The Kurilusa, part 7. Urruza Nahrul — The Day Kin Turned Against Kin

The Sealing of the Deep Ways

Before all other matters, the Lord of Lords commanded, saying:

“Seal the deep ways beneath my tower, that none but royal blood may pass therein.”

And so were the catacombs closed, the stones set fast, and the passages forgotten to all but the keepers of the crown.

The King’s Return to the Tower of Vision

Then did the King of Kings ascend unto the summit of his tower,

And from the sacred basin of sight did he call forth visions of the land,

For long had he been lost to the sun, and many deeds had ripened in his absence.

The Rising of Discord Among the Lords

And behold, the princes and the lords contended mightily amongst themselves,

Each claiming dominion, each crying, “The throne is empty, and the King of Kings is no more!”

The Two Claimants: Amarilippa and Zelhuya

Thus rose discord between Amarilippa, first to settle and hunter of men,

And between the divine queen Zelhuya, crowned by stars, sister-wife of the Lord of Lords.

The Gathering of the Western Lords

Now Amarilippa was great in power and might among the western lords,

He who first exchanged his tent for a hall of stone,

And he gathered unto him all those who had been first to plant the seed of dwelling in the new lands.

To them he promised gold, and high thrones above the others of the realm.

The Princess in the Falcon’s Care

And in his care remained the daughter of the Lord of Lords and the Star-Crowned Queen,

Fair and tall was she grown, though still unwed and tender of years.

Amarilippa called her the True Heir,

And proclaimed himself her guardian and steward until she should take the throne.

The Wrath of the Star-Crowned Queen

But Queen Zelhuya, who dwelt behind the mighty walls of Harreatusa,

Strongest of all cities beneath the sun,

Took great offence at this, crying aloud:

“Her blood is mine, her right my own! I shall reign until her day arises!”

The Challenge of the Falcon King

And she sent messengers demanding that the child be returned unto her care.

But Amarilippa answered with mockery, saying,

“Come and claim her if thou art able,”

And with his words he sent a feather of the Urukanušura, the Great Running Falcon—

Emblem of his house, for many such he kept in mews,

And upon his helm did he bear a proud plume of their feathers when he girded himself for war.

The Falcon’s Design

For the Falcon King had his own counsel:

He would wed the princess unto his son, Teshulapa,

That thus the royal blood might be mingled and his own seed reign supreme.

The Summoning of the Hosts

Then was the Star-Crowned Queen inflamed with wrath.

She called the lords of the realm to her banner and bade them muster their hosts.

Yet many were slow to come, for the western lords feared Amarilippa’s wrath,

And they said one unto another: “Better to wait and see what wind shall prevail.”

The Hesitation of the Eastern and Mountain Lords

Thus it was that only those nearest the capital gathered at her call,

While the hosts of the mountains and the eastern lands tarried still.

The Counsel of Patience

Seeing that her force was lesser, the wise among her lords spoke, saying:

“Remain behind thy walls, O Queen,

And break the Falcon’s faction not by sword but by his own pride,

For ambitious are his vassals, and no man of the west will long bow to his equal.”

The Fading of the Falcon’s Host

And the Queen hearkened unto their counsel,

And waited within her high citadel, until tidings came to her

That one by one the western lords departed from Amarilippa’s hall,

Each returning to his own land and taking his host with him.

The Oath of the Falcon King

Then at last came a runner from the Falcon King,

Bearing word and token, saying:

“If the Queen will swear by the gods of heaven and the deep,

That she shall seek no further strife against me,

Then shall I return unto her the princess, unharmed and in splendour.”

The Parley of the Sevenfold Temple

And so it was agreed,

That upon the plain beside the Sevenfold Temple,

Where once the King of Kings had struck covenant with the gods,

Queen Zelhuya and King Amarilippa should meet.

The Waning of the Hosts

And though Amarilippa’s host was still strong in number,

The Queen came forth with but half her lords,

For her power was now the greater,

And her captains longed for the quiet of their halls after the strife of years.

