Dark Ages

Dark Ages
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INTO THE DARKFran has come back to face her ghosts: the fears she buried four long years ago. If she confronts the creatures from her nightmares, she’ll know that they were only in her mind. Her best friend and the man she loves are waiting, and spring in sunny Oxford seems to light the way ahead. But on Salisbury Plain she meets a living shadow and finds she is destined for a darker road.Martin is still challenging his demons: the phantoms that he’s glimpsed and can’t forget. Before his eyes they swarmed out of a medieval star chart and vanished in the night without a trace. He has unleashed the Ravensbreed: a band of ruthless warriors, sworn to defend their ancient kingdom in its darkest hour. The world has moved on, and yet the land still needs them. Beyond the peaceful English fields, old enemies are gathering again.From city streets to wild woods, among outcasts and resisters, Fran and Martin must join the Ravensbreed in their final, desperate war – a long and bloody struggle which, if lost, will plunge their country and everyone they love into a brutal New Dark Age.

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COPYRIGHT

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 of localities is entirely coincidental.

Harper Voyager

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Copyright © John Pritchard 1998

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

For permission to reproduce copyright material the author would like to thank the following:

Lyrics from Sell Out (words & music by Simon Friend, Charles Heather, Mark Chadwick, Jonathan Sevink & Jeremy Cunningham) © 1991 Empire Music Ltd, 47 British Grove, London W4 for the World. Used by permission of Music Sales Ltd. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

Lyrics from The Fear (words & music by Simon Friend, Charles Heather, Mark Chadwick, Jonathan Sevink & Jeremy Cunningham) © 1995 Empire Music Ltd, 47 British Grove, London W4 for the World. Used by permission of Music Sales Ltd. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

Lyrics from Forgotten Ground (words & music by Simon Friend, Charles Heather, Mark Chadwick, Jonathan Sevink & Jeremy Cunningham) © 1995 Empire Music Ltd, 47 British Grove, London W4 for the World. Used by permission of Music Sales Ltd. All rights reserved. International copyright secured.

Lyrics from Tell Me about the Forest, by Dead Can Dance, © 1993, reproduced by kind permission of Beggars Banquet Music/Momentum Music.

Lyrics from The People who Stumbled in Darkness, by Roger Ruston, reproduced by kind permission of the author.

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, 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 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: 9780006496373

Ebook Edition © OCTOBER 2016 ISBN: 9780008219499

Version: 2016-10-26

DEDICATION

To

Mum and Dad,

who laid the deep foundations.

Michael Wood,

who made the past alive.

and F.M.E.,

who’s still my leading lady.

EPIGRAPH

Behind them, to divide the carrion meat,

They left the raven, dark and shadow-clad,

With cruel beak; the dun-cloaked eagle too,

With his white tail – exulting in the feast,

A hungry battle-hawk; and the grey beast,

The wolf of the deep woods …

THE ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLE, 937

Watchman, what is left of the night?

Watchman, what is left?

The watchman replies:

Dawn is coming, and also the dark.

ISAIAH 21:11 – 12

CONTENTS

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Epigraph

PROLOGUE (1989)

Rising Signs

PART ONE WATCHERS (1993)

I Spire Dreams

II Grey Ravens

III Cross of Iron

IV Testament

V Heaven and Hell

VI No Man’s Land

VII Running Blind

VIII The Waste Down

PART TWO SLEEPERS

I Fiends and Ashes

II Out of the Deep

III Predicator

IV Mind and Memory

V Dreams and Decay

VI Grief Riders

PART THREE SHADOWS

I Green Blades Rising

II On Earth as It Is in Hell

III Wessexena Sky

IV Moonblade

V Harrow Path

VI Home from the Hill

VII Our Summer

PART FOUR HUNTERS

I The Watchman’s Mark

II Odysseus

III Stranger

IV Wolf Hook

V Witch Hunt

VI Tare Dog

VII Circle of Sorrow

VIII The Anger of God

IX Lightning East to West

X No Graves on Badon Hill

PART FIVE RAIDERS

I Land-Waster

II Bone Fire

III Celebrant

IV The Lych-Road

V Fields of Blood

VI The Fell Tale of the West

VII Dark Moon Rising

VIII The Sermon of the Wolf

PART SIX MARTYRS

I Massacre Is My Forgiveness

II A Thousand Silver Pieces on the Black

III True Cross

IV Dead Men Ride

V In Search of Holy England

VI Night in Gehenna

VII Requiem

VIII Dominion

PART SEVEN PILGRIMS

I Liberation

II Inferno

III The Rage of Killing

IV Mystic and Severe

V Hell’s Ditch

VI Winter Runes

PART EIGHT WARRIORS

I Forgotten Ground

II On the White Hill

III Saint and Sorceress

IV Reprisal Weapons

V The Saying of the Swords

VI Wilderness

VII Black Cavalry

VIII Hard Standing

IX Legion

X Snake

PART NINE RAVENS

I Book of Shadows

II The Betrayed

III The Field of Blades

IV The Cat, the Wolf and the Dog

V Scorpion Gate

VI The Fire of the Dove

VII The End of the River

VIII A Roof for a Skyful of Stars

EPILOGUE

So Close that There Is Nothing in Between

Keep Reading

Author’s Note

About the Author

Other Books By

About the Publisher

Prologue

RISING SIGNS

(1989)

As touching the terrors of the night, they are as many as our sins. The night is the Devil’s black book, wherein he recordeth all our transgressions.



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