Camber of Culdi

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Also by Katherine Kurtz

The Deryni Novels

The Chronicles of the Deryni

Deryni Rising

Deryni Checkmate

High Deryni

The Legends of Camber of Culdi

Camber of Culdi

Saint Camber

Camber the Heretic

The Histories of King Kelson

The Bishop's Heir

The King's Justice

The Quest for Saint Camber

The Heirs of Saint Camber

The Harrowing of Gwynedd

King Javan's Year

The Bastard Prince

The Childe Morgan Trilogy

In the King's Service

Childe Morgan

The King's Deryni

Other novels

King Kelson's Bride

Camber of Culdi

The Legends of Camber of Culdi, Volume One

Katherine Kurtz

For

Fredrick Harry Kurtz

and for

The good folk of the

Society for Creative Anachronism,

without whom this book would have

been finished far sooner,

but far less well.

Author doth not live by typewriter alone!

Contents

Prologue

Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever.
—
Isaiah
30:8

I
In the multitude of people is the king's honour; but in the want of the people is the destruction of the prince.
—
Proverbs
14:28

II
He shall go to the generation of his fathers …
—
Psalms
49:19

III
Then give place to the physician, for the Lord hath created him: let him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him.
—
Ecclesiasticus
38:12

IV
Hear counsel and receive instruction, that thou mayest be wise in thy latter end.
—
Proverbs
19:20

V
Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month …
—
Jeremiah
36:22

VI
O that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain, that I might weep day and night for the slain …
—
Jeremiah
9:1

VII
The skill of the physician shall lift up his head: and in the sight of great men he shall be in admiration.
—
Ecclesiasticus
38:3

VIII
Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous; but who is able to stand before envy?
—
Proverbs
27:4

IX
When he speaketh fair, believe him not: for there are seven abominations in his heart.
—
Proverbs
26:25

X
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
—
Proverbs
20:1

XI
The just shall be in everlasting remembrance.
—
Psalms
112:6

XII
For by wise counsel thou shalt make thy war.
—
Proverbs
24:6

XIII
For your hands are defiled with blood.
—
Isaiah
59:3

XIV
Blessed shall they be that shall be in those days,/He bringeth back His anointed.
—
Psalms of Solomon
18:6

XV
I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine heritage.
—
Jeremiah
12:7

XVI
There is one alone, and there is not a second; yea, he hath neither child nor brother; yet is there no end to all his labour; neither is his eye satisfied with riches.
—
Ecclesiastes
4:8

XVII
But he shall take a virgin of his own people to wife.
—
Leviticus
21:14

XVIII
The Lord said to my lord, “You are my son. This day I have begotten you!”
—
Psalms
2:7

XIX
And they put him in ward, that the mind of the Lord might be shewed them.
—
Leviticus
24:12

XX
Hear us, my lord; thou art a prince of God among us.
—
Genesis
22:6

XXI
For out of prison he comes to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becomes poor.
—
Ecclesiastes
4:14

Preview:
Saint Camber

Bonus Story: Bethane

Appendix  I:  Index of Characters

Appendix  II:  Index to Place Names

Appendix  III:  Partial Lineage of the Haldane Kings

Appendix  IV:  The Festillic Kings of Gwynedd and Their Descendants

Appendix  V:  Partial Lineage of the MacRories

About the Author

Now, these are the Names of the Eleven Kingdoms, sung rightly well of old:

Howicce, and Llannedd, and fierce Connait;

mountainous Meara, the Land Beyond the River;

and Kheldour, the windswept;

and pastoral Eastmarch;

Tolan, and Torenth, and myth ridden Mooryn;

and lost Caeriesse, which sank beneath the sea;

and far-reaching Gwynedd, seat of the Haldane Kings.

—L
AY OF THE
L
ORD
L
LEWELLYN
,

Troubadour to the High King

of Mooryn

P
ROLOGUE

Now go, write it before them on a tablet, and inscribe in it a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever
.

—Isaiah 30:8

Saint Camber.

Camber of Culdi.

Noble-born Deryni earl.

Gifted scholar and legalist.

Patron of Deryni Magic.

Defensor Hominum
.

Camber.

By the reign of Kelson I, he had been a legend for more than two hundred years, in turn respected, venerated, and feared.

But who was the man, Camber of Culdi? What was the man before he became the saint—and the demon?

Was he, as later legends insist, the sole perpetrator of the atrocities and terrors associated with the Deryni Interregnum? The apotheosis of Evil Incarnate? Or was there another side to this man who became a legend in his own lifetime, saint after his death, and curse word for generations to come?

Just who
was
Camber of Culdi?

The scant Deryni sources which survived by the reign of Kelson tell us that Camber MacRorie, more than any other single man, was responsible for breaking the hold of the ninth-century Festillic dynasty; he and his children who discovered, during those chaotic times, that the awesome Deryni powers and abilities could sometimes be bestowed upon certain, select humans. The old House of Haldane was restored to the Throne of Gwynedd in 904, and for more than a decade humans and Deryni lived in comparative harmony.

Less than a year after his death, Camber was canonized for his daring contributions. This we also know is true. To humans and Deryni alike, he became Saint Camber, Patron of Deryni Magic, and
Defensor Hominum
—Defender of Humankind. For a time, a grateful people could not find high-enough praise for the man who had delivered them from the hated Festillic yoke. Churches and monastic schools were named for him in the decade after his death. The mental techniques perfected by Camber and the Healer Rhys Thuryn were taught in Deryni institutions of learning throughout the Eleven Kingdoms. His family and followers continued to assist the restored Haldane king and consolidate the new regime, and eventually founded the Camberian Council, a form of which still existed by the time of King Kelson.