The Death Gate Cycle
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The Death Gate Cycle is an ambitious fantasy septet written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
Contents |
[edit] Overview
Many years ago, the powerful Sartan ended a war by sundering the world into four elemental realms, and imprisoned their enemies, the Patryns, in a 5th world: the labyrinth, a self-aware prison that became lethally cruel. Shortly afterwards, the Sartan mysteriously disappeared. Centuries later, the first Patryns escaped the Labyrinth, and have just learned how to access the other worlds. The books follow the fiercely independent Haplo, a Patryn agent sent to scout the four worlds in preparation for conquest by his master.
[edit] Before the books
- The Earth was destroyed.
- Four worlds were created out of the ruin. Worlds for ourselves and the mensch: Air, Fire, Stone, Water.
- Four Gates connect each world to the other: Arianus to Pryan to Abarrach to Chelestra.
- A house of correction was built for our enemies: the Labyrinth.
- The Labyrinth is connected to the other worlds through the Fifth Gate: the Nexus.
- The Sixth Gate is the center, permitting entry: the Vortex.
- And all was accomplished through the Seventh Gate.
- The end was the beginning.
- Into The Labyrinth, page 9
These words are a catechism taught to young Sartan children, and have been found written down in many caches of Sartan knowledge. In at least one location (Abarrach, the World of Stone) a hand-written scrawl follows: The beginning was our end.
The story begins long ago when humans unleashed a nuclear war on Earth that killed millions, leaving the survivors struggling in the Age of Dust. Elves and dwarves, who had gone into hiding during the Renaissance, also suffered from what the humans had wrought with their science. In this chaos, a mutant strain of humans emerged who were once again able to feel the Wave— that which maintains balance and order in the universe. Recognizing its potential for magic, they developed runes to harness it. Originally, there was only one group, the Sartan. The Sartan used magic by drawing runes on the ground and in the air, augmented by singing and spoken word; they believed that their power gave them responsibility and stewardship over the lesser races, whom they called mensch (German for "people", both the Sartan and the Patryns use "mensch" to refer to humans, elves, and dwarves equally). The Sartan believed in community, unity, and family. Fundamentally: Order. However, in their self conceitedness, they forgot about the Wave's tendency to balance everything. As the Sartan became too powerful, the Wave shifted and the Patryns came to be. Unlike the Sartan, the Patryns were loners, volatile and destructive; they believed that their powers gave them the right to do as they would. Generally a chaotic version of the Sartan. Patryns tattooed the runes on themselves and chose their name ("Those Who Return to Darkness") to mock the word Sartan ("Those Who Bring Back Light"). These two races came into conflict over control and influence of the mensch. The Sartan in a "we know whats best for you" way, the Patryns more in line of simple personal power. Both came to think of themselves as gods, though Sartan believed themselves rather self righteously to be the "good guys".
It is of note that the "war" between Sartan and Patryn was not war in the conventional sense. Certainly there were battles along the way, primarily between opposing armies or groups of mensch-servants, armed by their masters, but there was in fact very little in the way of pitched battle between Sartan and Patryns. In no small part due to the loner and isolationist nature of the Patryns. They simply never organized together as a force. It was not, in fact, very difficult for the Sartan to group together to capture Patryns (or their own dissidents as in the case of Zifnab and others). Actual fights between them were short, spectacular, and were generally one-on-one affairs. Usually somewhere away from mensch onlookers.
Of further note is that the "war" was not a long protracted series of battles, as we understand war in the modern sense. The great fear of the Sartan (which ultimately led Samah, and them, to their tragic end) was the growing influence the Patryns had over the mensch races.
Eventually the Sartan, led by Samah and his Council of Seven, and driven by their own fear undertook drastic measures, and broke the planet Earth into four separate worlds, each one focusing on a separate element (air, earth, fire, and water). This cataclysmic moment of destruction and re-creation is known as the Sundering. Millions of mensch died, with only chosen populations magically isolated for resettlement. The Patryns were captured and imprisoned in the Labyrinth which the Sartan created for their "rehabilitation". The Vortex (or the Sixth Gate) was the entry point, where the Patryns were initially placed along with Sartan who had disagreed with the Sundering, and where the mensch were temporarily housed during the Sundering itself. In the center of the Labyrinth was the Nexus, a paradise city for the Patryns to live in once they had become civilized through their living in their prison; the Nexus, the Labyrinth, and the Vortex are arranged in concentric circles. All of these worlds are connected by Death's Gate, and smaller, one-way gates allow each elemental world to feed the other worlds whatever they lack.
The Sartan were left in stewardship of not just one world, but many, all designed to work in perfect harmony. The Plan of the Council of Seven was the grand construction of interconnected and functioning worlds. Each with a specific function that fed into the whole. Almost immediately, however, things began to go wrong.
Chelestra, the world of Water, was to be the primarily world where the mensch and Sartan would live. A great orb of liquid (not actually water, but a hyper-oxygenated fluid living creatures can breath), populated by great drifting beasts used as habitats for the mensch, with is own "Seasun" at the center. It was also intended as a tremendous waste management and recycling plant, with the great floating habitat-beasts being biological recycling stations for the detritus from the other worlds. However, to their horror the Sartan discovered that the 'water' of Chelestra had a neutralizing effect on their rune magic, rendering it and them utterly powerless.Strange serpents that the Sartan had not created appeared, creatures of great power and corruption. Surrounded by water that took away their power, no longer in control of the mensch, and faced with the serpents, the Sartan of Chelestra sealed themselves behind a shield in their grand city Chalice and waited for help from the other worlds. Samah, fearing what would happen if the serpents spread to the other worlds, felt forced to shut Death's Gate; this effectively cut communication channels completely between the worlds. The Sartan then placed themselves into a stasis sleep, expecting it to only last long enough for the other worlds to finish their parts of the grand plan and come help.
On Arianus, world of air and floating continents, and intended as the industrial and manufacturing world, the Sartan had other problems. Cut off from communication with the other worlds (Chelestra specifically and the Council), and slowly dying of some unknown cause, quickly becoming vastly outnumbered by the mensch, the Sartan there settled into hibernation, hoping for help from the other worlds. The Kicksey-Winsey, the grand machine intended to 1) align the floating continents and 2) provide them with water (water being a direct byproduct of its production cycle) never became properly active.
Pryan, a gigantic world of fire, fell apart into chaos. Created as a great inverted globe (imagine living on the inside surface of a basketball) with 4 small suns at it center, Pryan was to be the power plant and center for all 4 worlds. Beaming its energies using the great Citadels dotting its surface to the other worlds (most notably the Colossi on Abarrach and the Kicksey-Winsey on Arianus). Covered entirely by miles-thick jungle (only the Dwarves had ever seen the legendary 'ground') the Citadels were to be the bastions of civilization, where the Mensch would live a life of plenty and comfort. However, as with the other worlds, the Sartan mysteriously began to die. In fear, some citadels banished the mensch to the jungle. The Tytans, great blind giants of immense power created by the Sartan to manage the power systems of the citadels, were also banished because of fear they could no longer be controlled by the remaining Sartan. The Tytans would go on to be an unstoppable terror until finally lead home.
