Calenture
Storm Constantine
Stark House Press, 2001
ISBN:0966784812
Casmeer is the last living keeper of the dead, deserted city of Thermidore. Immortal chronicler of the city, he is the guardian of
its crystalline inhabitants. Their sparkling remains are looted by the scavenging plumosites - a strange hybrid of monkey and bird -
who cast the broken pieces into an underground river.
Terranauts collect the scattered crystals and use them as pilot stones to guide other cities across the plains. Finnigin, a young
terranaut, must undertake a proving journey into manhood, leaving the people who have cared for him to find another troupe and
learn from them the mystery of the pilot stones.
Ays is a Priest of Hands, a consoler of the dying, in the city of Min. His ordered life is overturned by a dying man who spurns
Ays's solace. Shaken, Ays must leave his city to confront the questions that the stranger has planted in his mind about the nature
of his origins.
As they journey on, both Finnigin and Ays are haunted by a mysterious figure, a man who seems to know more about them than
they themselves do. Ays and Finnigin find their paths linked, before they come to the final terrifying and liberating climax of their
travels.
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