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Ash: The Lost History Novel Chapters
List of most recent chapters published for the Ash: The Lost History novel. A total of 172 chapters have been translated and the release date of the last chapter is Apr 02, 2024
Latest Release: Chapter 1 : Ash: The Lost History.By Mary Gentle.Introduction.I make no apology for presenting a new
Ash: The Lost History.By Mary Gentle.Introduction.I make no apology for presenting a new translation of these doc.u.ments which are our only contact with the life of that extraordinary woman, Ash (b.l457[?]~ d.1477). One has long been needed.Charles Mallo
- 1 Ash: The Lost History.By Mary Gentle.Introduction.I make no apology for presenting a new translation of these doc.u.ments which are our only contact with the life of that extraordinary woman, Ash (b.l457[?]~ d.1477). One has long been needed.Charles Mallo
- 2 The gunner was standing at a skinning rack. Timbers as stout as those that made up a siege machine held a chain on a pulley. Hooks hung from the chain, over a gutter dug in the earth. Ash lifted her feet out of pig's guts and walked towards Guillaume. He
- 3 "Buried down in the lime pit.""What?"The unarmed man shrugged and faced her. She followed his lips as much as the whisper of sound. "Dead and buried in the lime pits.""Uhh." Air left her lungs."No," another man called from beside the fire, "the
- 4 "Form up!"Ash's voice sounded m.u.f.fled in her own ears by the silver hair she wore braided up as an arming cap, padding the inside of her steel sallet1. Her voice was not as deep as Anselm's. It came resonant from her small, deep chest cavity; pierc
- 5 It was a remark intended jokingly, Ash noted; but sweat poured down the older man's face, and his eyes flinched away from hers as he spoke. She wondered, Is he after a bigger share of our money? and realised, No, not Robert -so, what?"That wasn't war,
- 6 "b.i.t.c.h in men's clothing," he said. "One day, Captain, you really must tell us what use you have for your cod-flap."Robert Anselm and Angelotti and half a dozen of Ash's sub-captains moved up so that their armoured shoulders touched hers. She th
- 7 "Ask yourself why it is," Ash said, absently grim, "that I know a hundred and thirty-seven different words for diseases of horses? High time we had something more reliable. Get up, there!"G.o.dfrey reined in his palfrey, waiting. "What did you think
- 8 G.o.dfrey Maximillian turned away, avoiding her eyes. "He . . . won the big tournament, in Cologne, last summer. You remember, child? He unhorsed fifteen; didn't fight in the foot combat. The Emperor presented him with a bay stallion. I - recognised the
- 9 "Ash. I may be a woman. I've still known you for five years. You have to talk to them because you rely on them - and?""And . . . I'm the reason they don't go back to being tanners or shepherds or clerks or goodwives. So I'd better see they don't s
- 10 She lay on her back on the hard pallet, one arm under her head, staring up into the roof of the tent. Shadows moved with the s.h.i.+fting evening air. The rope-tied bed frame creaked. Something smelled sweet above the warm body-scent of her own sweat - bu
- 11 Sweet Christ who died to save us. I am as much in l.u.s.t with him as I was at twelve."Mistress As.h.!.+"Somebody, plainly, had asked her a question."Yes?" Ash agreed absently.Light broke in on her. Fernando del Guiz: lifting up her fine linen veil. H
- 12 "Barbarian!" The older Visigoth amba.s.sador, Daniel de Quesada, spluttered incredulously. "Barbarian!"Asturio Lebrija looked up with difficulty from where he was pinned, on his knees. "I spoke no lie, Daniel: these d.a.m.ned Franks30 are children pl
- 13 Naturally, the ASH ma.n.u.scripts contain exaggerations and errors - but they contain a coherent and ESSENTIALLY true story. There WAS at least a Visigoth city on the North African coast, and possibly a military hegemony to go with it!- Pierce * * *Messag
- 14 "Oh, b.l.o.o.d.y h.e.l.l. . ." Her face flamed. She put her hands over her cheeks, and her fingertips felt that even her ears were hot. She said hurriedly, "Never mind that."Without taking his arm away from his face, he groped and pulled a blanket hal
- 15 "Oh. Right. He's one of those employers." Agnus Dei shrugged, which is a fairly complicated process in armour. His black eyes flashed at her. "Bad luck. I'm s.h.i.+pping out, down to Naples. Bring your men with me.""Nah. I can't break a contract.