Finally, and most desperately, Abarrach the world of Earth; a huge volcanic asteroid like world with the Sartan and mensch living inside it honeycombed tunnels- designated to provide minerals and metals to the Kicksey-winsey- turned out to be loaded with poisonous volcanic fumes that wiped out all of the mensch and taxed the magic of the remaining Sartan to create breathable air. Huge columns called Colossi had been created by the Sartan to purify the air and keep the world warm in the long run, began to fail almost immediately because they did not receive the necessary energy from Pryan. With all the mensch dead (the dwarves lasted longest) and their own magic stretched to the limit, the Sartan of Abarrach turned to the arts of Necromancy, using the corpses of the dead to supplement a lost workforce. While at the start it seemed a logical, if desperate move that would help, it proved to be the most critical and tragic mistake of the whole Sartan race.
In the Labyrinth, the Sartan who should have been monitoring the prison realm either died, or left, and the Labyrinth was slowly evolving from a temporary correctional facility into a sadistic and self-aware prison. Instead of forcing a hard existence upon the Patryns and teaching them to care for others through relying on one another, it created a lethal, murderous hell where survival was the cruel torture of having hope dangled in your face, only to have it ripped away.
In the end the plan was a total collapse. All of the Sartan on Pryan and Arianus mysteriously died, save one. With no one left to go to their aid, the Sartan on Chelestra (unknowingly protected by their shield, and possibly the nullifying water) never awoke. Abarrach was a pale, dying shadow. In the meantime, the mensch lost all knowledge of their past; the lost Sartan of Arianus and Pryan became mythical god figures to the dwarves and elves of those worlds, respectively. This left the imprisoned Patryns as the only ones who still remembered some of their heritage.
After uncounted generations of struggle, Lord Xar (a word/name presumably made of the Russian word tsar = emperor) become the first Patryn to escape from the Labyrinth. Zifnab, a Sartan who had been cast into the Labyrinth for challenging the Sundering, apparently reached the Nexus well before Xar. There, Lord Xar discovered a wealth of books (written in the Sartan language by Zifnab) that detailed events preceding and following the Sundering. From these, he devised a way to partially open Death's Gate and send through an emissary. Haplo, Lord Xar's favored servant, becomes this emissary; his two missions are to learn what has happened to the Sartan, and to subtly generate chaos among the mensch so that Lord Xar can come and "save" them. It is Xar's intention to rule all the four worlds, and Haplo is his willing servant.
[edit] The books
[edit] Dragon Wing
| Author | Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Deathgate Cycle |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Bantam Spectra |
| Released | 1990 |
| Media Type | Print ( ) |
| Pages | 432 (paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-28639-0 |
| Preceded by | none |
| Followed by | Elven Star |
Dragon Wing (February 1990) Arianus, the World of Air, is composed entirely of porous floating islands, aligned in three basic altitudes. In the Low Realm, the dwarves (now called "Gegs," an elven word for "insects") live on the continent Drevlin and cheerfully serve the giant Kicksey-winsey, a city-sized machine that is the source of all water in Arianus. In the Mid Realm, elves and humans jockey with and against each other for water, status, and advantage. Above them all in the High Realm live the Mysteriarchs, isolationist human wizards of the Seventh House. (To compare: the Sartan & Patryn could get to the Ninth House = The Last House, and according to Alfred - see below - the Mysteriarchs were powerful indeed but could never get close to what a Sartan or a Patryn could do.)
As the novel opens, an assassin named Hugh the Hand is hired by King Stephen, nominally the ruler of all humanity, to kill Crown Prince Bane. Bane is not actually his child, nor that of his wife Anne; he was switched at birth for the child of a mysteriarch, and speaks to his real father, Sinistrad, through a feather talisman. Bane is a devious child — charming, but ambitious, and totally self-possessed. The two are followed by Bane's manservant, the gangly, balding Alfred Montbank, whose greatest talents seem to be fainting at the first sign of danger and tripping over anything in his path (and several things that aren't).
At this time on Drevlin, a Geg is on trial for the crime of thinking too much. Limbeck Bolttightner seems obsessed with the question of why, but his most heretical belief is that the god-like Welves, who land in their giant flying dragonships for tributes of water every month or so, are not actually gods at all; he once found a dead (W)elf, and even his girlfriend, Jarre, won't believe it. Sentenced to death by being thrown off the continent on a hang-glider, Limbeck manages to crash-land on a smaller island some distance down, where he encounters a man who is... glowing. Or, rather, he seems to be glowing: his ship is covered with brilliantly shining runes before it is destroyed inadvertently by the Kicksey-winsey. Limbeck manages to rescue this fellow, whom he thinks is a god, and rides back up to Drevlin in one of the Kicksey-winsey's help-hands, also bringing with him the man's dog.
Haplo (Limbeck's god) awakens in Drevlin not long before Hugh, Bane and Alfred crash-land there as well. It becomes clear that Haplo's dog is more than the average canine; he is very intelligent, and Haplo can hear through his ears. Limbeck, hearing about the "other gods," takes Haplo to investigate, but chaos erupts, with the entire group split up and reassembling. All but Alfred and Jarre are quickly arrested; those two take a trip into the tunnels under the Kicksey-winsey, where they come across a room filled with glass coffins containing sad, beautiful people. This, Alfred says, is where he came from. Alfred is quickly arrested as well, though Jarre escapes. In prison, Alfred creeps over to the sleeping Haplo and confirms, to his horror, his suspicion of Patryn runes that were hidden by Haplo's bandages.
The prisoners are presented to the Welves as false gods, with Limbeck thrown in for free in the hopes that the Welves will execute the lot. Various circumstances (a mutiny against the tyrannical elven captain, a dwarven rebellion led by a singing Bane) leads to Bane hiring the ship to take him up into the High Realm, where his father will supposedly reward them all.
In the High Realm, Haplo makes his decision: he will take Prince Bane back to the Nexus with him, as Lord Xar will almost certainly be able to make use of him. Hugh becomes smitten with Sinistrad's wife, Iridal, once a good and noble woman who thought her husband-to-be was joking when he told her, flat out, that he was an evil man. Limbeck agonizes over his revelations concerning the elves and eventually decides to lead his peace-loving, optimistic people to war. Haplo is prepared to make his move when he hears, through the dog, Bane confront Alfred about being a Sartan; Bane has seen Alfred work Sartan rune-magic, something no one else on Arianus (not even the powerful Mysteriarchs) could do. Haplo begins to confront Alfred, but instead satisfies himself by abducting Bane. Hugh, in the meantime, attacks and kills Sinistrad to free Iridal and her son from his influence, but dies in the process. Sinistrad's pet quicksilver dragon, freed of his master's mind-control, begins to destroy the castle, but is subdued by Alfred. Alfred and Iridal give chase to Haplo and Bane, but to no avail. Haplo returns to the Nexus to prepare for his next journey: to Pryan, the World of Fire.
[edit] Elven Star
| Author | Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Deathgate Cycle |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Bantam Spectra |
| Released | 1990 |
| Media Type | Print ( ) |
| Pages | 388 (paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-29098-3 |
| Preceded by | Dragon Wing |
| Followed by | Fire Sea |
Elven Star (November 1990) Pryan, the World of Fire, does not orbit a sun— at least, not in the normal manner. It is a giant stone sphere containing four suns (similar to a Dyson Sphere; the issue of harmful radiation is never addressed), and it is always daytime. The "ground" is not the ground at all, but rather moss and the leaves of huge, mile-high trees; most people don't know where the real ground is, or if there even is a real ground. And, although there is no night, there are "stars": little pinpoints of light that appear sporadically in the sky, some apparently burning out while others remain longer.
