The Phoenix Guards Page 45
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