- 16 The man Matthias, in a south German dialect, said, "Yes, Ferdie, fighting. You remember. Training, tournaments, wars? That sort of thing?"Fernando said, "War."The young German scowled, good-naturedly. "If you could be bothered. I train more than you
- 17 Come on, Pieter! Two more minutes and I'm going to have to attack, we're being slaughtered down here!Acrid air rasped her throat.The skyline above burst into flame.Ash coughed. She wiped streaming eyes, and looked up at the cliff-top. One minute a wisp
- 18 "Christ knows. If he's here, where's Fernando? What's Fernando been playing at? Daniel de Quesada . . . There's a man whose head is going home from here in a basket." Automatically, she checked the position of her men: Anselm, van Mander and Angelot
- 19 22 July-10 August ad 1476.'How a Man Schall be Armyd at His Ease'Chapter One.Forty pitch-torches flared in the wind, under an ink-black daytime sky.A great lane of people opened in front of Ash as she galloped into the centre of the camp outside Cologne
- 20 And it is almost a mile and a half straight down.Sheer rock, moss and ice, and a vastness of empty air so big and deep that it hurts the mind to look at it.She finished quietly, "If you fell, you'd never touch the earth until you hit bottom.""Straight
- 21 "Ride with me," she directed, a heartbeat after he finished, and made for the stairs. G.o.dfrey followed her downstairs and out into the town.Ash mounted and rode through the streets, with her officers and escort, men-at-arms and dogs. She reined G.o.dl
- 22 She wrapped herself in impenetrable authority. There could be no questions asked. There were none. To herself, she seemed asleep, or sleepwalking at best.She woke, paradoxically, five days later, out of sheer weariness.Ash jolted out of a doze and found h
- 23 "Here." Ash took off her sallet and handed it to Rickard. Condensation misted the bright metal.It was, when she entered, no different from any other room in any other city. Stone-framed windows with diamond-leaded panes, looking out on rain on the cobbl
- 24 "Look." Floria pointed up.Ash tilted her head to gaze up at the high gable roofs.She was not used to noticing the fullness of the summer skies. Now, every gable line and window ledge was thick with roosting birds - with pigeons, rooks, crows and thrushe
- 25 He said, "You have physical courage. I never knew, until that moment - I've done tournaments, melees . . , war's different."Ash looked at him with complete incomprehension. "Of course it is."They stared at each other."Are you telling me you did thi
- 26 She blurted out, without any intention of doing so, "What do you mean, talk to the machine? What 'machine'? What do you mean?"The Faris folded her fingers around her wooden cup."Don't tell me you haven't heard of the Stone Golem?" she inquired, in
- 27 "Let me out of here, you motherf.u.c.kers!"With the thickness of the wood, it was not even possible to tell if there was a guard posted outside; or if he could hear her if there was. She used the same voice she would have used to call orders across a ba
- 28 Your news about the messenger-golem find is stunning. I don't know what to make of it. I'll tell you WHY I don't know what to make of it.You've found mobile golems.I've lost the Angelotti ma.n.u.script.- Anna * * *Message: #50 (Longman) Subject: Ash
- 29 "No . . .""d.a.m.n right you don't."You should have washed, Ash thought dimly, smelling a warm stench of old sweat on the surgeon's clothes. She let her head fall back limply against Florian's b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the bright white cell swimming before he
- 30 "I am now."Floria crossed the room, sliding her hand over the woman's shoulders as she pa.s.sed her. She bent down to feel Ash's forehead. "Dijon, boss. You're in the big convent outside Dijon." And then, when Ash only looked bemused, "The convent
- 31 "My name is Onorata Rodiani, Capitano.8 Your priest said I must not tire you." The woman stripped off her gauntlets, to move the back-stool to the other side of the bed. Her little finger and ring-finger of her right hand were crooked, both repeatedly b
- 32 "Thanks to Christ!" he blurted. He looked around, at the mob of men-at-arms and archers and billmen pressing close, and the knights elbowing in; all trying to reach Ash. "Lady, thanks to Christ! You're alive!""Not for much longer," Ash said under h
- 33 Serene, he said, "Yes. I'm aware that Duke Charles is married to the sister of Edward of York.""Edward of York, who's currently Edward, fourth of that name, King by the Lord's Grace of England."De Vere corrected her with immense authority: "Usurpi