Paithan Quindiniar, an elven magical weapons merchant, makes a deal with a pair of human smugglers, half-siblings Roland and Rega Redleaf, who pretend to be married as a cover story. The two accompany Paithan to the dwarven buyer of the magical weapons in an attempt to swindle him. During the trip, Rega is supposed to seduce him; much to her surprise, however, she finds they are falling in love with each other, a romance tainted by distinct prejudice and interracial tensions. It all falls apart, however, when the convoy is attacked by the tytans, giant lumbering humanoids with no eyes and crude defensive rune-magic. These tytans ask only a single question— Where is the citadel?— and if they don't like the answer, they destroy everything in sight. They haven't yet found an answer they like. They are rescued by the dwarven buyer, Drugar, and the four set out for Paithan's home. Drugar has an ulterior motive, however; the tytans wiped out his people since they had no adequate means to defend themselves, thanks to the Redleafs' failure to sell him Quindiniar weapons in time.
Conditions have deteriorated in the Quindiniar household. Paithan's father Lenthan is obsessed with the idea of rocketry, as he is sure his late wife now lives in the stars - a heretical belief among the elves of Pryan. Lenthan's eldest daughter, Calandra, is a tight-fisted spinster under the best of conditions, and is incensed that Paithan has brought humans into the household. His younger sister, Aleatha, is just as she has always been: an extremely lovely young woman, but shallow, vain and lazy. Lenthan has sent away for a human expert on rocketry but has instead gotten Zifnab, a bizarre long-bearded fellow who seems utterly senile, especially since he seems to think he's some person named "James Bond" one moment, and "Dorothy Gale" the next; his "dog Toto" (actually one of Pryan's native dragons) spends a lot of time reining him in. Finally, the newest member of the household is Haplo. His dragonship proves extremely useful when the tytans show up; even Haplo's rune-magic cannot defeat them, and Calandra stubbornly chooses to stay behind during the evacuation.
Haplo sets course, on Zifnab's suggestions, for one of the winking stars in the sky. This period of empty travel is devoted mostly to romance: Paithan and Rega struggle to handle their relationship, Aleatha and Roland resist each other with all their might and almost succeed, and Haplo himself has flashbacks to his time in the Labyrinth, and the woman he met there; they became lovers and travelled together for a time, and she was suspected by Haplo to be carrying his child when they separated. It doesn't bother him that he hasn't seen her in years. Or so he tells himself.
Arriving at the white star, Haplo travels up a mountain to a glowing, abandoned city that is nearly identical to the Nexus. He leaves the mensch to fend for themselves and enters the central stronghold, where he discovers a great deal of data on the nature of the worlds, although all the Sartan here have disappeared. He then leaves for Death's Gate and his next mission.
Meanwhile, Zifnab apparently sacrifices himself to save the Redleafs, Quindiniars and Drugar from his dragon; it chases the remaining mensch to the gates of the citadel, which Drugar is able to open with an amulet inscribed with Sartan runes. The mensch are now safe— a fact that Zifnab, hale and hearty, celebrates with his dragon companion.
[edit] Fire Sea
| Author | Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Deathgate Cycle |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Bantam Spectra |
| Released | 1991 |
| Media Type | Print ( ) |
| Pages | 414 (paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-29541-1 |
| Preceded by | Elven Star |
| Followed by | Serpent Mage |
Fire Sea (August 1991) Abarrach, the World of Stone is just that: lava, stone, poisonous fumes, and precious little food that can be grown. The peoples of Abarrach rely on giant rune-inscribed stone pillars called colossi to provide warmth and breathable atmosphere, but the colossi have been failing slowly for many years. The mensch have all died out, and the only remaining people — all of them Sartan — are far reduced in power; most of their innate magic is consumed with simply keeping them alive. To bolster their numbers, they have taken to the forbidden art of necromancy: the raising of the dead. These reanimated corpses are not very smart, but they're better than nothing.
Haplo is sent to this world and discovers, much to his alarm, that Alfred has somehow infiltrated the Nexus and stowed away on his ship. Before he can do anything, however, the vessel passes through Death's Gate, and their consciousnesses switch; the two are forced to relive each other's most painful memories: Haplo, as a boy of seven, seeing the slaughtered bodies of his parents and being taught that it is all the fault of the Sartan; and Alfred, waking up to find that he is the only Sartan left alive on Arianus... for all he knows, the only one in all the worlds. They have been forced to walk in each other's shoes, and the two are never able to look at each other with quite the same hatred (Haplo) or fear (Alfred) as before.
On Abarrach, Alfred is initially overjoyed to meet living Sartan, even bastardized ones, but is appalled at the state of things; the Sartan rune-language, highly evocative, is laden with images of death when spoken by Abarrach natives. He is even more horrified that they practice necromancy. It was taught that, when one is revived untimely, another dies untimely, and (though the series never spells it out) it is implied that Abarrach's necromancy is the reason most Sartan died during stasis. And, most awful of all, the Sartan here regard Alfred with hungry eyes: he has powers, magics, abilities that they had long forgotten existed, and they want what he has. Even his simplest magic is beyond them.
Haplo and Alfred make the acquaintance of Prince Edmund, who is leading his ragged band of people to the "greener" pastures around Abarrach's capital city (Necropolis), and his chief necromancer, Balthazar. In the realm of Kairn Necros, they meet minor nobles and necromancers Jonathan and Jera, just married and very clearly in love with each other. Haplo and Edmund meet with the Dynast Kleitus XIV, who is not a pleasant man; he orders Edmund executed on a whim, and imprisons Haplo when it becomes clear that he, too, still knows the secrets of rune-magic. Kleitus poisons Haplo so that the corpse will be left undamaged, the runes free to be studied at Kleitus's leisure. Alfred, Jonathan, and Jera manage to free Haplo, but Jera is killed, and Jonathan revives her immediately without waiting the customary three days to let her soul depart entirely. Jera is now a lazar, a revived dead who still retains her intelligence and personality because her soul is so closely bound to the body... And whose "life" is endless torment, caught between life and death.
Haplo, Alfred, and Jonathan flee with the dead Edmund and Jera from Kleitus and his dead soldiers, and end up in a curious chamber: heavily warded, full of the skeletal remains of people who apparently killed each other or even themselves, with seven sealed doors spaced evenly around its perimeter and a white wooden table in the middle. It is called the Chamber of the Damned. Once rebels gathered here, and were ambushed and killed here by an ancestor of Kleitus, but he and all his forces were struck down by an unseen hand on the very spot. The chamber is entirely peaceful and seems to resist violence, and Alfred (Haplo too, though he will not admit it) feels for a moment as if in the presence of a Higher Power. While Alfred and Haplo view this ancient scene, Jera is calling to the dead soldiers that Kleitus brings with him. He arrives at the chamber, only to be killed and resurrected as a lazar by Jera. She begins to reanimate many new lazar, culminating in a slaughter of nearly the entire population of the city. The living (and Edmund) are forced to run again, trying to reach Haplo's ship to flee Abarrach, as well as stop the dead from breaking through its runes to enter the other worlds and kill all the living.
Jonathan sacrifices himself to aid their escape, and is murdered and turned into a lazar at his wife's hands; Prince Edmund, on the other hand, demonstrates how a lazar can surrender his/her anger and find true death by doing so. Balthazar gathers his remaining people on the outskirts of the city, in for the long haul, though the new army of lazar will make life difficult. Haplo and Alfred escape in Haplo's ship, and Haplo, driven by odd impulses, gives Alfred a chance to jump ship before he returns to the Nexus and his lord.
