The Tower of Ravens

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Authors: Kate Forsyth

Tags: #Fiction, #Fantasy, #General, #Fantasy - Epic

BOOK: The Tower of Ravens
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If I could only catch one. If I could only tame one. Then I could escape.
They would never be able to stop me if I flew
away on the back of a creature like that…
 

Bestselling author Kate Forsyth returns to the landscape of her popular
Witches of Eileanan
series with this Celtic fantasy about a young girl condemned for being different—and determined to tame a wild winged horse to help her escape…
 

One-Horn’s daughter is not like the others of her kind. Born of a human father, she lacks the horns so prized by her people and is scorned even by her own mother. Her only chance for escape is to capture one of the legendary flying horses and ride it to freedom— if she can stay on its back long enough.
 

And so this strange, feral girl begins a dangerous journey of love, death, and betrayal that will earn her a new name—Rhiannon, the rider no one can catch.
 

Found wounded, she is rescued and taken to the home of Lewen, a young man just beginning to understand his own magical potential as an apprentice-witch. Rhiannon soon becomes fascinated with the human world…and Lewen. Together they travel through a land where the dead walk and ghosts haunt the living, a place where Rhiannon encounters dark forces that endanger all of Eileanan. But to save the land, she must convince Lewen and the other apprentice-witches to trust the word of a wild half-human girl…
 

PRAISE FOR
THE WITCHES OF EILEANAN
SERIES
 

“Surprisingly original, well-developed, and a lot of fun.” —Locus

“A rich tapestry of settings, creatures, and people.” —Australian SF Online

 

 

Also by Kate Forsyth

The Witches of Eileanan series
 

The Witches of Eileanan

The Pool of Two Moons

The Cursed Towers

The Forbidden Land

The Skull of the World

The Fathomless Caves

 

 

 

 

A ROC BOOK

 

Contents

A HORSE OF AIR
 
Barbreck-by-the-Bridge
 
The Black Mare
A THING OF BEAUTY
 
Kingarth
 
The Wild Girl
 
Her Naming
 
The Jongleurs
 
The Apprentice Witches
 
Blackthorn
 
Barbreck-by-the-Bridge
 
Ardarchy
 
The Witch’s Tower
 
Crossing the Stormness
A PALE HORSE
 
Forest of the Dead
 
Fetterness Valley
 
Fettercairn Castle
 
The Nursemaid
 
The Great Hall
 
The Dream
 
Cold Comfort
 
The Haunted Room
 
The Tower of Ravens
 
The Scrying Pool
TO THROW A PRINCE
 
Tales of the Past
 
In the Night
 
Storming the Castle
 
The Chain Between Them

 

GLOSSARY

 

 

To my three beautiful children,

Benjamin, Timothy, and Eleanor

 

 

“[Necromancy] has its name because it works

on the bodies of the dead, and gives answers

by the ghosts and apparitions of the dead, and

subterraneous spirits, alluring them into the

carcasses of the dead by certain hellish charms,

and infernal invocations, and by deadly

sacrifices and wicked oblations.”

Francis Barrett,

The Magus
, 1801
 

“Through the Necromancer’s magic words,

the dust in the decayed coffin takes shape

again and rises from a long forgotten past.”
 

Emile Grillot de Givry,

Witchcraft, Magic and Alchemy
, 1931

 

A HORSE OF AIR

 

“With a heart of furious fancies

whereof I am commander

With a burning spear

And a horse of air

To the wilderness I wander.”
 

Tom o‘ Bedlam,

traditional folksong

 

Barbreck-by-the-Bridge

 
 

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