Adrian Tchaikovsky
Salute the Dark
People
Stenwold Maker - Beetle-kinden spymaster and statesman
Cheerwell ‘Che’ Maker - his niece
Tisamon - Mantis-kinden Weaponsmaster
Tynisa - his halfbreed daughter, Stenwold’s ward
Achaeos - Moth-kinden magician, Che’s lover
Atryssa - Tynisa’s mother and Tisamon’s former lover, deceased
Thalric - renegade Wasp-kinden, former Rekef major
Nero - Fly-kinden artist, old friend of Stenwold
Felise Mienn - Dragonfly-kinden duellist
Taki - Solarnese Fly-kinden aviatrix
Lineo Thadspar - Beetle-kinden Speaker for the Collegium Assembly
Balkus - renegade Sarnesh Ant-kinden, Stenwold’s agent
Sperra - Fly-kinden, Stenwold’s agent
Destrachis - Spider-kinden doctor, companion of Felise Mienn
Parops - Tarkesh Ant-kinden, leader of the free Tarkesh
Jons Allanbridge - Beetle-kinden aviator
Plius - foreign Ant-kinden in Sarn, Stenwold’s agent
Prince Minor Salme ‘Salma’ Dien - Dragonfly nobleman, leader of the Landsarmy
Prized of Dragons - Butterfly-kinden, Salma’s lover
Phalmes - Mynan Soldier Beetle-kinden, former brigand, Salma’s lieutenant
Teornis of the Aldanrael - Spider-kinden Aristos and
Lord-Martial Odyssa - Teornis’ chief agent in Solarno
Cesta - Assassin Bug-kinden killer in Solarno
Scobraan - Soldier Beetle-kinden aviator in Solarno
Laetrimae - Mantis-kinden ghost from the Shadow Box
Xaraea - Moth-kinden intelligencer in Tharn
Tegrec - Wasp-kinden major and magician, governor of occupied Tharn
Raeka - Wasp-kinden, Tegrec’s body-slave
Kymene - Mynan Soldier Beetle-kinden, leader of the Mynan resistance
Chyses - Mynan Soldier Beetle-kinden, Kymene’s lieutenant
Hokiak - Scorpion-kinden black-marketeer in Myna
Gryllis - Spider-kinden, Hokiak’s business partner
Alvdan II - Emperor of the Wasps
Seda - his sister
Maxin - Wasp-kinden general, Rekef
Reiner - Wasp-kinden general, Rekef
Brugan - Wasp-kinden general, Rekef
Malkan - Wasp-kinden general, Seventh Army
Latvoc - Wasp-kinden colonel, Rekef, Reiner’s aide
Gan - Wasp-kinden colonel, governor of Szar
Ulther - Wasp-kinden colonel, former governor of Myna, deceased
Axrad - Wasp-kinden lieutenant and aviator
Uctebri the Sarcad - Mosquito-kinden slave and magician
Gjegevey - Woodlouse-kinden slave and advisor
Dariandrephos (‘Drephos’) - halfbreed auxillian-colonel and master artificer
Totho - halfbreed artificer in Drephos’ cadre
Kaszaat - Bee-kinden artificer, in Drephos’ cadre
Big Greyv - Mole Cricket-kinden artificer, in Drephos’ cadre
Places
Capitas - the capital of the Empire
Asta - Wasp staging post for the Lowlands Campaign
Collegium - Beetle-kinden city, home of the Great
College The Commonweal - Dragonfly-kinden state north of the Lowlands, partly occupied by the Empire
The Darakyon - forest, formerly a Mantis stronghold, now haunted
Helleron - Beetle-kinden factory city, occupied
Myna - Soldier Beetle city conquered by the Wasps
Sarn - Ant-kinden city-state allied to Collegium
Solarno - Spider-ruled city on the Exalsee, occupied
Spiderlands - Spider-kinden cities south of the Lowlands, believed rich and endless
Szar - Bee-kinden city, conquered by the Wasps
Tark - Ant-kinden city-state, occupied
Tharn - Moth-kinden hold, occupied
Vek - Ant-kinden city-state, recently at war with Collegium
Organizations and things
The Ancient League - a Moth-Mantis alliance of Dorax, Nethyon and Etheryon
Assembly - the elected ruling body of Collegium, meeting in the Amphiophos
Buoyant Maiden - Jons Allanbridge’s airship
Crystal Standard, Path of Jade, Satin Trail - Solarnese political parties
Esca Volenti - Taki’s orthopter
Great College in Collegium, the cultural heart of the Lowlands
Landsarmy - force of refugees and irregulars led by Salma
Mercers - Dragonfly-kinden order of knights errant
Prowess Forum - duelling venue in Collegium
Rekef - the Wasp Empire’s secret service
Shadow Box - an artefact holding the heart of the Darakyon
Skryres - the magician-leaders of the Moth-kinden
Starnest - great Wasp airship used in the conquest of Solarno
Winged Furies - name for the Wasp Seventh Army
Following his victory over the Sarnesh field army, General Malkan prepares to lead his army towards Sarn itself to destroy the military capability of the Lowlands. The alliance of powers that Stenwold brokered at Sarn is still gathering its strength, so it falls to Salma’s Landsarmy to hinder the Wasp advance while the Lowlanders prepare.
Over the winter the Wasps have added the Spider city of Solarno to their Empire, and also the Moth hold of Tharn. However, careful manipulation by the Moth Skryres and their agent Xaraea has ensured that Tegrec, the new governor of Tharn, is secretly sympathetic to their case, being a magician who has hidden his true nature from his kin.
Meanwhile the maverick artificer Drephos has been ordered to take his secret weapons to the city of Szar, whose Bee-kinden people are in open revolt after the death of their queen, whom the Empire was holding as hostage for their continued servitude. However, amongst Drephos’ cadre is Kaszaat, a former citizen of Szar, and the lover of Stenwold’s former student Totho.
The mission to recover the Shadow Box has failed after Tynisa, under the control of the Mosquito-kinden Uctebri, stabbed Achaeos, leaving him severely wounded. The box, meanwhile, has fallen into Uctebri’s hands, and he has promised the Wasp Emperor that he will use the artefact to make Alvdan immortal. However, at the same time, Uctebri plots with the Emperor’s sister to dethrone her brother and make her into an undying Empress.
One
Why do these things always come to plague us?
A fatuous thought for a man about to fight a war, but the war had not even begun and already Stenwold had seen too many people hurt – and hurt on his business too. The knot of horror he had felt when they had brought Sperra out had not gone away. And now this.