Dreams of the Compass Rose

Book excerpt: 2002 Nebula Awards Preliminary Ballot Nominee The world is shaped by two things — stories told and the memories they leave behind. The Compass Rose universe -- an ancient milieu where places have no names, cities spring forth like bouquets in the desert, gods and dreams walk the scorching sands in the South, ice floats like mirror shards upon the Northern sea, islands that do not exist are found in the East, death chases a thief on the rooftops of a Western city, immortal love spans time, and directions are intertwined into one road we all travel.... You come to this place when you wonder, and sometimes, only when you dream. What is the nature of evil? When a young warrior of a dark race finds himself bound in servitude to a beautiful cruel princess, his loyalty becomes entwined with something more horrifying and mysterious than endless night falling over the ancient desert. When a courageous young servant reveals her hidden wisdom to the madman conqueror of the world, her fate is joined to a nightmare suspended beyond death and outside the universe. Two souls from different times -- their destinies connected through hundreds of other lives and generations, through soft whispers of the wind, through ancient truths that lie buried in an island between worlds. Both souls enslaved through dream and desire in an endless conflict between truth and illusion. They can only be set free by the wonder of the Compass Rose. Keywords: Ancient world myth legend one thousand and one nights Arabian middle east eastern djinn warrior mystery compass rose origin gods goddess creation Scheherazade Armenian storyteller fairytale fairy tale magic wonder stories story oral tradition literary tales teller