Unktus: A minor Kobalos deity worshipped only by the lowest menials of the city. He is depicted with very small horns curving backward from the crown of his head.

Valcon: A small coin, usually referred to as a valc, accepted throughout the southern peninsula. Made of an alloy that is one-tenth silver, a valcon is the wage paid daily to a Kobalos foot soldier.

Valkarky: The chief city of the Kobalos, which lies just within the Arctic Circle. Valkarky means the City of the Petrified Tree.

Vartek (plural varteki): The vartek was the most powerful of the three types of entity that I grew from the material found within the lair of the haizda mage. The fact that it can burrow through solid rock means that it could burst up out of the ground right in the midst of a human army, so that they scatter them in terror. It has three bone-tipped tentacles, the ability to spit globules of acid that could burn flesh from bone, and fearsome teeth. It also has many legs and is capable of great speed. Although it is protected by black scales, its eyes and underbelly are vulnerable to blades. It is impossible to know what size a vartek would achieve once fully grown. It could be the most daunting of the battle entities that the Kobalos may deploy against us.—Grimalkin

Whalakai: Known as a vision of what is, this is an instant of perception that comes to either a high mage or a haizda mage. It is an epiphany, a moment of revelation, when the totality of a situation, with all the complexities that have led to it, are known to him in a flash of insight. The Kobalos believe this is a vision given to the mage by Talkus, their God Who Is Yet to Be, its purpose being to facilitate the path to his birth.

Whoskor: This is the collective name for the creatures subservient to the Kobalos who are engaged in the never-ending task of extending the city of Valkarky. They have sixteen legs, eight of which also function as arms and are used to shape the skoya, the soft stone that they exude from their mouths.

Widdershins: A movement that is counterclockwise or against the sun. Seen as counter to the natural order of things, it is sometimes employed by a Kobalos mage to assert his will upon the cosmos. Filled with hubris, it holds within it great risk.

About the Author

JOSEPH DELANEY is the author of the internationally best-selling The Last Apprentice series, which is soon to be a major motion picture, Seventh Son. He is a former English teacher who lives in the heart of boggart territory in Lancashire, England. His village has a boggart called the Hall Knocker, which was laid to rest under the step of a house near the church.

www.josephdelaneybooks.com

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Credits

COVER ART © 2014 SHUTTERSTOCK

COVER DESIGN BY CHRISTIAN FUENFHAUSEN