Katharine Kerr - The Shadow Isle

DAW BOOKS, INC.

DONALD A. WOLLHEIM, FOUNDER 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 ELIZABETH R. WOLLHEIM SHEILA E. GILBERT
PUBLISHERS
www.dawbooks.com

Katharine Kerrs Novels of Deverry, The Silver Wyrm Cycle Now available from DAW Books:

THE GOLD FALCON (#1) THE SPIRIT STONE (#2) THE SHADOW ISLE (#3)

Forthcoming from DAW: THE SILVER MAGE (#4) DAW BOOKS, INC.

DONALD A. WOLLHEIM, FOUNDER 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014 ELIZABETH R. WOLLHEIM SHEILA E. GILBERT
PUBLISHERS
www.dawbooks.com

Copyright 2008 by Katharine Kerr.All Rights Reserved.DAW Books Collectors No. 1439DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.Book designed by Elizabeth GloverAll characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the authors rights is appreciated.

ISBN : 1-4362-2733-X For Elizabeth Pomada Authors Note

Despite what you may have heard or read elsewhere, THE SHADOW ISLE is not the last book in the Deverry sequence. It is, however, the beginning of the end, Part I of the last Deverry book, as it were. The true end will be published soon as THE SILVER MAGE, also from DAW Books.

You say that the three Mothers of All Roads run tangled beyond your power to map them. Why then would you ask to travel the seven Rivers of Time? Their braiding lies beyond even the understanding of the Great Ones, so be ye warned and stay safely upon their banks.

The Secret Book of Cadwallon the Druid L

az woke to darkness and noise. Gongs clanged, men shouted. Not one word made sense to him, and no more did the sound of water lapping and splashing. He

could smell nothing but water. Painhis hands burned, but the rest of him felt cold, soaked through, he realized suddenly, sopping wet. How his hands could burn when he was sopping wet lay beyond him. The gongs came closer, louder. Waves lifted him and splashed him back down. Floating , he thought. Im floating on water .

The shouting came from right over his head. Hands suddenly grabbed him, hauled, lifted him into the air while the shouting and the gongs clamored all around. Hands laid him down again on something hard that rocked from side to side. The shouting stopped, but the gongs clanged on and on. Through the sound of gongs he heard a dark voice speaking. Not one word of it!

The voice tried yet another incomprehensible language, then a third. Here, lad, speak you this tongue?
Lijik Ganda , he thought. Just my luck. I do, Laz said aloud. A bit, anyway.
Splendid! Who are you?
I dont know. Laz put panic into his voice. I dont remember. Where are we? Why is it so dark?
Its not dark, lad. Theres a lantern shining right into your face. Im blind? I dont remember being blind.
Voices murmured in one of the languages he couldnt understand. Someone patted his shoulder as if trying to comfort him. The rocking continued, the splashing, and the gongs.
Here! Laz said. Are we on a boat?
We are, and heading for the island. Just rest, lad. The ladies of the isle know a fair bit about healing. It may be that they can do somewhat about your eyes, I dont know. Id wager high that they can heal your hands at the very least.
They do pain me.
No doubt! Black as pitch, they are. You just rest. Were coming up to the pier.
My thanks. Did you save my life?
Most likely. The voice broke into a wry laugh. The beasts of the lake nearly got a meal out of you.
Beasts. Lake. Blind. None of it made sense. He fainted.
When Laz woke next it was to light, only a faint, fuzzy reddish glow, but light nonetheless. Most of him felt dry and warm, but his burning hands lay in water, and water dripped over his face. The smell of mixed herbs overwhelmed him; he could smell nothing beyond plant matter and spices. He could hear, however, women talking. Two women, he realized, though he understood not one word of what they were saying. The pain in his left hand suddenly eased. A woman laughed and spoke a few triumphant words, then lifted the hand out of the water and laid it down on something dry and soft.
I think me he wakes, the other woman said in Deverrian.
I do, Laz said.
Good, Woman the First said, but there be a need on you to stay quiet till we get the burnt skin free from your right hand.
Is it that you see light? Woman the Second said.
Some, truly.
Try opening your eyes.
With some efforthis lids seemed stuck together with pitch he did. What he saw danced and swam. Slowly the motion stopped. The view looked strangely blurred and smeared, but he could distinguish shapes at a distance and objects nearby. In a pool of lantern light two women leaned over him, one with gray-streaked yellow hair and a tired face, and one young with hair as dark as a ravens wing and cornflower-blue eyes.
My name be Marnmara. The young woman pointed at her elder. This be Angmar, my mam. The boatmen tell me you remember not your own name.
Laz considered what to say. Hed not wanted to tell the boatmen his name until he knew more about them, but these women were doing their best to heal him. He owed them the courtesy of a better lie. I didnt, not right then, but its Tirn. I think I have a second name, too, but I cant seem to remember it.
There be no surprise on me for that, Marnmara said. Whatever you did endure, it were a great bad thing.
He started to lift his left hand to look at it, but Angmar grabbed his elbow and pinned it to the bed. Not yet, she said. It be not a pleasant sight, with you so burned and all.
Burned. He formed the words carefully. How badly?
Angmar looked at her daughter and quirked an eyebrow.
I doubt me if youll have the use of all your fingers, Marnmara said. But mayhap we can free the thumb and one other. The right hands a bit better, I think me. Mayhap we can free two and the thumb.
Free them? From what?
Scars. They might grow together.
Panic struck him. Will I be able to fly again? The one question he didnt dare ask was the only question in the world that mattered.
Why is the pain gone? he asked instead.
The herbs, Marnmara said. But the healing, itll not be easy.
Its very kind of you to help me.
I will heal any hurt that I ken how to heal, Marnmara said. Such was my vow.
We have your black gem. Angmar held up something shiny. Fret not about it.
My thanks. Dimly he remembered that he once had owned a pair. Not the white one? I carried a gem in each hand.
The boatmen did find this one clutched in your left hand. Your right hand trailed open in the water. I think me the other be at the bottom of the lake by now.
So be it, then.
He realized that he could now see Angmar more clearly. Whether because of the herbs or time passing, his eyes were clearing. What had blinded him? The flash of light . He remembered the pure white flash and the sensation of falling a long, long way down. Why didnt I listen to Sisi? For that, he had no answer.