Copyright

      HarperVoyager An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1999

      Copyright © Janny Wurts 1997

      The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

      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 ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 HarperCollins ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

      Source ISBN: 9780007102228

       Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2009 ISBN: 9780007318070

       Version: 2019-01-03

       Dedication

      For Roderick MacDonald, with profound thanks for the opportunity to study music under a master

      Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

       Copyright

       Dedication

       Second Book

      Map

       I. Opening Play

       II. Infraction

       III. Caithwood

       IV. Reckoning

       V. Dispatches

       VI. Marriage

       VII. Premonition

       VIII. Strands

       IX. Discourse and Documents

       X. Chain of Destiny

       XI. Decoy

       XII. Dire Portents

       XIII. Passage

       XIV. Bait

       XV. Crucible

       Keep Reading

       Glossary

       Acknowledgements

       About The Author

       About The Publisher

       Map

      Autumn 5653

       I.

       Opening Play

      One child, four possible fates looped through the thread of his life span. He will grow to manhood. Should he die in fire, none suffers but he. Yours to choose when the time comes, Fferedon’li.

      – from Fionn Areth’s birth augury

       Third Age 5647

      The hard frost came to the downs of Araethura early, and the rains at their cusp laced crusts of ice through the peat stacks under the sheds. Indoors, with no fire lit to fend off autumn’s breezes, the invasive cold settled at will. Crouched on her knees on the packed earthen floor beside her darkened cottage hearthstone, the Koriani enchantress Elaira cast aside her flint striker. She cupped her chilled fingers, blew on the caught spark. Well versed in the contrary nature of wet peat, she launched into strings of ridiculous endearments, coaxing damp fodder to nourish its struggling wisp of caught flame.

      The fateful knock at her door, which shattered her peace, interrupted her then.

      Elaira damped back her annoyance.

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