Acorna’s Quest Read online

  Lukia of the Lights—a protective saint, identified by some children of Kezdet with Acorna.

  madigadi—a berrylike fruit whose juice is a popular beverage.

  Maganos—one of the three moons of Kezdet, base for Delszaki Li’s mining operation and child-rehabilitation project.

  Mali Bazaar—a luxurious bazaar on Laboue, famous for the intricate mosaic designs which decorate its roof.

  Markel—First-Generation Starfarer, son of First Speaker Illart.

  Martin Dehoney—famous astro-architect who designed Maganos Moon Base; the coveted Dehoney Prize was named after him.

  Melireenya—Linyaari Senior Communications Specialist on the Balakiire.

  Mercy Kendoro—younger sister of Pal and Judit Kendoro, saved from a life of bonded labor by Judit’s efforts, she worked as a spy for the Child Liberation League in offices of Kezdet Guardians of the Peace until the child-labor system was destroyed.

  Misra Affrendi—Hafiz’s elderly trusted retainer.

  mitanyaakhi—generic Linyaari term meaning a very large number.

  MME—Gill, Calum, and Rafik’s original mining company. Swallowed by the ruthless, conscienceless, and bureaucratic Amalgamated Mining.

  M’on Na’ntaw—high-ranking Red Bracelet officer, cheated by General Ikwaskwan in a way that threw the blame on someone else.

  Moulay Suheil—fanatical leader of the Neo-Hadithians.

  [Auntie] Nagah—Rushimese settler.

  narhii-Vhiliinyar—second home of the Linyaari.

  Nadhari Kando—Delszaki Li’s personal bodyguard, rumored to have been an officer in the Red Bracelets earlier in her career.

  Neeva—Acorna’s aunt and Linyaari envoy on the Balakiire.

  Neggara—Second-Generation Starfarer.

  Neo-Hadithian—an ultraconservative, fanatical religious sect.

  Ngaen Xong Hoa—a Kieaanese scientist who has invented a weather-control system. He seeks asylum on the Haven because he fears the warring governments on his planet will misuse his research.

  Nueva Fallona—Palomellese criminal who poses as a refugee to the Starfarers until she can carry out a coup leaving her and her gang in control of the Haven.

  One-One Otimie—a Rushimese trapper and prospector.

  Pal Kendoro—Delszaki Li’s assistant on the planet Kezdet. Brother to Mercy and Judit. Acorna’s dear friend, and possible love interest—though they haven’t tried to do anything about it. Given that they come from different species, it could be problematic.

  Palomella—home planet of Nueva Fallona.

  Provola Quero—woman in charge of the Saganos operation.

  Pyaka—a Rushimese settler.

  Quashie—a Rushimese settler.

  Qulabriel—Hafiz’s assistant.

  Rafik Nadezda—one of three miners who discovered Acorna and raised her.

  Ramon Trinidad—one of the miners hired to direct a training program on Maganos for the freed children.

  Red Bracelets—Kilumbembese mercenaries; arguably the toughest and nastiest fighting force in known space.

  Renyilaaghe—Linyaari clan name.

  Rezar—Second-Generation Starfarer.

  Rosewater’s Revelation—Uncle Hafiz’s best racehorse.

  Rushima—agricultural world colonized by the Shenjemi Federation.

  Saganos—second of Kezdet’s moons.

  Sengrat—a pushy, bossy, whiny, bullying know-it-all with a political agenda on the ship Haven.

  Shenjemi Federation—long-distance government of Rushima.

  Sita Ram—a protective goddess, identified with Acorna by the mining children on Kezdet.

  Skarness—planetary source of the famous (and rare) Singing Stones.

  Skomitin—somebody in Admiral Ikwaskwan’s past of whom he does not care to be reminded.

  Starfarers—name adopted by the Esperantzan settlers who were displaced by Amalgamated’s manipulations. They refused unsatisfactory resettlement offers and turned their main ship, the Haven, into a mobile colony from which they carried on a campaign of nonviolent political protest against Amalgamated.

  Ta’anisi—the Red Bracelets’ flagship.

  Tanqque III—rain-forest planet; export of its coveted purpleheart trees is illegal.

  Tapha—Hafiz’s ineffectual son, who made several attempts on Rafik’s life before he himself was killed during yet another murder attempt.

  Thariinye—a handsome and conceited young male Linyaari on the envoy ship.

  Theloi—one of many planets where the miners had to leave hastily to avoid their many enemies.

  thiilir (pl. thilirii)—small arboreal mammals of the Linyaari home world.

  Tianos—Kezdet’s third moon.

  Twi Osiam—planetary site of a major financial and trade center.

  twiilit—small, pestiferous insect on Linyaari home planet.

  Uhuru—current name of the ship owned jointly by Gill, Calum, and Rafik.

  Vaanye—Acorna’s father.

  Vhiliinyar—home planet of the Linyaari, now occupied by Khleevi.

  visedhaanye ferilii—Linyaari term corresponding roughly to “Envoy Extraordinary.”

  Vlad—cousin of Des Smirnoff’s, a fence, probably descended from Vlad the Impaler.