- 34 There was a snort from the Viscount Beaumont, something in English so rapid between the four brothers that she couldn't follow it, and then the youngest brother flushed, burst out laughing; and only the two middle ones continued to glare at her. The Earl
- 35 Ash snorted. "I've looked in the war-chest - they owe us!""They'll get stuck in, when the time comes," Anselm continued, amused. He frowned. "Can't answer for the Flemings. Captain, I don't get to talk to di Conti and the rest, now, I just get to
- 36 "They want me in Carthage? - I'll go to Carthage!"Message: #13 5 (Anna Longman) Subject: Ash, mss.Date: 15/11/00 at 07 .16 a.m.From: [email protected] Anna- Excuse this, I haven't slept, I have been on-line most of the night to universities around the
- 37 They rode past the nearer mill.Speech impossible, Ash did nothing for a moment but study the streets they rode through. A cl.u.s.ter of men in s.h.i.+rts and rolled-down hose, fixing an ox-wain's wheel, moved aside. They removed their straw hats, Ash saw
- 38 "In Carthage," Ash said.Oxford said, "It's not lunatic, Sire. Only audacious."The walls of this chamber were set about with tapestries, in which the Burgundian Heraldic Beast, the Hart, shone white and gold through the wild wood; pursued by hunters a
- 39 "a.s.shole!" Thomas Rochester said.G.o.dfrey Maximillian pulled at Ash's arm. "Let's leave."She resisted the priest's force without effort, without looking at him. Studying the closed expression of Sancho Lebrija, and Lamb's malice, she murmured,
- 40 Her heels rang on the flagstones. The men-at-arms fell in, either side, matching her step; and she strode straight past the face of Sancho Lebrija, past his men, ignored Lamb; strode out through the iron-bound oaken doors, not looking back, not looking to
- 41 A silence."You see. It matters," Ash said. "Proper b.a.s.t.a.r.ds are okay, so long as they're the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds of n.o.blemen, or gentlemen-at-arms at the very least. Being born a serf, or a slave - that's something else. Property. Your family prob
- 42 "Where would I be?" Florian repeated. She still held the flask of wine that Simon had brought, and she lifted it and drank, absently, gulping the liquid down and wiping her sleeve across her mouth. "You drove me out. It's hard trying to pa.s.s as a ma
- 43 Ash pitched her voice to carry. "Get that fire out before it spreads!""Drag her out of there and f.u.c.k her," a man's voice shouted: Josse. His face contorted as he spat. "f.u.c.king surgeon!. Cut her c.u.n.t up!"Ash said quietly to the boy, "Get
- 44 "Too much thinking's bad for you . . . my lord." Ash tagged his t.i.tle on to the end. She raised her head, trying to look across the heads of the crowd.Complicated heraldries of Burgundy and France blazed silver and blue, red and gold, scarlet and whi
- 45 "I don't get it." Ash shook her head, bewildered. "Where's the advantage? What's Charles getting out of this?""Nothing," the Earl of Oxford said, beside her, clasping his hands behind his back as if he had not just been drawing sword. He glanced
- 46 "d.a.m.n; no wine," she said. Turning her horse, she noted Rickard had four or five fresh coney-carca.s.ses slung off his belt."This will be a bad year," the Earl of Oxford remarked, bringing his barrel-chested gelding up with her."I'll tell the lad
- 47 The two women stared at each other."Didn't you use something?" Floria demanded."Of course I did! Do you think I'm stupid? Baldina gave me a charm to wear. As a wedding present. I had it in a little bag around my neck, both times we- every time." Ash
- 48 The officers and Duke's men moved off, Cola de Monforte saying something quietly. She heard only perfect choke-point. Walking back around the eastern end of the spur, they met the road beside the river. Movement became easier with the ground sure underfo
- 49 A blast of cold air brought rain into her face; stingingly cold, almost sleet.Ash stirred, tapped spurs to the big gelding's flanks and rode down in among the company lines. G.o.dluc's big feathery feet picked a way between men and women bundled into ja
- 50 "Yeah!" Anselm grinned fiercely at Ash. "Pet.i.tion the Emperor to award him another heraldic beast - the Lying Hound!"She has a second to think I am ashamed of Fernando, why am I ashamed of him, why should I care? and then the bad light and confusion
- 51 6 September-7 September ad 1476.'Fraxinus me fecit'Chapter One.She missed the weight of her hair.Never having cut it, she had not been aware before that it had a weight: all the hundreds of fine, silver, yard-long strands. The winds grew colder as they