[edit] Serpent Mage
| Author | Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Deathgate Cycle |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Bantam Spectra |
| Released | 1992 |
| Media Type | Print ( ) |
| Pages | 450 (paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-56140-5 |
| Preceded by | Fire Sea |
| Followed by | The Hand of Chaos |
Serpent Mage (April 1992) The novel picks up just where Fire Sea left off. Alfred jumps into Death's Gate as Haplo's ship passes through it, and finds himself in a stasis room like the one he woke up in; in fact, he believes he's on Arianus. Tired, he decides to put himself back to sleep... Only to find someone in "his" stasis chamber. And then to find a bunch of strangers in all the stasis chambers. And then to see them wake up. Alfred has stumbled across a cache of actually-living Sartan, and not just any Sartan; he is on Chelestra, the World of Water, and the chamber he has dropped into contains Samah, the ruler of the Council of Seven— nominally, the leader of all remaining Sartan.
Meanwhile, Haplo is attempting to ready his ship as quickly as possible so he can avoid speaking to Xar. He sent ahead a letter that lied about the state of Abarrach, claiming he found an entirely dead world; he covered up the truth about the necromancy out of fear of what Xar would do with it. Xar catches up with Haplo, and Haplo confesses nearly everything about the world. He accepts harsh punishment for betraying and doubting his lord. Xar sends Haplo's ship on through Death's Gate. The arrival on Chelestra isn't a very glorious one; for some reason, Chelestra's seawater has the effect of totally nullifying all rune-magic, even erasing Haplo's tattoos and the carvings on his steering stone. His ship disintegrates in minutes, whereupon he discovers another odd fact: Chelestran seawater is breathable, just like air. Cold and wet, though not particularly thirsty, he clings to a spot of wreckage and tries to figure out what to do next.
The narrative is also interwoven with the personal diary of Grundle, daughter and heir to the leaders of Chelestra's dwarven population. Unlike most worlds, here the mensch have made peace and live (mostly) in harmony. Grundle's two best friends are the daughters of the elven and human peoples (Sabia and Alake, respectively). The mensch, at the moment, are planning a migration. Chelestra has landmasses they call seamoons ("durnai" to the Sartan) scattered liberally throughout its watery interior, but its seasun is migratory, and this particular seamoon is about to freeze over. They have assembled a series of giant submarines, the sun-chasers, but just as Grundle is about to christen them (with a lock of her hair instead of a champagne bottle), something destroys them: foul, oozing black serpents with red glowing eyes. These serpents demand that the daughters of each royal family be surrendered to them. The parents plan to refuse, but Grundle, Alake, and Sabia choose to leave on their own. Grundle and Alake meet up with "Sabia" and leave in a submersible; it is quickly revealed that Sabia's fiance, Devon, has actually replaced her. It is this submarine, sailing into almost certain death, that stumbles across Haplo.
Once they arrive at Draknor, however, the serpents (which Haplo calls dragon-snakes) make a total about-face: they claim that they are here only to help the mensch, and ply the three with mountains of gifts generated from thin air. When they find out about Haplo, however, they are ecstatic; their leader, the Royal One, assures him that they would love to help him conquer this world, or all four worlds, or anything he desires. Haplo finds himself distinctly nervous; the runes on his body, which glow in times of danger, are at full force, and every danger sense he has urges him to flee from their presence. When Haplo asks them who they are and who created them, the Royal One whispers, "You did, Patryn." But the dragons swear fealty, and that is all that matters. Haplo, with his new allies, returns to the mensch. The news that Sabia has killed herself in despair does not stop the dragon-snakes from instantly reassembling the sun-chasers, and the migration continues as planned, though with a new target: the Chalice, Chelestra's only landmass permanently inhabited... By the Sartan.
Alfred is having a hard time adjusting to life with his people for several reasons. One, Haplo's dog is there with him. Two, Samah manages to find out that the Patryn threat has reawakened, and is already beginning to plan a counter-offensive. Three, there are many secrets the Sartan are hiding: such as how the Chamber of the Damned, with which Alfred is so intimately acquainted, is actually the Seventh Gate, from which the Sartans performed the Sundering. Samah and his followers knew about the Higher Power, but deliberately ignored it, something Alfred finds unconscionable. Furthermore, those few Sartans who objected to the plan were actually cast into the Labyrinth with the Patryns, where they were almost certainly fallen upon and slaughtered. And, finally, Alfred himself has changed— partially due to his time with the mensch on Arianus, but mostly because of his time with Haplo. He can no longer see the Patryns as a vicious, hated enemy. It is customary for Sartan to reveal their private Sartan names to each other, but Alfred continues to go by his human pseudonym, a fact that partially exasperates and partially amuses Samah's wife, Orla, whom Alfred is slowly falling in love with.
The mensch arrive at the Chalice and attempt to negotiate for living space, but Samah is having none of it; he deals with them as if with willful children refusing to go to bed, and is astonished when they treat him as an equal: with dignity and respect, but refusing to be bullied. He is also distressed at their allies: Haplo, the evil dangerous Patryn, and the dragon-snakes, who attacked the Sartan thousands of years ago and forced them into hibernation. When asked who had created them, the dragon-snakes responded: "You did, Sartan." Samah refuses to compromise, and the mensch, reluctantly, turn to military force. They will use the dragon-snakes to burrow through the Chalice's landmass, bringing seawater in to temporarily neutralize the Sartans' magic, allowing the mensch to invade peacefully.
Haplo returns to Draknor to explain the plan, with Devon, Grundle, and Alake following him in a second submersible. He explains the plan, but refuses the dragon-snakes' alterations, which would lead to increased casualties on both sides— even though those casualties would be to mensch and Sartan, populations whose well-being he doesn't care about and, to some extent, is required by Xar's orders to disregard. The mensch overhear the conversation (conveniently, it has been carried out in the human language) but do not overhear the Royal One's orders to have them killed and their bodies returned to their parents, making the coming conquest anything but bloodless.
To Haplo's surprise, Alfred appears with the dog. In the presence of this Sartan enemy, Haplo admits what he dares not say to anyone else: the dragon-snakes are not his servants. They grow fat on chaos, fear, hatred, confusion, despair; they are using him, using everyone, in an attempt to destroy all the four worlds. Even when Samah teleports in, spewing hatred and vitriol, Haplo holds to his course. He and Samah fight, each attempting to take each other prisoner, and Samah wins with the help of Chelestra's seawater, but all events are halted when the dragon-snakes begin to attack the mensch. Haplo rushes to their rescue, magicless though he is, while Alfred counters Samah. Haplo is unable to save Alake's life and looks to be doomed himself when a huge, majestic green and golden dragon appears; it slays the Royal One and fends off the other dragon-snakes. Haplo, staggering back to the beach in search of this incredible magic, finds only Alfred unconscious on the beach. Grundle, who saw him transform, insists that Alfred was the dragon, but no one believes it— not even Alfred himself.
Samah has won. Haplo is imprisoned, though with the seawater rising, he won't be for long. Alfred is sentenced by the Council to be exiled into the Labyrinth for his crimes, and Orla chooses to go with him rather than remain with her people; either way, she will be stripped of her magic as her punishment. Devon and Grundle, no longer the children he first met, wish him luck and Grundle gives him her journal before they are returned to their parents. Haplo settles back in his cell; he knows, now, what he must do. The dragon-snakes— deceptive, cunning, whispering only what the listener wants to hear, growing fat on fear— are who he must defeat.
