Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
PART 1 - ELIORAND
Chapter 1 - THE WILD HUNT
Chapter 2 - INITIATION
Chapter 3 - POINT OF NO RETURN
Chapter 4 - THE FIRST STEP
Chapter 5 - TAKU
Chapter 6 - KINDNESS OF A STRANGER
Chapter 7 - THE EVANESAR
Chapter 8 - SIGNS OF PERIL
PART 2 - TYRINELD
Chapter 9 - PORTENTS
Chapter 10 - IRIANA
Chapter 11 - THE EMISSARIES
Chapter 12 - TOWARDS THE FAR HORIZON
Chapter 13 - FROM THE SHADOWS
Chapter 14 - THE ART OF COMPROMISE
Chapter 15 - A FAMILY AFFAIR
Chapter 16 - TRANSFORMATION
Chapter 17 - ABOUT FACE
PART 3 - THE FIALAN
Chapter 18 - THE MAD ONE
Chapter 19 - BRIGHT FACE , DARK HEART
Chapter 20 - DHAGON
Chapter 21 - KEEPER OF THE TRUST
Chapter 22 - NIGHT IN THE FOREST
Chapter 23 - THE SHINING MOUNTAIN
Chapter 24 - THE GRIM FACE OF TRUTH
Chapter 25 - OUT OF THE DARK
Chapter 26 - STORMFLIGHT
Chapter 27 - IRIANA ALONE
Chapter 28 - NOTHING BY CHANCE
Chapter 29 - DAYS OF JOY AND SORROW
Chapter 30 - TRUST AND TREACHERY
Chapter 31 - THE GATHERING
Chapter 32 - THE CLEAR LIGHT OF DAY
Chapter 33 - TO SAVE A WORLD, TO SAVE A LIFE
Chapter 34 - MATTERS OF TRUST
Chapter 35 - THE SEARCH BEYOND
Chapter 36 - ON A KNIFE EDGE
Chapter 37 - THE OLD ONE
Chapter 38 - BEYOND THE ICE
EPILOGUE
Heritage Of The Xandim
MAGGIE FUREY
Orion
www.orionbooks.co.uk
A Gollancz ebook
Copyright © Maggie Furey 2009
All rights reserved
The right of Maggie Furey to be identified as the author of
this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Gollancz
An imprint of the Orion Publishing Group
Orion House, 5 Upper St Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9EA
An Hachette UK Company
A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library
eISBN : 978 0 5750 8785 9
ISBN 978 0 575 07662 4 (Trade Paperback)
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
www.orionbooks.co.uk
This ebook produced by Jouve, France
This book is dedicated, with the utmost gratitude, to
Professor Ciaran Bolger,
Consultant Neurosurgeon, Wizard and Genius.
You gave me back my life. I can never thank you enough.
WITH GRATITUDE
During the last few years of illness and a nightmare of pain, it sometimes seemed impossible that I would ever make it through. The fact that I finally did is due in no small part to a number of very special people, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all.
First and foremost, my everlasting thanks go to Professor Ciaran Bolger, Neurosurgeon, who performed delicate, intricate and risky spinal surgery with inspiring confidence and skill.
Thank you, Dr Raymond Victory, Consultant in Pain Management, whose very name made me feel better, and whose nerve blocks helped keep me going.
Thanks to Dr Ian Bothwell, my GP, whose kindness, help and understanding got me through a horrible time, not to mention his wife Edel, receptionist, and Practice Nurse June Darcy, who were so supportive.
Thank you, Patricia Swords, Reiki and Amatsu Practitioner, whose hands, and whose friendship, had a positively magical way of easing the pain.
Many thanks to Mary Varilly for being such a kind and wonderful friend, and helping me so much in every way she could; and to her daughter Claire, who has inherited her mother’s compassion.
Thanks to my neighbour Linda Moore, who was always just a phone call away.
Thank you, John Meaney, for the Tapping.
Thanks to my sister, Lin Stockley, for flying over from Edinburgh and back in a day to feed my cats while Eric had to be away.
Thanks to Paddy Sheridan and Ken Carrington, for being, as always, charming, delightful and kind friends who were on hand to provide good company and some lovely evenings out.
Many thanks to my Dad, Jim Armstrong, for all the hours of worrying he put in on my behalf, and to my mother, Margaret, who came over from England on several occasions to take care of a post-operative daughter who was helpless in a full-body brace while her husband was working at the other end of the country.
I can’t leave out my cats Merlin and Sunshine in the thanks. They somehow knew that all was not well, and one or the other, if not both, stayed at my side at all times.
I would like to thank my agent, John Parker, who kept the lines of communication open even when I couldn’t face talking to anyone, and who worked so hard to make sure I had a career to come back to.
A multitude of thanks go to Simon Spanton of Orion Books, with whom I had recently signed when all the trouble started. I’m tremendously thankful for his patience and understanding in being willing to wait so long. Thanks also to Jo Fletcher of Orion, whose own experiences gave her such an insight into my difficulties.
Thanks to John Jarrold, for his wonderful editorial insights into the manuscript of this book. As always, John, it’s a tremendous pleasure to work with you.
Most of all, I would like to thank my husband Eric, who has stuck with me through thick and thin, and patiently nursed a wife who for weeks after her surgery couldn’t even make a cup of tea or take a shower without assistance. I love you so much. You are the best thing in my life.
And finally, to all the readers who have waited through this lengthy and mysterious absence: thank you. You’re what it’s all about.
PROLOGUE
THE CAILLEACH
The omens brought the Lady of the Mists down to the shores of the Timeless Lake. They came to the Cailleach in the midst of her waking dreams, disturbing the tranquillity of her eternal meditations. In this Place Beyond the World, there was no day or night or passing of the seasons; there was no hunger, thirst, loneliness - or change. There was only the Lady, one of the powerful, ancient Guardians who had been present at the world’s creation and who would be there at its end. Only the Lady, and her endlessly-spun web of contemplation. Until the omens came, like a stone thrown into the tranquil waters of the Timeless Lake, casting ripples of disquiet through her thoughts.
The sense of unease that awoke the Cailleach from her reverie drove her out of her resting place in the great Tree that lay at the Centre of all things, beneath the Timeless Lake. Quitting her softly glowing chamber in the Tree’s hollow heart, she passed down the steps that were natural formations in the stonelike bark, crossed the floor of the vast cavern in which the behemoth was rooted and passed into the extraordinary woodland that edged the clearing. It was a forest carved from stone: every detail was perfect, from the trees with their leaves of jade and finely wrought blossoms of translucent quartz, right down to the flowers made of coloured gems, the insects with bejewelled wings and the delicate stone birds, so realistic that they might burst into flight or song at any moment.