The Destroyer Goddess (IN FIRE FORGED) - Softcover

Resnick, Laura

 
9780765347961: The Destroyer Goddess (IN FIRE FORGED)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0765347962 ISBN 13: 9780765347961
Verlag: Tor Fantasy, 2004

Inhaltsangabe


The Stunning Conclusion of In Fire Forged, A Publishers Weekly Best Book of 2003

The island nation of Sileria lies in the shadow of Darshon, the Destroyer Goddess, the great volcano that dominates the landscape and people of Sileria. When she awakens, their world trembles. She has lain quiet for decades, throughout the occupation of foreign invaders.

But Darshon has begun to stir.

Sileria has finally been freed from foreign rule, only to fall under the power of the ruthless waterlords, powerful mages who terrorize those who depend on their mercy for the water that all life must have.

Now their mercy is denied.

Tansen, the rebel warrior, joins forces with Mirabar, a Guardian who is feared and admired for her fire magic, and Zarien, a mysterious sea-born boy, in a stand against the waterlords rule.

As the power struggle among Sileria's warring factions intensifies to a fevered pitch, the tremors of Darshon increase, threatening to engulf them all in molten death. There will be a final reckoning that will change Sileria forever. But no one may triumph unless the Destroyer Goddess wills it . . .

Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor


Laura Resnick was born in Chicago, Illinois. A childhood of being thrown by horses, bitten by dogs, and terrorized by the Resnicks' notorious exploding water well helped prepare her adequately for her future in the publishing industry.

Resnick went on to study French, Italian, and linguistics at Georgetown, graduating cum laude. Shortly thereafter, she tramped around most of the Old World, looking at lots of cool paintings, working in France, and winding up on a kibbutz in Israel for a while. She studied acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Music and Dramatic Art in London, and spent a volatile but happy year teaching English at the University of Palermo in Italy.

By the time she was thirty, Resnick had sold a dozen romance novels, all but one of them written under the pseudonym Laura Leone, and Romantic Times magazine named her the best new writer in her genre. She then went on an overland journey across Africa. Everything you could ever want to know about that 8-month journey is recounted in the award-winning nonfiction book, A Blonde In Africa.

While she was in Africa, Resnick won the John W. Campbell Award as Best New Science Fiction/Fantasy Writer in recognition of the short stories she had been writing. Having thus warmed up her muscles, she wrote her first fantasy novel, In Legend Born -- a project which made crossing Africa overland seem easy by comparison.

Aus dem Klappentext


* "Resnick brings her outstanding two-part fantasy saga, which began with White Dragon: In Fire Forged, Part One, to a fully satisfying conclusion. Fast-paced, witty and full of action, the book is a marvel of storytelling, but it's the credible, complex relationships among the characters that elevates this far above the usual fantasy standard."
--Publishers Weekly starred review

"A masterpiece of high fantasy! In the sweeping tradition of Tolkien, Jordan, and Haydon, In Fire Forged is a rich, compelling story of a land in crisis and the high price of freedom. Using wry humor and breakneck pacing, Laura Resnick effortlessly moves her complex, well-drawn characters through ever-escalating crises to an explosive (in every sense of the word) and deeply satisfying conclusion. I hope Resnick returns to Sileria again soon!"
--Mary Jo Putney, New York Times bestselling author of The Bartered Bride

"Strong storytelling and a sense of mythic overtones lend depth to a well-developed tale of personal courage and high adventure."
--Library Journal

"Breathtaking scope and complexity. 4 ½ Stars"
--Romantic Times

"The tale will certainly keep its series audience industriously turning pages and make them hope Resnick has more in store for them."
--Booklist

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.



