The Phoenix Guards Read online

  In the Year of the Lyorn

  In the Phase of the Dragon

  In the Cycle of the Phoenix

  In the Great Cycle of the Dragon,

  Or, the Three Hundred and Ninth year

  Of the Glorious Reign of

  The Empress Zerika the Fourth

  By Sir Paarfi of Roundwood

  House of the Hawk

  (His arms, seal, lineage block)

  Presented, as Always, With Humble Respects

  To Lady Parachai of Redstaff

  In Hopes that it will Meet with her Approval

  BOOKS BY STEVEN BRUST

  THE DRAGAERAN NOVELS

  Brokedown Palace

  THE KHAAVREN ROMANCES

  The Phoenix Guards

  Five Hundred Years After

  The Viscount of Adrilankha, which comprises

  The Paths of the Dead, The Lord of Castle Black, and Sethra Lavode

  THE VLAD TALTOS NOVELS

  Jhereg

  Yendi

  Teckla

  Taltos

  Phoenix

  Athyra

  Orca

  Dragon

  Issola

  Dzur

  Jhegaala

  OTHER NOVELS

  To Reign in Hell

  The Sun, the Moon, and the Stars

  Agyar

  Cowboy Feng’s Space Bar and Grille

  The Gypsy (with Megan Lindholm)

  Freedom and Necessity (with Emma Bull)

  About the Author

  Mr. Steven Brust (while we are not familiar with the title, “Mister,” it is thus we find him called, and we will not take it upon ourselves to change it) lives in a place called Minneapolis, which name, we are given to understand, means either, “Place of Blowing and Drifting Snow,” or, “Land of Almost Constant Road Repair.” He was born one thousand, nine hundred, and fifty-five years after the founding of the temple of one of the more popular local dieties, on the twenty-third day of a month called “November,” which name, we are given to understand, means either, “Time of the Start of Blowing and Drifting Snow,” or, “Time of Short-Lived Hiatus in Road Repair.”

  He has supplied us with a rather lengthy list of activities in which he has engaged in order to support himself, but as we are unable to make any sort of sense out of any of them, we will omit the list entirely, confident that the reader is missing nothing of any importance by the omission.

  While his personal life is, in some measure, beyond the scope of our studies, we may say that he is the author of four children and ten novels; the book which you have the honor of holding in your hands being the tenth. We consider our task to be one of recording what has been, rather than predicting what will be, yet we feel confident in asserting that the number of children is not likely to increase, whereas the number of novels might well have grown even before this present volume goes forth into the public, where it is destined, according to Mr. Brust, to perform some arcane service called, “Leveling Washing Machines.”

  When Mr. Brust is not writing, he is likely to be found striking, either with his hands or with sticks, imitation hides stretched across shells of various sizes, which act he engages in in hopes of bringing forth musically pleasing sounds. While we are at a loss to understand how such actions could produce these results—any more than we understand how one might imitate hide or why one would wish to—we are unwilling to judge without having witnessed the attempt, which, considering the circumstances, seems unlikely.

  It should be noted, however, that he does this in conjunction with several other persons, most notably including a certain Lady Emma of the House of the Bull, and that this coincidence of musical personalities refers to itself as “Cats Laughing,” for reasons upon which we will not speculate. Should the reader wish to continue his researches into this federation of performers, he ought to write his address on an envelope, along with whatever seals are required for delivery by the post, place this envelope into a second, or rather, a first envelope, also with appropriate postal seals, and send this package to:

  Cats Laughing ,

  P.O. Box 7253

  Minneapolis, Minnesota, 554072

  Let us add, on our own behalf, that we have been accused of having had more of a creative than an historical role with regard to the persons of whom we have had the honor to write; there are even those have suggested that these individuals have never existed except in our imaginings. While we do not, in general, consider such charges worth responding to, we may assure the reader that, if he were to follow the above instructions, he will receive proof that Mr. Brust, at least, has nothing fictitious about him; and, if we may be permitted a last opinion, it seems that, of all the characters who have done us the honor of appearing before us in this work, Mr. Brust is by far the most improbable.

  Paarfi of Roundwood

  2/1/2/3

  Adrilankha, Whitecrest

  About the Author

  Paarfi of Roundwood is the creation of a writer who, at first, wished the style of the French Romantics (Dumas, Sabatini, etc.) was still popular, then decided he didn’t care, and he’d bloody well write like that anyway. Paarfi is not really intended to look like one of those individuals; merely to sound something like them. For those with an interest in Dragaeran “history,” or rather, continuity, he can be placed at roughly the same period as the books of the Vlad Taltos series, or about a thousand years after the events he is supposed to be writing about.

  If I’ve set him up as a bit pompous, that shouldn’t be construed as a slam at the writers I’m imitating. It’s just that, as I spent a whole novel with his voice running through my fingers, he developed his own personality, for which I can take no more or less responsibility than I can for any of my other characters. Take that how you will.

  He keeps trying to refer to himself as an historian, which is okay, but it seems to me that he is making up more than he is willing to let on, his protests in the Preface notwithstanding. His true love is, I think, history, and he isn’t really bad at it, but the era in which he is writing, only a few hundred years after the Interregnum, is not one where there is much call for historians; everyone is too preoccupied with rebuilding the Empire to have the leisure to look backward. In other words, everyone is too busy repeating past mistakes to take the time to look at those mistakes, much to Paarfi’s frustration. Therefore, to support himself, he had to find a patron, the Lady Parachai, who enjoyed reading the sort of books that passed on Dragaera for historical romances.

  Think of Paarfi, then, as a bit like Arthur Conan Doyle; he isn’t making his living doing what he really wants to do, but rather doing what he is good at: telling stories. In Paarfi’s case, his manner of telling stories may be a bit overblown and pretentious—and it is certainly wordy—but it’s his own. If Dumas developed his style, at least in part, because he was paid by the word (rather like Dickens, only Dumas had more fun), then Paarfi’s style is just as understandable: on Dragaera, all the scholars write like that.

  As for my own reasons, well, the fact is, I was having too much fun to stop. I enjoyed working with him a great deal, both for his own sake, and as homage to some great writers of the past. I hope you like him, as well.

  Steven Brust, P.J.F.

  April, 1990

  Minneapolis, Minnesota

  Notes

  1 Translator’s Note: The Dragaeran language uses the symbol “gya” to represent someone of unknown sex. Since English lacks this convenience, I decided to use the word “he” for all such occurrences.

  —S.B.

  2 This address no longer exists; instead, readers should, using whatever equipment they use to navigate the byways of the World Wide Web, browse to the document available at http://www.cafepress.com/steeldragon/338740, where they will find instructions for the procurement of this and sundry other musical recordings.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagi
nation or are used fictitiously.

  THE PHOENIX GUARDS

  Copyright © 1991 by Steven Brust

  All rights reserved.

  An Orb Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10010

  www.tor-forge.com

  Book design by Robert Bull Design

  eISBN 9781429997317

  First eBook Edition : April 2011

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Brust, Steven, 1955-

  The phoenix guards / Steven Brust. p.cm.

  “A Tom Doherty Associates book.”

  ISBN-13: 978-0-7653-1965-4

  ISBN-10: 0-7653-1965-9

  I. Title.

  PS3552.R84P4 1991

  813’.54—dc20

  90-29900

  CIP

  First Hardcover Edition: August 1991

  First Orb Edition: October 2008