The Gold Falcon

The Gold Falcon
Katharine Kerr

Book twelve of the celebrated Deverry series, an epic fantasy rooted in Celtic mythology that intricately interweaves human and elven history over several hundred years.The powerful dweomermaster Nevyn has been reincarnated, but young Neb knows nothing of his previous life. Orphaned following a cholera epidemic, Neb and his younger brother arrive at the desolate farm of their last living relative and soon learn that a worse plague lurks beyond the western border of Deverry.The savage Horsekin tribes, spurred on by their new goddess, Alshandra, are raiding the villages and taking slaves as the first step in their plans to destroy both the nomadic Westfolk and the Deverrian farmers. Neb finds love and danger as he and his soulmate Branna are drawn inexorably into a war for the survival of the kingdom itself.Although they have powerful allies in the Westfolk dweomermasters Dallandra and Salamander, they are also facing mighty enemies, enemies that they have fought before in the past lives that they no longer remember…Intricately interweaving human and elvish history over several hundred years, Katharine Kerr's enthralling and moving tale of extraordinary characters living their many lives through exceptional times is epic fantasy on truly a grand scale.

KATHARINE KERR

THE GOLD FALCON

Book Four of The Dragon Mage

COPYRIGHT (#ulink_46c94a6a-d8e2-5833-ae0f-07a5cf694917)

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First published in Great Britain by Voyager 2006

Copyright © Katharine Kerr 2006

Katharine Kerr 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

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

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Source ISBN: 9780007128723

Ebook Edition © JULY 2014 ISBN: 9780007371150

Version: 2014–08–08

CONTENTS

Cover (#ud228f2bf-88d6-5f68-a9d3-f7c99961c389)

Title Page (#u7a4bc335-f7f2-5d31-814d-cc08da7e6a35)

Copyright (#ulink_c276482f-81d2-5d33-adb4-455119124c45)

Dedication (#ulink_c0698cdb-18c2-57d2-b968-89e99e9406c4)

Author’s Note (#ulink_d28d14ac-ec67-5153-b63f-0cf88d55f858)

The Poisoned Root Of It All (#ulink_941c37d0-8aef-5f3d-9a93-d21a7a978b79)

Arcodd Province Summer, 1159 (#ulink_58543f1e-8de8-5e43-9ec3-d8f557d75828)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

Glossary (#litres_trial_promo)

Appendices (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

Other Books By (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

DEDICATION (#ulink_44f9bc3f-7af1-5a54-affd-d8b2c5c5c52c)

For Peg Strub, M.D.,

whose sharp eyes saved my life.

AUTHOR’S NOTE (#ulink_eea1af86-15b2-52b2-9ca7-60fcfaeaf11d)

I seem to have inadvertently caused some confusion among readers of this series by my system of subtitles for the various volumes in it. All of the Deverry books are part of one long story, divided into four ‘acts’, as it were. Here’s the correct order:

Act One: Daggerspell, Darkspell, Dawnspell, Dragonspell.

Act Two, or ‘The Westlands’: A Time of Exile, A Time of Omens, A Time of War, A Time of Justice.

Act Three, or ‘The Dragon Mage’: The Red Wyvern, The Black Raven, The Fire Dragon, The Gold Falcon.

There will be two more books to be published soon: The Spirit Stone, The Shadow Isle.

THE POISONED ROOT OF IT ALL (#ulink_15992526-6e23-55c5-ba53-aef5da4c5381)

In the year 643, deep in the Dark Ages of the kingdom of Deverry, a loose coalition of clans allied with the few merchants and craft guilds that existed at that time put a new and unstable dynasty on the throne of the high king. In those wars the Falcon clan lost most of its men, noble-born and commoners both. In gratitude the king betrothed his third son, Galrion, to the last daughter of the Falcon, Brangwen. But her brother, Lord Gerraent, loved her far more than a brother should, and Prince Galrion loved the magical dweomer power more than he did his betrothed. When Galrion broke off the betrothal, his father the king banished him from the royal line forever. The prince took the name of Nevyn, which means ‘no one’ in the Deverrian tongue, and went off to study the dweomer with the master who had hoped to teach his craft to Galrion and Brangwen both.

As for Brangwen, left heartsick and shamed, she fell into her brother’s arms and bed. Soon enough, she was with child. Only then did Nevyn realize how greatly he loved her and how badly he’d failed her. Although he tried to get her away from her brother, he failed to stop the inevitable tragedy. When she drowned herself in shame, at her grave he swore a rash vow. Once she was reborn again on the wheel of life and death, he ‘would never rest’ until he put right the evil he’d done, by bringing her to the dweomer power which should have been hers. Little did he realize that fulfilling this vow would take him four hundred years of a single dweomer-touched lifetime, while the other actors in their tragedy were reborn and died again and again.

During his long life other souls would find themselves tangled in the chains of his and Brangwen’s wyrd (fate or karma). Some were people he helped; others became his enemies. Nevyn took apprentices, such as Aderyn and Lilli, and made contact with other masters of the dweomer, such as Dallandra, one of the Westfolk, elven nomads who wander the plains to the west of Deverry proper.

Eventually Brangwen was reborn as Jill, the daughter of a mercenary soldier named Cullyn of Cerrmor and of Seryan, a tavern lass. After more than a few adventures she finally saw her true destiny and went with Nevyn to study the dweomer as she should have done all those years before. Only then could Nevyn die.

Jill outlived him by many years. With the help of the elven dweomermaster, Dallandra, and her bizarre lover, Evandar, a powerful soul who had never been incarnated at all, Jill captained the first war against the savage Horsekin and their so-called goddess, Alshandra. In truth, Alshandra was a mortal spirit, though one of immense magical power, and in the end Jill managed to kill her, though she went to her death as well. One of those Jill left behind was the man she’d loved in her youth, the half-mad berserker Rhodry Maelwaedd, whose wyrd turned out to be something stranger than even a great master of the dweomer could have imagined.