Chronicles of Hervard:
Slave of the Unnamed

Nik Perumov reveals the storyline:

"Previous three books from this cycle told the stories of Northern, Eastern and Western Hervard, so we have missed Southern continent. This is the place where novel will take place. Certain kingdom, where an old king dies--he held country in an iron fist, his place should be taken by his oldest son, a person of soft and gentle character, who's in no way inclined to rule the country. This older son has a younger brother and sister. The Sister - total opposite of him: very strong natured, and his younger son - still just a teenager. Leaving off troubles of palace intrigues, I will only say that sister prepares a revolution and it is successfully achieved, after she resorts to the aid of otherworldly forces. The country is plunged into the chaos of civil war, and True King - elder son - has to make a tough decision. Being an unwarlike creature, he has to wage war against his own relatives and his citizens. In his own time, General Suvorov, as you would remember, refused to send his troops to St. Petersburg precisely because he couldn't spill blood of his fellow citizens. And the main hero was left alone because his allies left him: Lords are looking for an «Iron Fist», they want a war because «War feeds war». As a result, this ruler - elder son, turns to the gnomes. And so they answered him: «Fine, we will help you because we cannot stand the spells used against you. But we require your oath, that if we win, you will carry out one of our wishes». Gnomes leave for the war, and in the battle by the capital, they destroy rebel army, capturing True King's sister and brother. After the victory, Gnome King, reminds the True King his oath, and asks for sister and brother of his. «Why?» - asks the king. «They have to be sacrificed deep underground because they have to answer for the things they've done, to rid the world from the Evil they have called down», - answered gnome. What could this poor ruler, a person with kind and gentle heart, who cannot, even knowing what they did, send his siblings to death, do? But an oath is an oath, and he does what he is supposed to do. However, immediately after, he turns to a mage with a request to help out and free the prisoners, which the mage does. Oath is broken - blood spilled. But the mage who freed the prisoners, is not giving them back to the king as well. Mage decides to kill them himself, to secure a certain force which they've freed earlier. At this time, the king takes action which puts a name onto this novel. In desperation, after being deprived his last hopes, my hero falls under slavery of Unnamed. This is worse than selling your soul to the devil. Devil took the souls and tortured them, but he didn't destroy them. What stands behind the «Slave of the Unnamed» - is complete uncertainty, one could only go for this as a last resort of desperation, this is worse then suicide, this is last resort, after which there is nothing. This novel serves as a launch pad for the many sketches, in which I describe what this Unnamed is, and I've tried to examine this superhuman being in an encounter with the human medium. To be the slave of Unnamed - is to serve incomprehensive, unknown force, when you cannot understand what is required of you, you are used not even as tool, because it is so much above human understanding and human knowledge. In general, this king was supposed to become one of the characters from «AMDM», he is the one that turns to Fess, in the rock foundry, for the first time asking him for collaboration and aid. Unfortunately, this didn't happen. The second part of this novel would tell how this king bought himself out of this, the price paid for his freedom - destruction of entire worlds. For himself, he has already decided that once free, with knowledge and secrets he owns, he will end his life. This is a pretty gloomy novel. The ending is tragic: the main hero dies, serving his duty to the end. But the novel remains unwritten: key scenes are finished, plenty of sketches, but there is no text. I leave this for the judgement of you, the reader, if this is worthy of bringing to life or not."