"Cecilia Dart-Thornton - The Bitterbynde 03 - The Battle of Evernight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dart-Thornton Cecilia)

10тАФThe Battle of Evernight: Of Love and War
11тАФThe Bitterbynde, Part I
12тАФThe Bitterbynde, Part II
Epilogue




Synopsis
This is the third book of THE BITTERBYNDE trilogy.
Book I, The Ill-Made Mute, told of a mute, scarred amnesiac who led a life of drudgery in Isse
Tower, a House of the Stormriders. Stormriders, otherwise known as Relayers, were messengers of high
status. They "rode sky" on winged steeds called eotaurs, and their many towers were strewn across the
empire of Erith, in the world called Aia.
Sildron, the most valuable of metals in this empire, had the property of repelling the ground, thus
providing any object with lift. This metal was used to make the shoes of the Skyhorses and in the building
of Windships to sail the skies. Only andalum, another metal, could nullify the effect of sildron.
Erith was randomly visited by a strange phenomenon known as the shang, or the unstorm: a
shadowy, charged wind that brought a dim ringing of bells and a sudden springing of tiny points of
colored light. When this anomaly swept over the land, humans had to cover their heads with their
taltriesтАФhoods lined with a mesh of a third metal, talium. Talium prevented human passions from spilling
out through the skull. At times of the unstorm, this was important, because the shang had the ability to
catch and replay human dramas. Its presence engendered tableaux, which were ghostly impressions of
past moments' intense passions, played over repeatedly until, over centuries, they faded.
The world outside the Tower was populated not only by mortals but also by immortal creatures
called eldritch wightsтАФincarnations wielding the power of gramarye. Some were seelie, benevolent
toward mankind, while others were unseelie and dangerous.
The drudge escaped from Isse Tower and set out to seek a name, a past, and a cure for the facial
deformities. Befriended by an Ertish adventurer named Sianadh, who named her Imrhien, she learned that
her yellow hair indicated she came of the blood of the Talith people, a once-great race that had dwindled
to the brink of extinction. Together, the pair sought and found a treasure trove in a cave under a remote
place called Waterstair. Taking some of the money and valuables with them, they journeyed to the city of
Gilvaris Tarv. There they were sheltered by Sianadh's sister, the carlin Ethlinn, who had three children:
Diarmid, Liam, and Muirne. A city wizard, Korguth, tried unsuccessfully to heal Imrhien's deformities. To
Sianadh's rage, the wizard's incompetent meddling left her worse off than before. Later, in the
marketplace, Imrhien bought freedom for a seelie waterhorse. Her golden hair was accidentally revealed
for an instant, attracting a disturbing glance from a suspicious-looking onlooker.
After Sianadh departed from the city, bent on retrieving more riches from Waterstair, Imrhien and
Muirne were taken prisoner by a band of villains led by a man named Scalzo. Upon their rescue they
learned of the deaths of Liam and Sianadh. Scalzo and his henchmen were to blame.
Imrhien promised Ethlinn she would reveal the location of Waterstair's treasure only to the
King-Emperor. With this intention, she joined Muirne and Diarmid and traveled to distant Caermelor, the
Royal City. Along their way through a wilderness of peril and beauty, Imrhien and Diarmid accidentally
became separated from their fellow travelers, including Muirne. Fortunately they met Thorn, a handsome
ranger of the Dainnan knighthood whose courage and skill were matchless, and Imrhien fell victim to
love.
After many adventures, followed by a sojourn in Rosedale with Silken Janet and her father, these
three wanderers rediscovered Muirne, safe and well. Muirne departed with her brother Diarmid to join
the King-Emperor's armed forces. Recruits were in demand, because rebel barbarians and unseelie
wights were mustering in the northern land of Namarre, and it seemed war was brewing in Erith.