[edit] The Hand of Chaos
| Author | Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Deathgate Cycle |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Bantam Spectra |
| Released | 1993 |
| Media Type | Print ( ) |
| Pages | 468 (paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-56369-6 |
| Preceded by | The Hand of Chaos |
| Followed by | Into the Labyrinth |
The Hand of Chaos (April 1993) Haplo takes a submersible back to Draknor to retrieve his ship. He finds Samah there— wet, haggard, and lost. The leader of the Council has opened Death's Gate, allowing the dragon-snakes free access to all the four worlds. Haplo decides he is too tired to physically capture Samah and uses his ship to return to the Nexus through the now more easily-travelled Death's Gate, where he makes his report on what he has found. Haplo explains the entire tale: the mensch, the Sartan, and the dragon-snakes, who inspired fear in him greater than even the Labyrinth... because he at least knew the Labyrinth could be defeated. Xar is much less sanguine about the serpents' supposed invincibility. He assigns Haplo to take Bane back to Arianus, where he will activate the Kicksey-winsey and continue to foment chaos as he did before; he will then wait there for Xar's orders, as Xar will be going to Abarrach to learn necromancy. This is Haplo's last chance to prove himself loyal.
Haplo leaves angrily and takes a walk. Standing before the Final Gate, he contemplates going back into the Labyrinth— something no living Patryn other than Lord Xar has ever accomplished. He wants to look for Alfred so they can return to the Chamber of the Damned to get some answers— and to bring his lord to give him proof, as well. Haplo is derailed by Zifnab, however, who admits to actually being a Sartan and, with his dragon (one of the true dragons of Pryan, as opposed to a dragon-snake,) is on his way to Chelestra, answering a race-wide summons put out by Samah. Samah, Zifnab says, intends to go to Abarrach and learn the secret of necromancy. He also reveals that the woman left Haplo because she was pregnant, and that their child is now somewhere in the Labyrinth. But Zifnab advises him (in between bouts of gibberish, non sequiturs and reminiscences on Debbie Does Dallas) not to go in until he has activated the Kicksey-winsey. Bane has spied on this and tells Xar, lying that Haplo said he intended to "prove you wrong," but revealing that Haplo warned Zifnab to leave so that Xar wouldn't find the Sartan. Xar considers this treachery past the time for punishment and orders the child to kill Haplo once his job is done.
On Drevlin, the mood is somber; the Kicksey-winsey has stopped, totally stopped, for the first time in history, and no one knows why. Limbeck, now High Froman and the leader of a race-wide revolt against the "Welf" occupation of Drevlin, is sure that it is Welf treachery. He has become a hard, cruel leader, much to Jarre's dismay. (A recurring symbol is his glasses: he has new ones that correct for his massive myopia but hurt his head abysmally; Jarre liked him better when he was blind and idealistic.) When Haplo lands, Limbeck is quick to enlist his assistance, and between the two of them and Jarre's memory of Alfred's mausoleum, they puzzle out where the control center for the entire Kicksey-winsey must be. To reach it, however, they must sneak through the Factree, which the elves have taken as their home base. At the control center, they find an automaton who asks for instructions, but Haplo's runes have started to warn him. Not understanding why, he nevertheless trusts his instincts and the group flees the room without Limbeck. Bane, Haplo, and Jarre are quickly captured by pursuing elven forces, led by a strange, red-eyed captain named Sang-drax— a serpent whose name is elven for "dragon-snake" and possibly the one who met with Xar before Haplo arrived home. Limbeck remains unfound by the elves, and wanders for awhile before stumbling on a room in which he sees an incredible, hopeful sight: humans, elves and dwarves, sitting and conversing in peace and harmony. (He overlooks their distinctive red eyes and the terror they make him feel.) Inflamed by optimistic vision, he immediately forgets it when he overhears (from the serpent-elves carrying Haplo away) that Jarre has been captured, and goes to plan the war.
Haplo, Bane, and Jarre are taken to the Imperanon, the elven emperor's castle, where Emperor Agah'ran hatches a plan to do away with King Stephen and Queen Anne, using Bane as his willing co-conspirator. Agah'ran wants to finish the hostilities quickly, as he is fighting three wars: against the humans, against the "Gegs," and against his own son, Prince Rees'ahn, who has been leading a rebellion for several years. Stephen and Anne (who have since had a daughter,) and the Lady Iridal (invited there by the wizard Trian,) receive the news that Bane is alive from a human slave who has been allowed to escape the elven capital. The elves presumably will want a human surrender in exchange for Bane's life— very few people know of his true nature— but his three parents know Bane must be the one pulling the strings (and the royal family certainly doesn't want him back.) They also realize that it would look very bad if they failed to attempt a rescue, considering the rumors that he is illegitimate, but King Stephen understandably doesn't actually want Bane back; he only wants to protect their work at making peace with Rees'ahn. Iridal decides to go on and rescue her son herself, and King Stephen grants her a fortnight to do so; after that, he moves on to meeting with Rees'ahn and leaves Bane to his fate. On the way, she drops by a monastery and picks up her sole helper: Hugh the Hand, whom Alfred revived with necromancy without remembering he did it. Hugh is slumming, a dirty drunk, unable to return to his former line of work: since being revived (and as himself, not the shambling hulks of Abarrach,) he finds it impossible to kill, especially since everyone loses their nerve before hiring him. Hugh agrees on the condition that Iridal helps him find Alfred once they're finished. Before they leave, Trian privately reminds Hugh of his honor— Hugh accepted a contract to kill Bane, and his honor should compell him to carry it out. The royal family wants to use Iridal's rescue to see that Bane is killed to protect their daughter, and their world, from what he would do.
Hugh and Iridal go to Skurvash, the island where the Brotherhood of the Hand, a guild of assassins, makes its base. As "the Hand," Hugh is of the second-highest rank possible to attain, with only Ciang the Arm as his superior (and possibly none his equal.) It is Ciang he asks for help, and she secures him passage to the elvish capitol. There he seeks the aid of the Kenkari, an elven religious clan whose Cathedral of the Albedo is used as a repository of elven souls, which supposedly strengthens elven magic, particularly their own powerful strain. From there Hugh and Iridal slip into the Imperanon, but Iridal, blinded by love, doesn't see the trap Bane has laid for her. For Iridal's life, Hugh agrees to kill King Stephen and Queen Anne; Bane (with Haplo's dog) will go along to ensure success and take the human throne. Haplo, in the meantime, chases Sang-drax, who is "rescuing" Jarre, but he is taken by the dragon-snakes and mentally tortured. The Keepers from the Cathedral, however, have been compelled by the dead spirits to rescue Haplo, and they do so. The Keeper of the Soul is able to drive off the dragon-snakes because he is no longer afraid of what they represent.
The Keepers give Haplo a book written in Sartan, Dwarven, Elvish and Human— instructions to give the automaton under Drevlin— and send him down to Drevlin on a phantom dragon that they summon. They also ask him where his soul is— he has one, clearly, but evidently it is not with him. He has no idea what they're talking about. Iridal goes with him to stop Hugh and her son. They find Sang-drax's dragonship (he is no longer on it) and the phantom dragon breaks one of its wings; Haplo jumps onto the crippled vessel and rescues Jarre, but finds himself in the middle of a human-galley-slave rebellion fomented by Sang-drax. Haplo uses his magic to paralyze everyone mid-fight and tells them how foolish this battle is: the human and elven crewers will need to work together if they want to save their ship. He carries Jarre's badly injured form and teleports them both to the Factree, where Jarre is unfortunately seen by a dwarf who doesn't believe that she isn't dead. The dwarf rushes to inform Limbeck, and Limbeck promptly decides to lead the dwarves to kill elves as vengeance for Jarre's apparent death.
