And still the rebels come. Transformed and normal. Through the green-gold door.
Something stirs in him. A hint of a feeling close to pride. Close to horror. Because he knows, and she knows, that the world has changed. And he helped change it.
It may not be better. It may be worse. But it will be different.
He’s reached the end of being Finch. Of being Crossley. He’s reached the end, and he has no idea who or what he will be next.
He sits in the rowboat next to her and watches the end and beginning of history.
Remembers it all.
Forgets it all.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Over the course of writing these books, numerous individuals influenced my edits and thoughts about the series as a whole. They have been thanked in the original editions. Here I would like to thank Sean McDonald and everyone at MCD / Farrar, Straus and Giroux for their enthusiastic support of this mammoth reprint project. Thanks as well to my wife, Ann, whose suggestions while writing all three books were invaluable. Thanks to Ann also for publishing Dradin, In Love as a standalone book. I am also indebted to the thoughts and imagination of old friends Matthew Cheney and Eric Schaller over so many years. Major appreciation to Howard Morhaim, the agent who doggedly found good homes for the Ambergris books over the years. Thanks to all the artists who worked on these books over the years. Additional thanks to Sally Harding, Liz Gorinsky, Henry Hoegbotton, and the editors who originally acquired these books for publishers large and small: Sean Wallace, Juliet Ulman, Peter Lavery, Jim Minz, Nicholas Cheetham, and Victoria Blake. I must also mention and thank all of those who hosted Shriek movie parties at small theaters around the country on original publication, with special appreciation for Edward Morris for having the brashness to display fresh squid at the premiere in Portland. Huge appreciation to Robert Devereaux, the Church, and Murder by Death for their soundtracks for Ambergris. Finally, thanks to all the booksellers and readers who championed the Ambergris Cycle over the years and made this reprint possible. Much love.
Illustration credits
All illustrations not listed herein were created by the author.
Main title page: Eric Schaller
Individual title pages: John Coulthart (with embedded art by Scott Eagle in the title pages for City of Saints and Madmen; “Dradin, In Love”; “The Early History of the City of Ambergris”; and “The Transformation of Martin Lake”)
Illustrated drop caps: Eric Schaller
here: Bladder river crossing reproductions: Eric Schaller
here: Gray cap “Disney” versions: Eric Schaller
here: Janice Shriek’s typewriter: Jonathan Edwards
here: Janice Shriek sample page: Jonathan Edwards
here and here: Gray cap symbol: John Coulthart
here: Gray cap symbol mandala: John Coulthart
NOTES
The Hoegbotton Guide to the Early History of the City of Ambergris
1 By Manzikert’s time, the rough southern accent of his people had permanently changed the designation “Captain” to “Cappan.” “Captain” referred not only to Manzikert’s command of a fleet of ships, but also to the old Imperial titles given by the Saphants to the commander of a see of islands; thus, the title had both religious and military connotations. Its use, this late in history, reflects how pervasive the Saphant Empire’s influence was: 200 years after its fall, its titles were still being used by clans that had only known of the Empire secondhand.
2 A footnote on the purpose of these footnotes: This text is rich with footnotes to avoid inflicting upon you, the idle tourist, so much knowledge that, bloated with it, you can no longer proceed to the delights of the city with your customary mindless abandon. In order to hamstring your predictable attempts—once having discovered a topic of interest in this narrative—to skip ahead, I have weeded out all of those cross references to other Hoegbotton publications that litter the rest of this pamphlet series like a plague of fungi.
3 I should add to footnote 2 that the most interesting information will be included only in footnote form, and I will endeavor to include as many footnotes as possible. Indeed, information alluded to in footnote form will later be expanded upon in the main text, thus confusing any of you who have decided not to read the footnotes. This is the price to be paid by those who would rouse an elderly historian from his slumber behind a desk in order to coerce him to write for a common travel guide series.
4 Today, the salinity of the river changes to fresh water a mere 25 miles upriver; the reason for this change is unknown, but may be linked to the buildup of silt at the river’s mouth, which acts as a natural filter.
5 Almost 500 years later, the Petularch Dray Mikal would order the uprooting of native flora around the city in favor of the northern species of his youth, surely among the most strikingly arrogant responses to homesickness on record. The Petularch would be dead for 50 years before the transplantation could be ruled a success.
6 And yet, what is our understanding of the monk’s early history? Obscure at best. The records at Nicea contain no mention of a Samuel Tonsure, and it is possible he was just passing through the city on his way elsewhere and so did not actively preach there. “Samuel Tonsure” may also be a name that Tonsure created to disguise his true identity. A handful of scholars, in particular the truculent Mary Sabon, argue that Tonsure was none other than the Patriarch of Nicea himself, a man who is known to have disappeared at roughly the same time Tonsure appeared with Manzikert. Sabon offers as circumstantial evidence the oft repeated story that the Patriarch sometimes traversed his city incognito, dressed as a simple monk to spy on his subordinates. He could easily have been captured without knowledge of his rank—which, if revealed, would have given Manzikert such leverage over Nicea that he might well have been able to take the city and settle behind its walls, safe from Brueghel. If so, however, why didn’t the Patriarch make any attempt to escape once he had gained Manzikert’s trust? The case, despite some of Sabon’s other evidence, seems wrong-headed from its inception. My own research, corroborated by the Autarch of Nunk, indicates that the Patriarch’s disappearance coincides with that of the priestess Caroline of the Church of the Seven-Pointed Star, and that the Patriarch and Caroline eloped together, the ceremony performed by a traveling juggler hastily ordained as a priest.
7 For reasons which will become clear, Tonsure could no longer complete it; therefore, 10 years later, Manzikert’s son had another Truffidian monk summoned from Nicea for this purpose. Unfortunately, this monk, whose name is lost to us, believed in wearing hair shirts, daily flagellation, and preaching “the abomination of the written word.” He did indeed complete the biography, but he might as well have spared himself the effort. Although edited by Manzikert II himself, it contains such prose as “And his highly exhulted majesty set foot on land like a swaggorin conquor from daes of your.” Clearly this abominator’s abominations against the Written Word far outweigh any crimes It may have perpetrated upon him.
8 If the careful historian needs further proof that Sabon is wrong, he need look no further than the inscription on the monk’s journal: “Samuel Tonsure.” Why would he bother to maintain the pretense since the contents of the journal itself would condemn him to death? And why would he, if indeed the Patriarch (a learned and clever man by all accounts), choose such a clumsy and obvious pseudonym?