39
 
Love demands its martyrs and craves its sacrifices.
--Kintish proverb
 
 
Elelar realized what Tansen had done as soon as she saw the blood-soaked cloth wrapped around his left hand. She had seen his protective affection for Zarien, the sea-born orphan who traveled with him; so it didn't take a shallah to guess that he'd recently cut his palm with a knife, in a ritual typical of Sileria's mountain peasants, to make the boy his bloodson.
"Are you sure that was wise?" she asked Tansen as soon as they were alone together in Santorell Palace. They were in the same room, in fact, where she had watched in horror as Searlon the assassin murdered Commander Cyrill to help Elelar convince Advisor Kaynall that he must publicly announce that the Valdani were surrendering Sileria to native rule.
"You're supposed to congratulate me," Tansen replied. "Becoming a father is--"
"Zarien is not like other boys. Surely you see that."
"Dying and being given new life by a goddess has a tendency to set someone apart," he agreed dryly. "However, since I saw my bloodbrother through a similar fate, who better than me--"
"This could be a very good thing for you," Elelar interrupted. "I see that. I understand that."
"Then why do you look like I've taken a fever instead of a son?"
"Because men never think these things through practically."
"Don't start," he warned her.
"He was sea-bound for the first fourteen years of his life," she persisted. "How well do you really know him? How well could you possibly--"
"Much better," he pointed out, "than many people know each other before they get married." He lifted one brow but didn't bother to cite an obvious example. He didn't need to.
She sighed, recalling Tansen's insistence that she locate her husband. "I've had news from my estate. Ronall has been there recently."
"Is he still there?"
"No, he left again. Almost immediately. With no explanation about where he was going. And," she added with irritation, "he took my favorite horse with him again." She paused, then said in puzzlement, "He also brought my widowed cousin there for safety. Only…"
"Only?"
"I do not, as far as I know, have a widowed cousin."
"Perhaps she was widowed quite recently?"
"How would Ronall, of all people, know about it before I do?"
"Maybe he was visiting her and--"
"He wouldn't be welcome among any of my relations. I haven't been welcome among most of them ever since I married him."
Tansen shrugged off her family problems and said, "So you're no closer to locating him than you were before?"
"No. But I've been…" She couldn't help grimacing before she continued, "Talking about him here in Shaljir. In public. Saying…nice things about my…heroic husband." It made her want to kick someone.
As if sensing this, he edged away from her. "Good."
She turned to another topic. "We've received bad news."
"What?"
"Baran is siding with Kiloran."
His expression became focused and very serious as the discussion turned to the Honored Society. "How do you know?"
"We've learned that they had a truce meeting."
"Ah. I knew there'd been one, but I didn't know if Baran attended."
"He did. And he and Kiloran made their peace there. Temporarily, of course."
"Of course."
"In front of quite a few witnesses from the Society, Baran agreed to oppose you and to help Kiloran bring the city of Shaljir under the Society's influence--by using the Idalar River, obviously." The river was the capital city's primary source of water, and Baran had spent recent years challenging Kiloran's sorcery for control of it.
Tansen's jaw worked for a moment as he considered the threat of those two powerful waterlords, usually at odds with each other, now unified to fight him. "Damn. That's discouraging." After a heavy pause, he added, "Still, maybe Mirabar can bring Baran around. He might still be--"
"Mirabar should stay away from him." When he looked sharply at her, she explained, "Before they parted, Baran and Kiloran divided up their tasks. Kiloran is coming after you…and Baran will take charge of killing Mirabar." A moment later she said to his retreating back, "Where are you going?"
"Home."
"What?" He had no home.
"I'm leaving Shaljir," he said, opening the door and pausing briefly. "I told Mirabar to do whatever she had to do to get Baran on our side. If she doesn't know about this truce meeting, she'll walk right into whatever trap he sets for her, especially if he baits it with promises of cooperation. I've got to stop her."
"Tan--" She closed her mouth. He was already gone.
A moment later, she heard him shouting for Zarien as he ascended the steps to gather his few belongings and set off for the mountains again.
* * *
Najdan left mirabar in Sister Velikar's Sanctuary, where she would await Baran's return from Josarian's native village of Emeldar. Najdan had things to attend to while the sirana and his mistress, Haydar, were temporarily safe in the little Sanctuary on Mount Dalishar's slopes. Besides, he had no desire to be anywhere nearby while Haydar explained certain things about marriage and men to Mirabar. Many subjects were best left strictly between women, and that was one of them.
Just when Najdan believed the world could get no stranger or more bewildering--it did.
Mirabar, the most famous Guardian in all of Sileria, was going to marry Baran, a waterlord who was second only to Kiloran in power--and in the fear he had inspired for years. Perhaps Najdan, the Society assassin who now served Mirabar, shouldn't be shocked by the idea; but he was.
When Mirabar broke the news to him, he forbade her to marry Baran, or even speak to that demented sorcerer again. Had Mirabar lost all her wits? Did she really intend to accompany Baran to the moldy ruins of Belitar, where he could murder her at his leisure, in the comfort and privacy of his own home? When had any Guardian ever been able to trust a waterlord ? And even if Mirabar could trust one, did she really want one as notoriously crazy as Baran for her husband? Najdan did not want to see so worthy a young woman bound to so repellent a man.
"Even if he doesn't kill you in some devious scheme or sudden fit of madness," Najdan had added furiously, "he's too old for you!" Though Mirabar didn't know her exact age, she was certainly no more than twenty, whereas Baran must be close to forty by now.
There was a lot of shouting, since Mirabar was being completely unreasonable. Haydar had ventured into the Sanctuary and tried to make them both calm down, and Najdan yelled at his warmhearted mistress for the first time in years. Seeing her stricken expression brought him to his senses, and that was when Mirabar also calmed down enough to explain herself.
And so it unfolded.
A child of water. A child of fire.
Things Najdan didn't understand and would really rather not think about too much. Baran's words to the sirana echoed the promises in Mirabar's visions; so now she was convinced the waterlord would somehow help her fulfill the prophecies of the Beckoner.
She was very confused, though. Well, that was understandable. Conversation with Baran would confuse anyone. Mirabar didn't know if she would be the mother of the new Yahrdan, but she seemed to think not. Somehow, though, the child she would bear would be integral to Sileria's future, and there were things at Belitar, Baran's home, which she must learn and understand.
If that was the way it had to be…Well, Najdan supposed he had already done stranger things in his life--such as betraying his former master, Kiloran, to protect and serve a Guardian.
Baran had offered a home to Najdan and his woman at Belitar, too. Although the idea initially revolted Najdan, Haydar slowly made him see that if Mirabar was indeed going to marry Baran--and she was, Najdan had...

„Über diesen Titel“ kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.

Verlag
Tor Fantasy
Erscheinungsdatum
2004
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0765347962
ISBN 13 
9780765347961
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
589
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Nicht verfügbar