Free The Modern World by Steph Swainston

family and gained all the land south of the river mouth. Our rise in influence seemed unstoppable.’
    ‘Look,’ I said. ‘We know all this.’
    Eleonora said, ‘Shut up, Jant. He’s talking to me’
    She gave Lightning an encouraging nod and he continued, unfortunately: ‘The Murrelets held the throne for centuries. They had claimed the Rachis Valley, but they died out in five four nine and we inherited the throne. Queen Esmerillion was the first of our dynasty – her charm was legendary. She moved the capital from Murrelet to Micawater town. She built the palace, away from the best land, obviously, but she gave it the best vista.
    ‘Ninety years passed. Then my grandfather, King Gadwall, married Minivet Donaise and we gained her manor – the whole of the Donaise hills were added to Micawater. Gadwall and Minivet had two daughters, the firstborn being Teale. Teale Micawater married a warrior called Garganey Planisher and, though their children – my siblings and me – numbered nine, we were the last generation … until Cyan was born.’ Lightning sighed and folded his arms.
    I drained my glass noisily and declared, ‘God, I needed that.’
    ‘I understand, even if Jant doesn’t,’ said Eleonora. ‘We live forever through our descendants.’
    ‘I prefer to live forever through being the fastest messenger in the world,’ I said. ‘Lightning, do you want some more wine?’
    ‘Thank you. But, you know, I was only fourth in line for the throne and I was never expected to inherit so I was not brought up knowing how to run the manor as were my brothers Peregrine, Gyr and Shryke. I made many mistakes in the first few years.
    ‘Peregrine knew he was dying of cancer. He speculated that I would live longer than a whole mortal dynasty so he placed the manor in my hands, but Gyr should have inherited. Gyr was the last of my brothers left alive but he was the black sheep of the family; he had been embittered by the death of his sister decades before. We quarrelled … I handled it badly. You see, the Castle had made me a soldier not a statesman. I beat him around the Great Hall and I threw him out. Every harsh word is still burnt into me.
    ‘That was in the year six eighty-seven and it was the end of our dynasty. Gyr wanted to put some distance between us, so he married bloody Korhaan Allerion. He wanted to change his name but the process was the same then as now; the name of the wealthier parents’ family was passed on to the children. The Allerions could never be wealthier than the Micawaters, so Gyr changed his name completely. He called his dynasty after the river that flowed through the lands he carved off from my manor. His lack of originality was the final insult.
    ‘Eventually the Avernwaters yielded the throne to the Piculets and I knew there was not a drop of my family’s blood left in the world, apart from me …’ His forehead creased, then he shrugged and sipped claret.
    ‘I try to trace my line as far as the Rachiswaters, but I am only fooling myself,’ he added. ‘So, when I say the seventh century was our golden age, I mean it. I have managed to keep my manor preserved at the peak of my dynasty’s expansion and achievement. We brought stability to our manor, then the whole of Awia, and we stopped the Insects coming further southward. I have always thoughtthat’s the reason why San let me keep the land when I became Eszai. It also meant that Awia couldn’t expand its borders any further into the Plainslands. Adventurous dynasties like the Tanagers beat north against the Insects instead, and the Rachiswaters pushed west.’
    Frost had been talking to Gayle on her other side, but she caught a fragment of our conversation and smiled. ‘No one can better Lightning on the ebb and flow of featherback dynasties. He remembers them all.’
    Lightning raised a finger shrewdly and drunkenly. ‘I knowed … I mean … I knew them all.’
    ‘We realise. Why don’t you have some of this?’ I said,