- 52 "s.h.i.+t!" Her voice came out a dry, high whimper.No escape from the truth now. I do hear a voice. And I did hear her voice. The same voice. They don't know it, but they're right. This isn't a mistake. I am the person they want.And what happens to m
- 53 A different, tenor voice protested, "Lord Caliph, it was I who brought this news to you, not Amir Leofric, though he must have known it long since!""True. True. You will then stay, so that we may hear your wisdom on this subject. Where is the woman?"A
- 54 "Shut your f.u.c.king mouth, Barbas!""Yes, n.a.z.ir.""Ah, f.u.c.k it. f.u.c.k her." Theudibert swung around on his heel, shoving between his men to get to the cell door. "I don't see none of you s.h.i.+ts moving. Move! "A thickly muscled soldier,
- 55 Leofric turned back to her. "What degree are you, little Frankish girl?"Cold air flickered across the hot coals, they burned red and black in turn. Ash met the eyes of the girl-slave kneeling on the far side of the iron tripod. The child winced and look
- 56 The amir said dismissively, "This much you might have heard from slave gossip.""I might have. But I didn't."He was watching her keenly now. "I cannot know that.""But you can!" Ash sat up on the oak bed. "If you won't tell me what to do to stay
- 57 "I don't know," Leofric said at last."No, and nor does anyone else here, I can see it by the way you're all running around scaring yourselves s.h.i.+tless." Ash made herself grin. It was not very close to her usual gaiety of heart; she still ached t
- 58 I haven't had time to read the thing yet (we had to go back to her shop, and I've only just come in!) but I'll do that while I'm scanning it in for you. Shall I send it through now?- Love, Anna * * *Message: #174 (Anna Longman) Subject: Ash, archaeolo
- 59 A deep masculine voice said, in German, "Oh, excuse me, I thought that-" and broke off.The man standing at the doorway wore a brown wool gown over his green priest's robes, the puffed sleeves slit, and lined with marten fur. It was the bulk of the gown
- 60 His hand closed over hers. She looked down at it."Are the children of incest sinful?"G.o.dfrey's grip tightened on her hand. "Incest? How could it be incest between you and your husband!""No, not Fernando. Me." Ash stared at the opposite wall. She
- 61 G.o.dfrey Maximillian raised a brow. "I told you that you wouldn't like it.""It's Fernando! Isn't it? He's come south! f.u.c.king Fernando del Guiz!""He owns you," G.o.dfrey said, stone-faced. "He's your husband. You're his property. I've br
- 62 Her mind's eye holds the images of golems, wagons, fire-throwers. She will not think Roberto, Florian, Angelotti."And my decision to say that I take responsibility for them, while our contract lasts. I want to know what happened!"She let herself look a
- 63 "Because you'll want an heir. I'm barren," Ash said.She became aware that her bare hands locked shut on the pommel of her saddle, her shoulder-muscles rigid against - what? A punch, a blow from a whip? She looked up swiftly at Fernando del Guiz."You
- 64 It was the merest whisper, into the fur lining of her hood. The n.a.z.ir glared suspiciously at her, then turned aside to speak with one of his men. A low-voiced dispute broke out between them.In her head, words sounded: 'Carthage is upon the northern co
- 65 Leofric, Ash identified. Yeah, thought so.Gaiseric unexpectedly mumbled under his breath, "You'll be all right in there. He has a fire in there for the vermin."Two soldiers slid open an iron-bound oak door. Theudibert pushed her through. She shook off
- 66 "Faris," a man's voice said, over the noise of steel bolts sliding protestingly back into the wall sockets."Leovigild?"The beardless slave stepped into her cell, leaving two armed guards outside. He carried a bundle in his arms."Here!"A roll of clo
- 67 Leofric wouldn't have brought me here if he wasn't planning to do something with me. But what? Can it matter to him that he thinks of himself as a father -her father - mine?But I am not the Faris.And Gelimer is Caliph now.Ash s.h.i.+fted, slightly, caus
- 68 "Oath-breaker!" the King-Caliph announced, with some satisfaction. "You see whom you trust, Leofric? She and her husband both! All these Franks are treacherous, unreliable b.a.s.t.a.r.ds!"G.o.dfrey Maximillian straight-armed two soldiers out of the wa
- 69 Ash shrieked, aware that the noise of voices was in her head, and a greater noise was ripping through the hall: a shattering, cracking roar."What's happened to my people? What? "'WE SHALL -WE MUST- MAKE BURGUNDY AS THOUGH IT HAD NEVER BEEN!'."Voice!
