Stormed Fortress: Fifth Book of The Alliance of Light
The spellbinding final instalment of The Alliance of Light.Though Athera may be free, the fight is far from over…The heartstopping conclusion to the Alliance of Light series brings Lysaer's army of Light to besiege the great citadel of Alestron. Master of Shadow, Arithon, with barely a moment's recuperation from his victory over the necromancers, has discovered that young Jeynsa s'Valerient whom he has sworn to protect, has joined the ranks of his disowned allies within the threatened citadel. Worse, following a failed rescue attempt, his beloved Elaira, his double, Fionn Areth, and the spellbinder Dakar are also trapped within Alestron's walls. The chancy wiles of Davien the betrayer must spirit Arithon across the enemy lines to attempt a bold and perilous rescue mission.Arithon must seek the heartcore of his talent, even while embroiled in a savage battle against those he has vowed to protect. But treachery strikes from deep within the duke's ranks. Lysaer's fanatics will be unleashed to claim their bloody revenge. With the Fellowship Sorcerers in mortal danger, and all under threat from a collapsing grimward, Davien the betrayer is unable to intercede to save his colleagues and so will be forced to invoke the dire terms of an ancient and most secretive bargain.Arithon stands alone at the hour of reckoning as the true purpose of the Koriani enchantresses becomes, at long last fully, unveiled – with the covetous Prime Matriarch now poised to snatch a prize, a prize beyond that of merely integrity and life…
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Janny Wurts
STORMED FORTRESS
The Wars of Light and Shadow
VOLUME 8
FIFTH BOOK OF
THE ALLIANCE OF LIGHT
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
HarperVoyager An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 2007
Copyright © Janny Wurts 2007
Janny Wurts 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
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Source ISBN: 9780007217816
Ebook Edition © FEBRUARY 2009 ISBN: 9780007318094 Version: 2018-04-27
For three, whose enduring commitmentto the literature of the fantastic has enriched so many.
Betty Ballantine
Ellen Datlow
Terri Windling
Contents
Fifth Book
Third Age Year
5637âThe half-brothers Arithon sâFfalenn, Master of Shadow, and Lysaer sâIlessid, gifted with Light, exiled through West Gate, are met as they arrive on Athera by the Fellowship Sorcerer Asandir and Dakar, the Mad Prophet, whose West Gate Prophecy forecast the defeat of the Mistwraith, Desh-thiere, and return of the sunlight that had been lost to Athera for five hundred years.
Arithon meets his beloved, Elaira, who is under a life vow of service to the celibate order of the enchantresses of the Koriathain.
5638âThe Mistwraith is contained at Ithamon by Lysaer and Arithon and driven into captivity through their combined powers of Light and Shadow.
The Fellowship Sorcerersâ effort to crown Arithon as High King, and reinstate Rathainâs monarchy fails when the Mistwraith places the half-brothers under its curse: they will be enemies, bent upon each otherâs destruction until one or the other lies dead.
War follows. Lysaer, whose cardinal virtue is the sâIlessid gift of justice, leads a war host ten thousand strong from Etarra against Arithon, who is backed by the clansmen in Strakewood Forest. Lysaer and Etarra lose eight thousand men, and the clans suffer the Massacre at Tal Quorin, when Etarran head-hunters destroy their women and children to draw the fighting men into the open. To spare his allies, Arithon is forced to use his mage talent to kill. And in the aftermath of this massive insult to his royal gift of compassion, he loses access to all facets of his trained mastery. Survivors of the debacle made possible by his sacrifice include fourteen young boys, named as Companions, and Earl Jieret, twelve years of age, who becomes Arithonâs âshadow behind the throneâ â or caithdein.
Lysaer returns to Etarra to begin the alliance of town forces against Arithon and court his beloved, Talith.
Arithon apprentices himself to the Masterbard, Halliron, and takes on the disguised persona of Medlir to deny his half-brother, and the directive of the curse, a fixed target.
5643âThe Fellowship Sorcerers reinstate crown rule in Havish, under High King Eldir. In redress for irresponsible conduct, Dakar the Mad Prophet is assigned to Arithonâs protection.
5644âDakar tries to escape his charge and links up with Halliron and âMedlirâ on the eastshore, whereupon his scapegrace behaviour with town authorities in Jaelot leads to Hallironâs death and Arithonâs breaking his disguise, then achieving the title of Masterbard of Athera.
Arithon relocates down the eastshore en route to the southcoast, with Dakarâs escapades earning him the enmity of the powerful clan family of Duke Bransian sâBrydion of Alestron.
Elaira receives her longevity from the Koriani Order for the purpose of keeping track of Arithon, since the sisterhood considers him a danger.