Haplo heals Jarre and they fail to prevent the dwarves from launching at the elves, but both sides come to a halt when the statue opens and Sang-drax and the other dragon-snakes rise out from the tunnels, disguised as fellow dwarves who shout bloodthirsty encouragement to the others. Jarre recognizes them by their eyes and tears off Limbeck's glasses; Haplo attacks one of the "dwarves" to force out the serpent's true form. However, the serpents all shed their bodies and begin attacking the dwarves, starting a chaotic battle of dwarf versus serpent and elf versus dwarf, with both mensch sides blaming the other for the serpents' presence. Haplo and Sang-drax fight also, and though neither succeeds in slaying the other, both sustain injuries (Sang-drax's eye, and Haplo's heart-rune, the center of his personal and magical identity) that will never quite heal. Thankfully, Limbeck finally sees where this is leading— blood, death, terror— and forces his dwarves to surrender. In response, the dragon-snakes begin to attack the Kicksey-winsey itself... And, realizing that this machine is their mutual lifesblood, the elves and dwarves immediately ally in its defense. A crippled dragonship also manages to land there— the ship that Haplo left to work together— and both the elves and humans join in. This marks the first time in Arianus's recorded history that humans, dwarves, and elves have fought side-by-side.
Meanwhile, Hugh and Bane are on their way to the Seven Fields, where Prince Rees'ahn's rebellion began; he is returning to sign a historic alliance with King Stephen and Queen Anne against the elven emperor. Bane demands that Hugh take a final contract— to kill Haplo, and tell him that Xar wants him dead— and Hugh agrees, just to shut him up. Hugh deliberately botches the assassination of Stephen in an attempt to get himself killed, though the dog saves him by leaping onto him and causing confusion. Bane takes advantage of this and sinks a sword into Stephen's back, determined to have the throne for himself. Then he turns on Queen Anne— only to find himself slowly asphyxiating. Iridal has finally arrived to see her son's true nature. As Stephen and Anne's own child died— strangled, unable to breathe the air of the High Realm— so does Prince Bane meet his end. Stephen's life, however, is saved by Trian, and Iridal leaves for the High Realm with Bane's body.
Hugh returns to the Cathedral of the Albedo, where he has promised to give his soul (which, after all, has gone on and then returned and thus is of great value to the Keepers.) But he is forbidden because his soul still has the mortal bonds of a contract, so must agree the Keeper of the Soul's new terms; the dead commanded the Keeper to accept the contracted life in place of Hugh's— Hugh must kill Haplo.
[edit] Into the Labyrinth
| Author | Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Deathgate Cycle |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Bantam Spectra |
| Released | 1993 |
| Media Type | Print ( ) |
| Pages | 496 (paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-56771-3 |
| Preceded by | Into the Labyrinth |
| Followed by | The Seventh Gate |
Into the Labyrinth (1993) On Abarrach, Xar is attempting to learn the secret of necromancy, but he needs a corpse to test it on. He interrogates the lazar Kleitus about the location of any living Sartan, and Kleitus reveals that Haplo lied to Xar about all the Sartan dying at the hands of the dead; Balthazar and his group remain living. Kleitus drops a hint about the Seventh Gate, and reveals that it's where the Sundering took place and that Haplo's corpse would know its location. Xar dismisses this idea, as well as the lazar, and is quickly becoming obsessed with the Seventh Gate when receives word that two Sartan have been captured: Zifnab, for one, whose pleas on Haplo's behalf go unheeded; and, as quite a prize, Samah, ruler of the Council of Seven. Xar is initially excited since Samah is the very person who would know the Seventh Gate's location, and he interrogates Samah for it to no avail. Sang-drax— the one who actually captured Samah and Zifnab— is summoned by Xar to mentally torture Samah to death; even before he dies, Samah does not reveal anything useful. Xar succeeds in turning him into a far-more-complacent lazar, but too much of Samah's will remains, and he still won't talk. Even worse, when Xar turns his back to investigate Zifnab's disappearance, Jonathan walks in and teaches Samah how to let go; the leader of the Council of Seven is now well and truly dead.
Xar is soon told by Sang-drax of Haplo's "treachery"; he has helped the mensch start the Kicksey-winsey and given control of Arianus over to the mensch, instead of reserving it for Xar himself. Party to this conversation is the loyal servant who informed Xar of the capture and has already been ordered to investigate the Arianus situation: Marit, the woman Haplo loved, the mother of his child. Xar marries her in traditional Patryn fashion of rune-joining, both to ensure her loyalty and because it gives them an unblockable way to communicate, and then orders her to kill Haplo.
Haplo rests on Arianus and tries to heal his heart-rune, a job that truly needs two people (most rune-healing is accomplished by "circling" and allowing strength from one person to flow to the other.) Prince Rees'ahn and King Stephen's deputy, the wizard Trian, have come to Drevlin to talk with High Froman Limbeck Bolttightener in the hopes of hammering out some sort of true alliance between all three races of mensch (the mysteriarchs having folded into the human race after their leader Sinistrad's death.) Haplo gives the Kenkari book to Limbeck, and the three races together reactivate the Kicksey-winsey, which realigns the scattered islands of Arianus and starts a constant flow of water through the sky. Then Haplo enters his dragonship and prepares to leave for the last time.
Hugh, under contract to kill Haplo, retraces his own steps. He goes from the Cathedral back to the Fortress of the Brotherhood, where Ciang gives him a cursed knife: ugly, badly made, capable of self-movement... and covered in Sartan runes. It is the only weapon the Brotherhood has that might even possibly be capable of killing Haplo. As payment for it, Ciang orders him to never return or further payment will be taken in his blood. Hugh, in the end, doesn't even use his new Cursed Blade— its main advantage, suppressing Haplo's warning runes and a good amount of his magic, allows Hugh to sneak up on him in his ship and capture him, but the tables turn and Hugh accidentally ends up with Haplo's knife in his gut... only to lurch back from the grave, Alfred's necromancy rune having evidently condemned him to eternal life. Haplo circles with Hugh to calm the human's distress at returning from the dead yet again, and the two begin to plan how to find Alfred when they are interrupted.
Marit appears and fights both Haplo and Hugh. The first time they engage their Patryn rune-magic, however, the Cursed Blade reacts, transmuting itself into various threats, and the three break off their conflict periodically to quiet it down (they can't really make it stop;) they also struggle over the ship's steering-stone. Eventually Haplo takes the ship to Chelestra, hoping to douse the Cursed Blade in seawater, but the knife, instead of transforming into another weapon or creature, summons a dragon-snake that destroys the ship. As Haplo drifts in the sea, he hears a voice and looks up to see... Alfred.
At Sang-drax's misleading suggestion, Xar has gone to Pryan with the pretext of taming the tytans, and he is frustrated with his inability to reach Marit. His real reason for being there is his hope of finding the Seventh Gate in the citadel that Haplo visited, but he finds little to encourage him. The five mensch— Paithan, Rega, Aleatha, Roland, and Drugar— aren't much help, nor is Zifnab, who has somehow gotten here after escaping from Abarrach. Shortly after Xar and Zifnab have arrived, Sang-drax says he knows now that Zifnab is "one of them;" after a battle with Zifnab's dragon, he takes on Xar's form and steals the ship, claiming that he will search for Haplo while Xar is on Pryan. It is revealed during Xar's stay that Zifnab is actually one of the dissenting Sartan who refused to go along with Samah's plan; he was among the mensch on Earth during the Sundering, and was the first of either race to escape the Labyrinth. It was he who penned many of the books Xar educated himself with. (With all that Zifnab has seen, his total dementia seems a bit more understandable.) Xar decides to leave Pryan in a ship he spotted outside the citadel, covered in Sartan runes, but to do that he needs to get past the tytans. He decides to need to kill off the mensch and revive them with necromancy to serve as distractions.
