter XII

      Towards the end of winter, when the first wildflowers were…

      Chapter XIII

      “Were you pleased?” the king of Ragosa asked his chancellor,…

      Chapter XIV

      In fact, it was the cat that found Alvar, late…

      Part Five

      Chapter XV

      The governor of Fezana was a watchful and a cautious…

      Chapter XVI

      Until the very moment, under the stars and the white…

      Chapter XVII

      After holding a steady torch over Diego Belmonte in the…

      Chapter XVIII

      In a reaction to the protracted siege of his city,…

      Epilogue

      The rapid resettlement of the Kindath community of Sorenica in…

       Keep Reading

      Acknowledgments

      About the Author

      Other Books by Guy Gavriel Kay

      About the Publisher

      PRINCIPAL CHARACTERS

      In Al-Rassan

      (All these are Asharite, worshippers of the stars of Ashar, except where noted)

      King Almalik of Cartada (“The Lion of Cartada”)

      Almalik, his eldest son and heir

      Hazem, his second son

      Zabira, his favored courtesan

      Ammar ibn Khairan of Aljais, his principal advisor, guardian of the king’s heir

      King Badir of Ragosa

      Mazur ben Avren, his chancellor, of the Kindath faith

      Tarif ibn Hassan of Arbastro, an outlaw

      Husari ibn Musa of Fezana, a silk merchant

      Jehane bet Ishak, a physician in Fezana, of the Kindath faith

      Ishak ben Yonannon, her father

      Eliane bet Danel, her mother

      Velaz, their servant

      In the Three Kingdoms