DAW Books Presents
The Finest in Imaginative Fiction by
TAD WILLIAMS
MEMORY, SORROW AND THORN
THE DRAGONBONE CHAIR
STONE OF FAREWELL
TO GREEN ANGEL TOWER
THE LAST KING OF OSTEN ARD
THE WITCHWOOD CROWN
EMPIRE OF GRASS*
THE HEART OF WHAT WAS LOST
* * *
THE BOBBY DOLLAR NOVELS
THE DIRTY STREETS OF HEAVEN
HAPPY HOUR IN HELL
SLEEPING LATE ON JUDGEMENT DAY
SHADOWMARCH
SHADOWMARCH
SHADOWPLAY
SHADOWRISE
SHADOWHEART
OTHERLAND
CITY OF GOLDEN SHADOW
RIVER OF BLUE FIRE
MOUNTAIN OF BLACK GLASS
SEA OF SILVER LIGHT
TAILCHASER’S SONG
THE WAR OF THE FLOWERS
*Coming soon from DAW
Copyright © 2017 by Tad Williams.
All Rights Reserved.
Jacket illustration by Michael Whelan.
Jacket design by G-Force Design.
Maps by Isaac Stewart.
DAW Book Collectors No. 1761.
Published by DAW Books, Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious.
Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Ebook ISBN: 9780698191488
DAW TRADEMARK REGISTERED
U.S. PAT. AND TM. OFF. AND FOREIGN COUNTRIES
—MARCA REGISTRADA
HECHO EN U.S.A.
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Dedication
After much consideration I’ve decided that this book really must be dedicated to the three people who have done the most over the years to lead me back to Osten Ard.
My publishers Betsy Wollheim and Sheila Gilbert have politely nudged me for ages, reminding me approximately every seventeen minutes that everyone else but me was certain that the prophecy at the birth of Josua’s and Vorzheva’s twins was meant to set up a sequel, and that they’d really love to see me write it. (Actually they were quite patient. But they did remind me from time to time. Occasionally they threatened me with sticks.) And their nudging came not just from business reasons, but also because they thought I could do something wonderful with it.
My wife and partner Deborah Beale also kept after me over the years with equal sweetness and patience, being sensitive to my process (which for peak efficiency requires months at a time spent almost entirely napping) while asking me at courteous intervals why exactly I couldn’t ever write a sequel to Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn.
Prompted by one such conversation, I finally sat down to think carefully about why I couldn’t do it. The reason had always been that I needed to have a story first, otherwise it would feel as uninspired to me as opening a franchise operation. Every book starts as a story for me—but I didn’t have another Osten Ard story inside me. So in my mind I shot down possibility after possibility—lame, derivative, self-parodying—because I wanted to show Deb (and by extension, everybody who’d ever asked me about a sequel) why a sequel just wasn’t going to happen. But by the time a long day or so of thinking had passed, I realized I did have a story to tell, and by the time I described it to Deb I was getting pretty excited about it. Not too many weeks later, I was actually writing it.
There are also about nine hundred other ways Deb has supported this book, from reading and analyzing the manuscript in draft (with her usual acumen) to generating publicity from our dining table like P. T. Barnum in a bathrobe. Figuratively speaking, her fingerprints are all over the book.
Sheila and Betsy also contributed in many, many ways from the publishing end, including their usual loving attention to editing the manuscript in process and to creating the look of the thing.
So I dedicate this book to all three of them—Sheila and Betsy and Deborah.
Betsy and Sheila, thanks for everything, your friendship by no means the least. I’m really happy (and, I’ll admit it, a bit damp-eyed and sentimental) to be sharing this particular publication with you—finally.
Deborah, you are the one. For these and so very many other things, thank you.
Contents
Also by Tad Williams
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
Map
Foreword
Part One: Widows
Chapter 1: The Glorious
Chapter 2: The Finest Tent on the Frostmarch
Chapter 3: Conversation with a Corpse-Giant
Chapter 4: Brother Monarchs
Chapter 5: Awake
Chapter 6: An Aversion to Widows
Chapter 7: Island of Bones
Chapter 8: A Meeting on Lantern Bridge
Chapter 9: Heart of the Kynswood
Chapter 10: Hymns of the Lightless
Chapter 11: The Third Duke
Chapter 12: The Bloody Sand
Chapter 13: Lady Alva’s Tale
Chapter 14: Ghosts of the Garden
Chapter 15: Atop the Holy Tree
Chapter 16: A Layer of Fresh Snow
Chapter 17: White Hand
Chapter 18: A Bad Book
Chapter 19: The Moon’s Token
Chapter 20: His Bright Gem
Chapter 21: Crossroad
Chapter 22: Death Songs
Chapter 23: Testament of the White Hand
Part Two: Orphans
Chapter 24: Terrible Flame
Chapter 25: Example of a Dead Hedgehog
Chapter 26: The Inner Council
Chapter 27: Noontide at The Quarely Maid
Chapter 28: Cradle Songs of Red Pig Lagoon
Chapter 29: Brown Bones and Black Statues
Chapter 30: The Slow Game
Chapter 31: A High, Dark Place
Chapter 32: Rosewater and Balsam
Chapter 33: Secrets and Promises
Chapter 34: Feeding the Familiar
Chapter 35: The Man with the Odd Smile
Chapter 36: A Foolish Dream
Chapter 37: Two Bedroom Conversations
Chapter 38: The Factor’s Ship
Chapter 39: A Grassland Wedding
Chapter 40: Watching Like God
Part Three: Exiles
Chapter 41: Hern’s Horde
Chapter 42: Forest Music
Chapter 43: Into Deeper Shadows