The Shadow's Heart (The Risen Sun, Band 3) - Softcover

Taylor, K. J.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0425258254 ISBN 13: 9780425258255

Verlag: Ace, 2014

Inhaltsangabe

THE CONCLUSION TO K.J. TAYLOR'S "COMPELLING AND EXCITING" (SFFANZ) RISEN SUN TRILOGY

Half-breed Queen Laela Taranisäii is in more danger than ever before. Her subjects hate her, her closest allies, including her griffin, have fallen, and, most worryingly, the Night God’s immortal assassin, The Shadow That Walks, is bent upon reaping vengeance. As her enemies close in on all sides, her methods of maintaining power increase in desperation—and violence.

Laela’s half-brother, Kullervo, is supposed to be her strongest ally. But as he comes to terms with both who he is and what his sister’s reign means to the land, he begins to doubt his once strong loyalties. With the conflict drawing to its bloody close, he must decide what he’s truly prepared to fight for, a choice that could have dire consequences for all he once held dear.

Meanwhile, a new threat is lurking in the darkness, the Night God’s final, deadly pawn. It is this shadow that will decide the outcome of the war—and its power that will seal the fates of all involved…

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Born in Canberra in 1986, Katie J. Taylor attended Radford College, where she wrote her first novel, The Land of Bad Fantasy. She studied for a Bachelor's Degree in Communications at the University of Canberra, and graduated in 2007 before going on to do a Graduate Certificate in Editing in 2008.

She is also the author of the Fallen Moon Trilogy: The Dark Griffin, Griffin's Flight, and Griffin's War, as well as the Risen Sun Trilogy: The Shadow’s Heir, The Shadowed Throne, and The Shadow’s Heart.

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Author’s Note

So this is it. The end.

Every time I finish a trilogy, I do it with some degree of fatalism, knowing that each trilogy could be the last one I’m able to publish. But if this book must be the last one in the series, then I wouldn’t be too unhappy about it. I think The Shadow’s Heart is one of the best books I’ve written, and as endings go, it has one of the very best. But, I must warn you, it also has one of the most tragic. As Arenadd might say, all’s unfair in love and war.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this journey I’ve taken you on, and that the ending I’ve made will be one that gives you some kind of closure. Six books, and it’s been a long road to get there. Thank you for staying with me—I hope you still want to stay when it’s over.

Finally, the usual notes on pronunciation: The Northerners speak Welsh, and in that language “dd” is pronounced “th.” Some of the odder-looking names are pronounced this way:

Arenadd: “Arren-ath”

Saeddryn: “Say-thrin”

Arddryn: “Arth-rin”

Taranisäii: “TAH-rah-nis-eye”

Laela: “Lay-la” (I include this one because I’ve heard some people say it “Leela.”)

Akhane: “Ah-kah-nay” (This name is actually one I made up, and is meant to sound a bit like the word “arcane,” which fits his interests very well.)

And finally, as always, griffish is pronounced phonetically. Griffins can’t read or learn how to read, and don’t want anything to do with anything that could be called grammar or linguistics. Leave the pointless analysis to the humans, thank you.

1

In her personal chambers high in the towers that made up Malvern’s Eyrie, Queen Laela Taranisäii was alone.

Her brother, Kullervo, was gone, and so was her advisor, Inva. Her friend and former tutor, Yorath, was gone, too, and Lord Iorwerth, the man who commanded Malvern’s armies while his partner, Kaanee, led the humanless griffins called the Unpartnered, hadn’t yet returned from his conquest of Warwick. And her father, Arenadd, the only friend she had had in the world once upon a time . . . Arenadd was gone, too.

Once she might have turned to her own griffin partner, Oeka, but Oeka was not there. Or not all there, anyway. Her body was locked away somewhere underneath the Eyrie, mouldering in silence while her mind wandered who knew where.

Her only company now was a book: her father’s diary. Oeka had embedded some of her power in its pages so that Laela could open them and hear her father’s voice read the words, but by now the effect had worn off, and Laela couldn’t read well enough to understand most of it. Nor did she trust anyone enough to have them read it to her. Not with Yorath’s having vanished.

And so, with nothing else to do for the moment while she waited for Iorwerth and Kaanee to return, she sat down and opened a book of her own. The pages were blank, but she had a pot of ink and a reed-pen ready to change that.