- 70 The body flopped over on to its back."G.o.dfrey?"She knelt up, water streaming off her. Blood and filth soaked her clothes. The stench of the sewer dizzied her. The light from above dimmed, the crackling roar diminis.h.i.+ng, the fire finding nothing mo
- 71 I am unspeakably grateful for this chance to see Vaughan Davies's complete theory. Anna, thank you. I hardly dare ask more of you, but I would give anything to go to the family house and see if there are surviving family; if - more importantly - there ar
- 72 Ash reached up and put her hands into one slot, her foot into another, and began to climb the wall.The first fifteen or twenty feet were easy enough. Her arms began to ache. She risked leaning back to look up. The broken part of the pipe might be fifty or
- 73 "Master Captain Angelotti," Euen Huw answered. "He's up there trying to bust into this s.h.i.+t-rich lord-amir's house - 'course, his house couldn't fall down like the rest of them, could it? No chance!""Which
- 74 Rope-and-wood ladders hung from their scaling hooks on the parapet, twenty feet above her head. She reached up, had one terrifying moment when her arms seemed too weak to pull her up - Christ, I've rested, I can't be sick now! - and then she fou
- 75 "That ought to do it-" Ash broke off.She stands in a bare alley, the stars of the southern sky above her head; sounds of crossbows being frantically winched towards the front of the House, but here nothing, nothing except John de Vere treading w
- 76 She tried to see his face, in the dim light. She remembers many of the men she has seen in Leofric's household. This man is unrecognisable, a little soft brown hair poking out from under the lining of his helmet. Two slashes from her edge have choppe
- 77 She met de Vere's gaze, with plainly the same thought in it."Madam," he said bluntly, in front of her men, "ask your voice. Ask the Golem."She abruptly turned, gestured for everyone to move back, even her frowning officers; and wa
- 78 Scaling ladders led them down from the aqueduct, four miles beyond the city walls.Ash's feet hit the desert dirt. She is estimating, thinking, planning - doing anything except paying attention to the silvery light gilding the broken ground."They
- 79 "To Rome . . . the Prophet Gundobad went to Rome and died-"'FOUR HUNDRED TURNS OF THE SUN ABOUT THE EARTH Pa.s.sED, A LITTLE, LITTLE SOUL CAME CLOSE TO US, MAKING HIS MACHINES FROM BRa.s.s. WEAK, BUT STILL ANOTHER SOUL THAT COULD WORK WONDE
- 80 "You reckon?" Ash took it, crammed it in her mouth as her stomach groaned with hunger, and pa.s.sed two more handfuls on to Huw and Morgan. Saliva filled her mouth. She chewed raggedly, swallowed, licked her fingers, and exclaimed, "Wat, wh
- 81 You must not pa.s.s this on, any of it, not to Jonathan whatsisname, your MD, to n.o.body, don't even talk about it in your sleep.Isobel just said get off the machine so here it is: She and her team have been out here since September primarily becaus
- 82 "Yeah." She grinned, invisible in the black night. Grabbing for arms and hands at random, she found herself pulled back on to her feet. The cold was bitter enough now to make her body shake, and she beat her hands against her arms - seeing neith
- 83 "We're a legion. We're soldiers. We can do it.""I must stop getting you to read me Vegetius ..."There was a chuckle from the men around her at that.Ash paused momentarily. A new cold dread sat in her stomach, and gnawed at he
- 84 There was no discernible pain in Floria's expression. I can't read her, Ash thought. There's, what, five, ten years between us? It could be fifty!Ash got her feet under her, pus.h.i.+ng herself up from the table. The earth was slick under t