The Mustering upon the Plain

When the Star-Crowned Queen came unto the appointed place,

Behold, the Falcon King, Amarilippa, was already there before her,

His host drawn up in ranks of war upon the plain of meeting.

The Queen’s Precaution

Then from atop her mighty war-mammoth the Queen surveyed the field,

And with wise counsel arrayed her own host likewise,

For though she trusted the word of truce, she was not forgetful of guile.

Yet seeing the plain open to all horizons,

And the Sevenfold Temple to the north like a shining crown upon the land,

She took comfort in the vastness and saw no place from which foes might spring unseen.

The Golden Column from the Temple

But as she made ready to approach the Falcon King,

Lo — from the sacred temple, which should have been inviolate,

There issued forth a vast column of warriors,

Their banners glimmering with threads of gold,

And their standards bearing the sigils of the gods.

The Queen’s Retreat and the Turning of Her Own

Astonished and sorely grieved that such profane hosts emerged from the holy place,

The Queen commanded retreat.

But as her forces turned, they saw that the reserve —

Their own sworn lords — had turned their ranks against her,

And arrayed themselves in defiance of their queen.

The Snare of the Falcon King

Then did she understand the full measure of Amarilippa’s cunning,

How he had deceived her by false tidings,

Feigning the scattering of his host while he gathered them anew in secret,

And by gifts and flatteries had ensnared the hearts of her ambitious vassals.

The Betrayal of the Oracles

Yet what wounded her most was not the perfidy of men,

But the faithless hearts of the Six Oracles,

The wives of the gods themselves,

Who had turned against her, by the defiling of their sacred abodes her brother-husband.

Then did the Queen know that all courage in her ranks would soon wither,

For even the divine had abandoned her.

The Unleashing of the Falcon Host

And amid the confusion of their broken maneuver,

Amarilippa released his dread host of the Urukanušura,

The Great Running Falcons.

With shrieking fury they fell upon the disordered ranks,

Tearing banners, scattering men, and sowing terror among the living.

The Thundering of War

Then sounded the horns —

And from three sides came the host of Amarilippa:

Human levies as numberless as reeds upon the river,

Elven nobles clad in glittering bronze,

And war-mammoths that thundered like stormclouds across the plain.

The Breaking of the Queen’s Host

The battle was ended ere it had truly begun,

And a great slaughter befell the Queen’s army.

Yet the lords who still clung to loyalty gathered about her,

Their war-mammoths encircling her own,

And with steadfast hearts they strove for a breakout toward the capital.

The Arrow of the Queen

Then did Queen Zelhuya draw her bow,

And with divine wrath smote the treacherous lord who led the reserve,

Her arrow striking through his eyes,

So that he fell lifeless before his men.

And she cried aloud:

“Thus shall all traitors die who raise hand against their sovereign!”

The Last Charge of the Faithful

With fierce resolve did her loyal lords turn their beasts once more to the foe,

Choosing glorious death that their queen might live.

And the Queen beheld their charge and wept,

Saying unto them:

“Long shall they sing of your deeds, and through them you shall live forever in glory!”

For thus is the desire of all the True-born —

To live eternal in the song and memory of their kin.

The Pyre of the Fallen

When the battle was done, the fallen were gathered upon a mountain of human dead,

And there were their bodies burned in solemn rite,

Their names spoken with honour even by those who had been their foes,

For in that age, elves still called each other brother,

And counted strife between kin a sin before heaven and earth.

The Return to Harreatusa

So came the Queen, wounded and bloodied, unto the gates of Harreatusa,

And though her strength was spent and her host diminished,

She made not for peace,

But bade her people ready the walls for war,

For she knew no host beneath the heavens could breach them.

The Fury of the King of Kings

And in that same hour, the King of Kings, gazing from his tower through the scrying pan,

Beheld the ruin and the rending of his realm.

Then was his heart consumed by wrath,

And he cried aloud to the silent gods,

That the peace of his dominion was broken,

And that long war had come upon the land.