The mensch are having their own problems. Paithan is obsessed with a room in the center of the citadel that he calls the Star Chamber, a room with seven huge seats and an apparatus that generates blinding light. Roland and Aleatha are mostly not on speaking terms; the elf maiden finds herself spending more time with Drugar, who may be the last of his race. But Drugar has discovered a delightful illusion: at a certain clearing in the garden maze, at certain times of the day, he can see ghostly shadows of people from all the mensch races, walking around and talking to each other. Aleatha is there when he uses his amulet to activate the platform, teleporting him instantly to a different citadel— where, as it turns out, there are other survivors.
Marit finds herself in a Sartan prison. On a bench in the middle of the room, Haplo recovers from injuries caused by the Cursed Blade. Across from it, Hugh the Hand and the dog watch her with unblinking eyes. Their "jailer": none other than Alfred, who rescued them from Chelestra. After some discussion, Haplo realizes that they are in the Vortex, the one-way gate at the very center of the Labyrinth. It was here that the Patryns were initially imprisoned and chose to live for generations, until people calling themselves Nexus runners started trying to escape. (It's unknown when they abandoned the Vortex and all moved out into the Labyrinth.) Haplo decides to enter the Labyrinth in search of his daughter, whom Marit named Rue. Hugh agrees to go with him, as does Marit at Xar's command; he has told Marit to hold off on killing Haplo to report back any conversations Alfred and Haplo have about the other worlds. It is only Alfred who balks. He has nothing left— Orla "saw" Samah's death and chose a peaceful death to be with him— but fear of the unknown. The Labyrinth itself, however, refuses to let him return to the Vortex by unceremoniously dropping a mountain on top of the exit back into it. To Haplo, the Labyrinth seems afraid of Alfred, though he can't for the life of him figure out why; what is Alfred, besides a bumbling, useless Sartan? ... Who can turn into dragons? And bring people back from the dead?
The group is about to be overrun by tiger-men when, surprisingly, a Patryn raiding party comes to save them. This party comes from Abri, the one and only city inside the Labyrinth (anathema to the lone-wolf Patryns). While camping overnight, Alfred admits his true name to Haplo: Coren, a Sartan word that can mean "chosen" or perhaps "to choose." Many Sartan children were named that, in hopes of a self-fulfilling prophecy, but (as Haplo points out) Alfred did not feel particularly amused when he awoke, the last living Sartan on Arianus. Clearly Alfred was Coren, was chosen—but for what? Marit, however, betrays them by revealing that Alfred is a Sartan. Haplo, Hugh, and Alfred are jailed by the city's leader, Headman Vasu, to await Lord Xar— Marit accused Haplo of being a traitor and plotting against their people— but are freed again just as quickly after Marit overhears the disguised Sang-drax plotting to kill them. Sang-drax and his cronies are also gathering a huge army of the Labyrinth's native monsters, with which to destroy the city of Abri and seal the Final Gate; they allowed Marit to overhear them to feed off the emotions that would come from it. Abri's occupants prepare for its defense, while Haplo and Marit, prodded by the dog, finally find their love for each other.
Alfred feels out of place; though few seem to begrudge him his Sartan heritage, he is still out-of-place here, a clumsy pacifist in a city preparing for war. Talking with Headman Vasu, however, he eventually discovers that the city was not made by Patryns (who do not build cities,) or at least not by Patryns alone— the Sartan "heretics" who were expelled into the Labyrinth were accepted by the Patryns, eventually integrating completely into the society; Vasu himself is half-and-half, supplementing his Patryn tattoos with Sartan magic. The Patryns taught them the value of family; the Sartan, in return, taught the Patryns the value of banding together. Here, at the heart of the Labyrinth, rises Abri, the city that symbolizes the best in both cultures. Alfred also finds out why he is called the Serpent Mage: it is a title from a Sartan hierarchy of strength in magic, whose levels are named after animals. Serpent is very near the top. Alfred has found the meaning of his name: to choose his power, and all the responsibility it comes with... Or to choose Alfred, who would rather faint than have to use his magic.
Back on Pryan, Drugar returns from the other citadel with knowledge: he knows how to stop the tytans. Aleatha has fled the maze, though; pushed into hysterics by his sudden (and literal) disappearance, she ran back to her brother, and the four are now at a tea party of Xar's, at which he hopes to kill them with poisoned wine so that their bodies will be undamaged. Zifnab, however, saves them by drinking all of it himself and saying that it was poisoned, faking his death once again. The mensch are horrified at the revelation that Xar means to kill them. Aleatha escapes the room, while the other three are sealed inside by Xar... until Zifnab's dragon discovers Zifnab's "death" and tears the room apart. Aleatha has fled once again into the maze, where Xar can't pursue her because of protective Sartan runes covering its path. She runs into Drugar and he tells her they have to let the tytans inside to help them; he shares with her how to stop them. They run for the gates, but before they can reach it, Xar attacks; Drugar sacrifices himself to save Aleatha. Xar is about to kill Aleatha when the dragon strikes, distracting Xar with battling it instead of killing mensch. The other mensch have escape from the destroyed room and find her, and they think she's mad when she tells them what she's going to do. She uses the amulet to open the gate and invites the tytans inside; they peacefully enter and ask, —Where is the citadel? to which Aleatha answers, "Here is the Citadel. You are home."
Xar recovers from his battle with the dragon, and prepares to leave for the Labyrinth after Marit reports back to him— apparently corrupted by Haplo's influence into thinking Xar has made a mistake in allying with the dragon-snakes, as she says they are planning an attack. He is surprised when the tytans don't kill the mensch, and actually act to protect the mensch from him, but he avoids a fight by snatching Drugar's amulet from Aleatha and running away with it. The amulet will gain him entry into the Sartan ship, which he can then use to return to the Labyrinth.
At Abri, the battle between Patryns and Labyrinth creatures rages fiercely, but the real threat comes from the dragon-snakes. Haplo, Marit, and Hugh lead a sortie to deal with them, and the three battle Sang-drax in his serpent form. Sang-drax is apparently killed by Haplo, but Haplo has been badly injured and almost crushed beneath the massive body. Marit is attacked by a wolfen when a green and golden dragon carries it away: Alfred, having made his choice to accept his power. He lifts the serpent's body off of Haplo, leaving Marit to hold his blood-soaked form, his heart-rune's wound having reopened. But while Alfred is distracted in battle with the dragon-snakes, Xar appears. He wants Haplo's knowledge of the Chamber of the Damned, and will stop at nothing to get it. The battle ends with the Labyrinth's armies driven off, but Marit dazed and wounded, Haplo abducted by Xar, and Alfred missing in action.
[edit] The Seventh Gate
| Author | Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman |
|---|---|
| Country | USA |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Deathgate Cycle |
| Genre(s) | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Bantam Spectra |
| Released | 1994 |
| Media Type | Print ( ) |
| Pages | 368 (paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-553-57325-X |
| Preceded by | Into the Labyrinth |
| Followed by | none |
The Seventh Gate (1994) In the Labyrinth, Marit and Hugh venture out to try and find Alfred. He turns out to be the prisoner of a Labyrinth dragon, which are almost the equal of the dragon-snakes in cruelty and savagery. With the help of the Cursed Blade, they drive it off and rescue Alfred.