Tongue sticking out with the effort, she started to write, forming each rune slowly and carefully:

This is the diry of Quen Laela Taranisäii, who is the dorter of King Arenath Taranis-eye. I dont no how tu rite meny words, but thort I should rite down wat I no so one day peeple can reed it an no wat I did and thort also I thort it would be use-ful for future sk skol book people historeens to reed wat I wrote, so hear gos.

She stopped to wipe the sweat off her forehead and took a deep breath before continuing.

My muthers name was Flell she was a Suthern girl whom my dad might of raped but he says not an I never met her so I dunno wat happned. I was rai grew u come from a place in South called Stirick, not sure how to rite it never saw it rit down. My dad wat raised me was Bran, but he wast my reel dad that was Arenath. I never noo who my real dad was an Bran didnt rite so he never showd me how so I had too lern wen I was a woman. When Bran dyed I left an went North.

Arenath found me but didnt no he wus my dad. He looked after me an I lived with him an helped him an he made me griffiner after I puled him out of the water. He said your my advi advu helper an we went to Amoran together with Skander who was his partner. I got married too a princ called Akhane an brought slaves back home to be free. Arenath died the Nite God killed him an then I got made Queen, but Arenath’s cusin Saythrin said no I should be Queen, yu are a half-breed an not his real dorter anyway. I burned her temple to teech her a lessen but she ran off with her son an dorter. I killed her husband, Torc when she wouldn come back.

Then my brother comes, he is called Kullervo an he found Sennek who was my uncle Erian’s partner before my dad killed him. They went to Warwick where Saethryn was an Kullervo got cort but I sent Iorwerth an Kaanee with the Unpartnered an they smashed up the place. Senneck killed Saethryn’s dorter an her partner Aenae who wus Skandar’s son. She killed Saethryn, too, but the Nite God has sent her back to kill us all espeshuli me cus the Nite God hates half breds like wut I am. I have sent Kullervo an Senneck to Amoran to get my husband to help us an when Iorwerth gets back I will send him to Skenfrith where Caedmon is, he is Saethryns son an leeds the enemys now. Saethryn came to get me yesterday, but Oeka drove her mad an got rid of her. Oeka is my partner an she is madder than a cut snake which is wat Bran used too say.

Laela sat back to look at her handiwork. Her writing had crowded together in some places, and she had kept running out of room at the edge of the page, but she reckoned it was the best writing she’d ever done.

That was enough for one day. She blew on the ink to make it dry faster, closed the book, and put it aside. Then she got up and walked out of the room to go and see if Iorwerth was back yet. He and Kaanee had been away far too long, and she was starting to get worried.

The other thing she had to worry about was Saeddryn. Once Saeddryn had been an ordinary woman—and not a young one, either. She was Arenadd’s cousin, and she had been his second-in-command back in the days when he seized power in the North. By the time Laela had come along, Saeddryn had become Malvern’s high priestess, and she and Arenadd weren’t on the best of terms any more. Arenadd had disowned Saeddryn’s son Caedmon, who had been Arenadd’s apprentice and heir apparent—until Caedmon turned on Arenadd. By the time Laela arrived at Malvern, there was no officially chosen heir to the throne, and Caedmon had fled.

But his mother was the far worse danger. When Senneck killed her, the war should have been all but won, but Laela had not reckoned with the Night God. The Night God had been Arenadd’s master, and she had given him the dark powers he used to conquer the North.

Now those powers belonged to Saeddryn, and if Laela couldn’t find some way to do away with her, then Laela would die for her throne. And Kullervo, Arenadd’s only other offspring, would have to die, too.

Saeddryn’s attempt to kill Laela might have failed when Oeka drove her mad, but after she threw herself out the window, her body had not been found, and Laela knew she was still out there. The fact that she was now insane did not make Laela feel any safer. Frankly, it made her feel worse.

The guards were scouring the city right now, but so far they hadn’t found anything, and Laela didn’t believe for one moment they ever would.

She paused by a window to look out over the city and sighed a long, weary sigh. Ruling the North was far...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Ace
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2014
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0425258254
• ISBN 13: 9780425258255
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 464
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Bear Family Records GmbH; 49474882160; info@bear-family.de; ; Grenzweg 1; Holste; 27729; Deutschland