- 85 Christendom's been fighting Visigoths, Burgundy's been fighting Visigoths -but that isn't all there is to it, is there?"It was a rhetorical question: she was momentarily off-balance when Geraint muttered, "That's what I said,
- 86 Florian's voice said, "Before this year, the Twilight was only over Carthage. It spread. But not here. Have you thought? Maybe that's why the Faris is here with an army. We may be beyond where the Wild Machines can reach.""Even if
- 87 "No. I'm not mad. Yes: we had a defeat at Carthage. Yes: I needed to think. Yes: I am going to do something." Half teasing, she added, "Once my banner goes up in Dijon, the Faris will know I'm alive anyway.""So don'
- 88 The boarlets strayed further from the herd, into the white forest."They'll die!" Ash felt her throat tighten. She began to sob, wretchedly; felt the muscles of her throat moving, felt her eyes dry and without tears; felt the hard stuffed ca
- 89 s.h.i.+t! I'm surrounded by bodies!A clear sky brought lower temperatures: frost glittering on the mud; cat-ice forming a skin on puddles, water-filled holes, and expanses of quagmire. Around her, crammed together in the slopping impa.s.sable mud rut
- 90 At the Faris's word the two golems fell in behind her, their stone tread making the wooden floor creak. A flickering light danced on the tapestried walls.Ash stared at the backs of the golems. I was so d.a.m.n close. So d.a.m.n close to the Stone Gol
- 91 Have the Wild Machines already spoken through the machina and made House Leofric set a guard on it? Can I ask her that?No. I'm not getting through to this woman. Whatever I'd ask her - she doesn't want to know. She's shut down for the
- 92 Her smile faded.And it is G.o.dfrey . . . dear G.o.d: how?Ash returned her attention: raised her voice. "I have to find my men-!"I'm in. Are they? f.u.c.k!And - if we are - now how the h.e.l.l do I get us out again? Chapter Two.Growing firs
- 93 The surgeon's voice, at her ear, breathed, "The b.a.s.t.a.r.ds! Those are Burgundian mercenaries!""Not any more! He must have gone over, after Auxonne! That's a lot of men out there. Cola doesn't have a company. He has a smal
- 94 I won't worry - not with you out of the combat line. Let's keep you and your doubts where they can't do any damage - and see if you can learn something about discipline while you're enforcing it..."Robert, you'll have your ow
- 95 "Okay, we'll take it from the top." Ash brushed crumbs off the front of her demi-gown. "If it's been long enough since you came through the sally-port for rumours to get out among the citizens, then it's more than long enough
- 96 "I'll wear my other one." He snicked a buckle home, expertly threaded the tail of the belt through itself in a knot, and let the blue leather strap, studded with bra.s.s mullets, hang down over the pleated white damask skirts of her demi-go
- 97 His deep voice reminded her briefly of G.o.dfrey Maximillian: she was unaware of the sharp crease that appeared in the flesh between her eyebrows."Names do not matter, my lord de la Marche. Here in the forests of the south, there in the cities of the
- 98 "Maybe he's dead, boss," Thomas Rochester suddenly ventured."What, the Duke?""No, the a.s.shole - your husband."Just as Rochester said it, she recognised the vaulted chamber they were pa.s.sing through. Banners still hun
- 99 Oh, you're good. Ash met his keen, black gaze. He was not very many years older than her; a decade, perhaps.23 Lines cut down the skin at the sides of his mouth, put there both by authority and, more recently, she guessed, by pain."Your Grace, I
- 100 "It's their knowledge, not mine." Ash wiped a hand over her face, hot with sweat, but did not s.h.i.+ft her stool away from the charcoal brazier. "I think they need a channel of some kind to speak to us, your Grace. Those like the Gree