On Abarrach, Haplo is dying. He will never willingly give up his knowledge of the Chamber of the Damned, and Xar knows it. What Xar must do is allow Haplo to die, and then revive him with necromancy. The fact that they both know it and accept it does not make it easier on either of them. Haplo dies peacefully, as Xar, Lord of the Nexus, the most powerful human being in the universe, weeps silently over his surrogate son, whom, despite everything, he still loves.
But when the time for necromancy comes, it doesn't work. Xar realizes suddenly: the dog! Haplo never owned a dog until his last few moments in the Labyrinth—he had fought well and bravely, but just a few steps from the Final Gate, his injuries overtook him. Because he longed to rest and let death claim him, Haplo instilled all his instincts of loyalty, love and optimism into an external form: the dog. In doing so, though, he gave it his soul. The dog is still very much alive, and escapes into the catacombs under the capitol city, bringing Xar's plans to a screeching halt.
Marit, Hugh and Alfred, though alive, are at start of the Labyrinth; they must somehow reach the Final Gate, way at the other end. Providence arrives in the form of Zifnab and the dragons of Pryan—the good, true dragons, polar opposites to the dragon-snakes. Marit, Alfred and Hugh travel to Abarrach, where they hope to somehow rescue Haplo. In the meanwhile, Zifnab is sent on an important mission: he tells Ramu, son of Samah and leader of the remaining Sartan on Chelestra, to travel to Abarrach as well. When Xar hears about this, he redesigns his plans, sending his few Patryn bodyguards back to the Nexus, where they might make a difference in the defense of the Final Gate, and then begins to make his own preparations...
On Abarrach, Alfred and Marit leave Hugh on their ship (without magic, the air is too poisonous for him) and find the dog, through which Alfred can communicate with Haplo, but are unable to leave: for some reason, the dog can't pass through Death's Gate. Marit sustains wounds from a lazar, and the two retreat to Balthazar's encampment to rest and heal. Balthazar, of course, is very eager to leave this world if he can, but a problem arises when Kleitus, the leader of the lazar, attempts to seize Marit's ship himself. Alfred attempts to defeat him, but it takes Balthazar to really do the job. In the middle of this, Ramu arrives and peremptorily takes control of the situation. He decides to take everyone, including Marit, Balthazar and Balthazar's people, to the Labyrinth, to deal with the Patryn threat once and for all. This is exactly where Haplo wants him: with all the Sartan and all the Patryns in the Labyrinth, not to mention the good dragons of Pryan and the dragon-snakes of Chelestra, this would be the perfect time to seal shut Death's Gate, leaving the mensch to their own devices. Though both Patryns and Sartan think of themselves as gods among men, it is clear they have caused nothing but trouble. What Haplo proposes is to end it all in one final stroke. He asks Alfred to help him and Alfred, honored, agrees.
In the company of Jonathan the lazar and Hugh the Hand, the two descend to the Chamber of the Damned, actually the Seventh Gate. Alfred opens the door to Death's Gate, entering a hallway and preparing to shut the doors at both ends. Hugh the Hand takes a great deal of interest in it, and, when pressed by Haplo, he reverts to his normal appearance: Xar, Lord of the Nexus, come to finish what he has started: the return of the four worlds to their original one, one he will rule. "Do no violence," intones the lazar Jonathan, but no one is listening.
Alfred, at the far end of the hallway, opens the door into the Nexus, where he sees Ramu being approached by dragon-snakes, who promise allegiance in destroying the Patryns. Both Marit and Balthazar see through it, and the Sartan man aids the Patryn woman in escaping to warn her people, but Ramu is totally taken in. He and his forces prepare for war.
As this happens, Xar casts a spell on Alfred that nearly kills him, and allows Death's Gate to swing wide open; in through the door rushes Sang-drax, who attempts to urge Xar into reversing the Sundering, while surreptitiously killing Haplo. But seeds of doubt have finally taken hold, and Xar sees the dragon-snake for what it really is. He collapses the reverse-Sundering spell and is slain.
Sang-drax urges Haplo to finish what Xar started, but Haplo shakes his head and begins to shut the doors—all the doors—into the Seventh Gate, saying a final good-bye to his mensch friends as he does so. When he is done, Sang-drax has abandoned his elven form and towers above him, threatening death... But Alfred lurches in, wounded but coherent. "Do no violence! It wants us to fight!" Haplo throws down his sword, and Sang-drax rears up for the kill... Only to smash himself into the ceiling of the Seventh Gate, destroying himself and bringing the entire structure down on all of them. Haplo and Alfred have only one door to jump through: Death's Gate itself, which is slowly collapsing and taking all of creation with it. Haplo and Alfred have to combine forces, forcing their magics to work together—Patryn and Sartan rune-structures, diametric opposites... That fit together so obviously, Haplo wonders why it has never been seen before. Their spell works, and with a dull thud, Death's Gate closes for the final time.
In the Labyrinth, the dragon-snakes still loom, but there is a modicum of peace. Haplo is reunited with Marit, clearly intending never to leave her side again. Alfred is alive as well—at peace with himself, having finally chosen what he truly wants. Zifnab is here as well, doddering about causing trouble for his faithful dragon. Hugh the Hand is dead, found surrounded by the corpses of Labyrinth monsters. Lord Xar, as well, lies in state, the greatest of the Patryns, flawed though he—though they all—might be. And the war between Patryn and Sartan has been called to a halt: Ramu has been removed from command, replaced by Balthazar, who was quick to form an alliance with Vasu. The war, for now, is over, and perhaps, in time, there can be peace.
[edit] Trivia
The character Zifnab is a play on the character Fizban from Weis and Hickman's Dragonlance novels. He makes a few references to Fizban during the series (such as the importance of a Wizard's Hat). Zifnab seems to break the fourth wall constantly, making references to the Pern series of books, The Lord of the Rings, Dragonlance, Star Wars, Star Trek, James Bond, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Arthurian legend, and soul music, however, this story takes place in Earth's far distant future, so it is also possible that he could somehow have stumbled across these old bits of late 20th century literature and pop culture and somehow incorporated them into his view of reality. He appears again, in a similar capacity, in the Starshield novels, this time as Zanfib. However this could just mean he read the books as this is the future.
In addition to a wide variety of appendices, the back of each novel contains a musical score (typically for piano), often directly related to a song mentioned in the book (rf. Elven Star).
[edit] Behind the books
Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman were coming off of the wildly successful Dragonlance and Dark Sword series. The Death Gate Cycle was their most ambitious work yet, to create five fully realized and distinct worlds. The Death Gate Cycle showed Weis and Hickman maturing as writers; in comparison to the Dragonlance books, their grasp of fundamental elements such as characters and plot movements improved significantly in this series.
As in their previous works, the authors continued to explore the theme of balance, and how the universe naturally works to correct imbalances. Unlike in Dragonlance, where the universe's balance was a greater force than even the gods, the existence of a god or gods in The Death Gate Cycle is unknown; a universal balance is the closest thing to divinity. Along a similar line, the authors continued to explore the theme of men becoming gods -- in this case with the entire Patryn and Sartan races clamoring for that throne. Finally, as in both Dragonlance and the Darksword series, they explore the effects of sweeping changes to the fundamental nature of a world (in this case worlds) on both the day-to-day life and the fate of nations.
[edit] Game adaptations
Legend Entertainment released a computer adventure game called Death Gate based on the series. The game is based roughly on the first four books, although at the end it also contains an interpretation of the final confrontation from The Seventh Gate.
There is also a text adventure based on the Death Gate Cycle called "The Deadly Labyrinth". It can be downloaded here[1].
Tracy Hickman has indicated that Margaret Weis Productions hopes to someday produce a Death Gate Cycle roleplaying game[2].