  Winjy—a Rushimese settler.

  Ximena Sengrat—Sengrat’s beautiful young daughter.

  yonks—a subjective and general measurement, a great deal of passing time. Roughly equivalent to “it took forever.”

  Yukata Batsu—Uncle Hafiz’s chief competitor on Laboue.

  Zanegar—Second-Generation Starfarer.

  Zaspala Imperium—backward planetary confederation, original home of Des Smirnoff.

  Dr. Zip—an eccentric astrophysicist.

  Notes on the Linyaari Language

  1. A doubled vowel indicates stress: aavi, abaanye, khlevii.

  2. Stress is used as an indicator of syntactic function: in nouns stress is on the penultimate syllable, in adjectives on the last syllable, in verbs on the first.

  3. Intervocalic n is always palatalized.

  4. Noun plurals are formed by adding a final vowel, usually -i: one Liinyar, two Linyaari. Note that this causes a change in the stressed syllable (from LI-nyar to Li-NYA-ri) and hence a change in the pattern of doubled vowels.

  For nouns whose singular form ends in a vowel, the plural is formed by dropping the original vowel and adding -i: ghaanye, ghaanyi. Here the number of syllables remains the same, therefore no stress/spelling change is required.

  5. Adjectives can be formed from nouns by adding a final -ii (again, dropping the original final vowel if one exists): maalive, malivii; Liinyar, Linyarii. Again, the change in stress means that the doubled vowels in the penultimate syllable of the noun disappear.

  6. For nouns denoting a class or species, such as Liinyar, the plural form of the noun can be used as an adjective when the meaning is “of the class,” as in “the Linyaari language” (the language of the Linyaari rather than the usual adjectival meaning of “having the qualities of this class”)—thus, of the characters in Acorna, only Acorna herself could be described as “a Linyaari girl” (a girl of the People), but Judit, although human, would certainly be described as “a linyarii girl” (“a just-as-civilized-asa-real-member-of-the-People” girl).

  7. Verbs can be formed from nouns by adding a prefix constructed by [first consonant of noun] + ii + nye: faalar—grief; fiinyefalar—to grieve.

  8. The participle is formed from the verb by adding a suffix -an or -en: thiinyethilel—to destroy, thiinyethilelen—destroyed. No stress change is involved because the participle is perceived as a verb form, and therefore stress remains on the first syllable:

  enye-ghanyii—time unit, small portion of a year (ghaanye)

  fiinyefalaran—mourning, mourned

  ghaanye—a Linyaari year, equivalent to about one and one-third earth years

  gheraalye malivii—Navigation Officer

  gheraalye ve-khanyii—Senior Communicatio
ns Specialist

  Khleev—originally, a small vicious carrion-feeding animal with a poisonous bite; now used by the Linyaari to denote the invaders who destroyed their home world.

  khlevii—barbarous, uncivilized, vicious without reason

  Liinyar—member of the People

  linyarii—civilized; like a Liinyar

  mitanyaakhi—large number (slang—like our “zillions”)

  narhii—new

  thiilir, thiliiri—small arboreal mammals of the Linyaari home world

  thiilel—destruction

  visedhaanye ferilii—Envoy Extraordinary

  9. Like all languages, Linyaari has a number of irregular constructions, each of which must be explained on a case-by-case basis.

  About the Authors

  Anne McCaffrey is considered one of the world’s leading science-fiction writers. She has won the Hugo and Nebula awards as well as six Science Fiction Book Club awards for her novels. Brought up in the United States, she is now living in Ireland with her Maine coon cats, her piebald mare, and a silver Weimaraner and declines to travel anymore. She is best known for her unique Dragonriders of Pern series.

  Margaret Ball lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband, two children, three cats, two ferrets, a hedgehog, and a large black dog. She has a B.A. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in linguistics from the University of Texas. After graduation, she taught at UCLA, then spent several years honing her science fiction and fantasy skills by designing computer software and making inflated promises about its capabilities. Her most recent book publications are Lost in Translation and Mathemagics. When not writing, she plays the flute, makes quilts, and feeds the pets.

  Don’t miss the next book by your favorite author. Sign up now for AuthorTracker by visiting www.AuthorTracker.com.

  BOOKS IN THE ACORNA SERIES

  First Warning

  by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

  Acorna’s Triumph

  by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

  Acorna’s Rebels

  by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

  Acorna’s Search

  by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

  Acorna’s World

  by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

  Acorna’s People

  by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough

  Acorna’s Quest

  by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball

  Acorna

  by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball

  See Also

  Anne McCaffrey’s The Unicorn Girl

  An illustrated novel featuring stories by

  Mickey Zucker Reichert, Jody Lynn Nye,

  and Roman A. Ranieri

  Credits

  Cover illustration © 1998 by John Ennis

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogues are products of the authors’ imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  ACORNA’S QUEST. Copyright © 1998 by McCaffrey and Margaret ball. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of PerfectBound™.

  PerfectBound™ and the PerfectBound™ logo are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.

  Mobipocket Reader July 2005 ISBN 0-06-087752-9

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