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The Three Lands Omnibus (2011 Edition)
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THE THREE LANDS OMNIBUS
Dusk Peterson
2011 Edition
Love in Dark Settings Press
Greenbelt, Maryland
Published by Love in Dark Settings Press in Greenbelt, Maryland, in the United States of America.
This text, or a variation on it, was originally published at duskpeterson.com as part of the series The
Three Lands. Copyright (c) 2002-2011 Dusk Peterson. April 2011 edition. Some rights reserved. The text
is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License
(creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0). You may freely print, post, e-mail, share, or otherwise
distribute the text for noncommercial purposes, provided that you include this paragraph. The author's
policies on derivative works and fan works are available online (duskpeterson.com/copyright.htm).
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the
author's imagination or are used fictitiously.
The Three Lands Omnibus contains all the current stories in the ongoing Three Lands series. Readers'
feedback is welcome and will be taken into account in the preparation of future editions of this e-book.
DEDICATION
To my friend and first beta reader,
Katharine Bond.
Koina ta ton philon .
In gratitude to our alma mater,
St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland.
Facio liberos ex liberis libris libraque .
CONTENTS
=== Law Links ===
Few events are more thrilling in a Koretian boy's life than a blood feud between two villages. Or so
Adrian thought.
Torn between affection toward his traditional-minded father and worship of his peace-loving, heretical
priest, Adrian finds himself caught between two incompatible visions of his duty to the gods. Then the
Jackal God sends Adrian a message that will disrupt his life and send him fleeing from a danger he knows
too well.
¶ Novel: 160,000 words.
Law Links 1: God of Vengeance . "Sometimes I feel that he is as mysterious as the gods, and that he is
hiding something of vital importance from me. Something that would transform my life."
Law Links 2: The Sword . "But what if I were to reverse the picture? What if I were to become the jackal
and pursue them?"
Law Links 3: God of Mercy . " I felt a deep stillness enter into me then, one I hadn't felt for many weeks –
one I hadn't felt since the last time Fenton and I spoke. I understood."
Law Links 4: The Bird . "The slaves are a second mystery."
Law Links 5: God of Judgment . " 'Spies don't fight – remember that.'"
Law Links 6: The Balance . "'You asked whether you could do anything for me; now comes the moment
when I must take up your offer.'"
=== Blood Vow ===
He has taken a blood vow to the Jackal God to bring freedom to his land by killing Koretia's greatest
enemy. But what will he do when the enemy becomes his friend?
Thrust into exile and pain, young Andrew has no choice but to accept the friendship of the very person
he had vowed to kill. When he returns with his friend to his homeland fifteen years later, though, he
finds himself in a land of conflicting loyalties . . . where a vengeful god awaits him.
¶ Novel: 120,000 words.
Blood Vow 1: The Gods' Land . " I had come to tell him, in the cheerful manner boys have, that our world
was about to be destroyed."
Blood Vow 2: Land of the Chara . "'If I were to take him, in three months you would find him thinking
and acting like a civilized Emorian. If you know how to discipline a slave, as I do, such transformations
are accomplished with ease.'"
Blood Vow 3: The Look of the Chara . " 'You have not been raped or killed or enslaved, or watched as
your city was destroyed on the orders of the Chara.'"
Blood Vow 4: Land of the Jackal . "'I hope that you do not allow this visit to confuse your carefully
acquired Emorian sensibilities as to the proper definition of loyalty.'"
Blood Vow 5: The Eyes of the Jackal . "'The only way in which to bring peace is to find this Koretian
rebel-leader and kill him.'"
Blood Vow 6: The God's Land . " 'If you cannot serve me, then you must be my captive.'"
=== Re-creation ===
What can you give a slave who, by law, can own nothing?
A holiday gift story for Dusk Peterson's readers.
¶ Novelette: 17,000 words.
Re-creation . "He could not leave this room without his father's permission. And he could not imagine
going to his father and saying, 'Please let me go gather moss so that my slave can have a proper New
Year for once.'"
=== Bard of Pain ===
In the battle-weary lands of the Great Peninsula, only one fate is worse than being taken prisoner by the
Lieutenant: being taken prisoner if you are the Lieutenant.
As the world's most skilled torturer struggles with his change of fortune, he finds that his fate is
intertwined with the destinies of an idealistic army commander, an affectionate prisoner, and a protégé
who reveres the Lieutenant's art . . . but is on the wrong side of the conflict.
¶ Novella: 38,000 words.
Bard of Pain 1: The Darkness . "The beginning of the end for him (or so it seemed at the time) came in
the moment that he stepped into the shadow of Capital Mountain and was assaulted by a stranger."
Bard of Pain 2: The Fire . "He was on fire."
=== Mystery ===
Three days ago he faced death by fire. Now he faces a bigger challenge.
¶ Novella: 27,000 words.
Mystery . "Prosper, watching the hand fondle the sword-flat, with the blade's killing edge turned toward
him, found himself doing battle with no less than three demon-fears."
=== Upcoming fiction ===
Law of Vengeance: Excerpt . A preview of the next Three Lands novel.
=== Back matter ===
More writings by Dusk Peterson . I ncludes a link to the author's contact information.
o—o—o
o—o—o
o—o—o
=== Law Links ===
Law Links 1
GOD OF VENGEANCE
CHAPTER ONE
Begun on the first day of September in the 940th year after the giving of the law, by Adrian son of
Berenger, from the Village of Mountside in the Land of Koretia.
Hamar and I played Jackal and Prey this afternoon, with Hamar as the Jackal, and with me as the Jackal's
prey. I spent three hours hiding amidst the mountain rocks, creeping away whenever Hamar came near,
and he never caught me. Eventually Hamar called to me that I was cheating, and I came out and we
argued about it and would probably have ended up duelling each other except that I was reluctant to
get blood on the new dagger that our father gave me this morning.
Finally I told Hamar that it wasn't fair that he always played that he was the hunting god, while I was
always delegated to being the hunted. He responded that I play the prey better than anyone else in the
village – which is true – but I pointed out to him that I am just as good at being the hunter as I am at
being the hunted. "Besides," I said, "I came of age this morning, and if you want to be at my birthday
feast this evening, you ought to acknowledge that I am a man."
He sulkily allowed me to take the Jackal's role, and I caught him within a quarter of an hour. My father
said this morning that Hamar and I ought not to be playing such games any more, since we are both
men, even if I am only sixteen and Hamar is just two years older. But Fenton said that even boys' games
have value to a man and that some day I may be able to make as much use of my hours spent at Jackal
and Prey as I will of what I learned in the rite he performed over me late last night.
o—o—o

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