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HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2017
Copyright © Janny Wurts 2017
Cover illustration © Janny Wurts 2017
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2017
Janny Wurts asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of 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.
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 HarperCollins.
Source ISBN: 9780007310388
Ebook Edition © July 2017 ISBN: 9780007384426
Version: 2018-06-27
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Maps
Sword of the Canon: Timeline with relevant dates
I. Duress
II. Entanglement
III. Fissure
IV. Debacle
V. Misfit
VI. Interval
VII. Sidesteps
VIII. Fifth Upset
IX. Secrets
X. Riddle
XI. Black Dawn
XII. Exigencies
XIII. Expedient
Glossary
Acknowledgements
About the Author
About the Publisher
Map of the Isles of Min Pierens
—5671/5672 A rash move: Dakar the Mad Prophet uses his Fellowship authority to attach Rathain’s crown with an oath of debt to the Koriathain, enabling Elaira to make use of the sisterhood’s knowledge to salvage Prince Arithon’s life. While she does invoke her initiate training to recall Arithon’s strayed spirit, she alters a very intricate ritual to create a Grand Confluence, making her healer’s lore adhere to the Major Balance precepts taught by Ath’s adepts. This change based on free will replicates an original, extremely ancient construct, historically stolen from the Biedar tribe by the Koriathain.
—The Biedar crone on Athera intervenes: through Elaira’s alteration, she seizes a thread of the working, and when the subsequent conception of a child occurs, calls the spirit of one of her tribal ancients to be reincarnated as Arithon’s daughter, born to Glendien at Althain Tower.
—Interim events following Stormed Fortress
—5672 Birth of Teylia to Glendien at Althain Tower.
—Elaira returns to the Koriathain under summons.
—5674 Arithon is betrayed and taken captive by the Koriathain, ignorant of Dakar’s oath of debt to the crown, since all that occurred at Athir to save him was kept secret.
—Pressured by the Prime’s threat to Elaira’s life as leverage to break him, Arithon sequesters all of his memories of her, together with his perilous knowledge of Grey Kralovir necromancy, into the emerald signet ring of Rathain, which is protected under Fellowship auspices, and guarded by Elaira as his handfast beloved.
—5674 The Fellowship Sorcerers gamble with extreme risk: to prevent Arithon’s immediate destruction at the hands of the Prime Matriarch, Kharadmon collapses the star wards that are holding back a mass invasion by Marak’s free wraiths. Prime Selidie is forced to negotiate, or see the world become devoured, since only a Masterbard’s art can ameliorate the threat.
—The Koriani Prime drives a harsh bargain: for a stay of execution, to last only until the last free wraith is settled, she demands that Sethvir surrender guardianship of Teylia to the sisterhood to seal the bargain.
—5676 Teylia is oathsworn as an initiate Koriathain. Her training to become the Prime’s successor is a disaster, her untrained power so great that every crystal she touches shatters.
—5683 The Great Schism: Lysaer abandons the Religion of Light in Tysan and retires to the mayor’s seat at Etarra. True Sect split of the faithful establishes a High