Fallowblade Read Free

child must inevitably be tinged by that immortality. If she is fatally wounded she shall not die, but shall instead fall into a deep and lasting sleep that resembles death.” He drew breath and appended, “Jewel lives.”
    And it was true.’
    They raised Jewel from her grave. She lived, but appeared to be in a deep slumber, and could not be wakened. The beauteous sleeper was placed on a silken couch on the glass cupola atop the Maelstronnar house. Wild roses entwined their stems about the cupola, framing the eight panes with leaves and their five-petalled rosettes.
    Declaring he would seek forever, until he could find a way to bring back his lost bride, Arran abandoned his child, his home and his inheritance, including the golden sword Fallowblade, leaving them all with his father, Avalloc. The grieving weathermage, with the faithful impet Fridayweed in his pocket, disappeared out of men’s knowledge. It was said he wandered far in the Unknown lands north of the northernmost mountains.
    By then, Jewel’s young daughter Ast ă riel had encountered the very same urisk that used to be attached to her grandmother’s cottage in the Marsh. Towards the end of The Well of Tears , the girl had grown used to the wight’s companionship, little guessing that the creature was hiding an extraordinary secret.
    Book 3: Weatherwitch told of a mysterious burrower digging its way beneath the mountains of the north. The story described, also, the bond of comradeship between Conall Gearnach—Commander-in-Chief of Slievmordhu’s Knights of the Brand—and Prince Halvdan of Grïmnørsland. Halvdan’s sister Solveig was betrothed to Prince Kieran of Slievmordhu, Halvdan’s lifelong friend.
    King Uabhar of Slievmordhu had made a secret pact with the Marauders—mutant brigands, huge of stature, who dwelled in outlying caves and preyed on the citizens of the Four Kingdoms of Tir. Uabhar allowed these ‘swarmsmen’ to raid some of his villages so that he could justify the levelling of higher taxes, with which to prepare—clandestinely—for his forthcoming invasion of Narngalis, the first stage of his attempt to seize sovereignty of the whole of Tir. Uabhar was in cahoots with King Chohrab of Ashqalêth, whom he controlled with eloquence, rhetoric and drugged wine.
    Asr ă thiel (erstwhile Ast ă riel), daughter of Jewel and Arran, grandchild of Storm Lord Avalloc Maelstronnar, lived at the stronghold of the weathermasters, her kindred. She had an unlikely confidant—the cynical faêrie creature called an urisk, who appeared only to her, but who caused trouble in the Maelstronnar household.
    An ardent advocate of rights for animals, an expert weatherwielder and a skilled swordswoman, Asr ă thiel left the stronghold of the weathermasters at Rowan Green and took up a position in the city of King’s Winterbourne, as weathermage to King Warwick of Narngalis. Warwick’s eldest son, William, was in love with Asr ă thiel, but, although she was fond of him, she found herself unable to love him in return. She was pleased, however, when the urisk, who later revealed he was called ‘Crowthistle’, appeared at her new lodgings, and their casual meetings continued as before.
    Meanwhile, unknown to above-ground dwellers, the mysterious burrower broke through a stony wall into a cavern, only to discover something truly awe-inspiring and terrible.
    King Uabhar wanted the weathermasters out of the way so that they could not prevent his bid for power. He paid gossips to put about rumours to malign them, then lured most of them to his royal city, Cathair Rua, where, by means of trickery, he destroyed them in secret. Unbeknownst to him his appalling deed was witnessed by Cat Soup, an itinerant beggar, who hastened away in terror after what he had seen.
    Meanwhile, in King’s Winterbourne, Asr ă thiel heard reports that in the northern hamlet of Silverton some unknown agency was expertly and ruthlessly slaying the villagers. She and King Warwick’s