Juliet Marillier - Seer of Sevenwaters

Table of Contents

Also by Juliet Marillier

THE SEVENWATERS NOVELS

Daughter of the Forest
Son of the Shadows
Child of the Prophecy

Heir to Sevenwaters

Wolfskin
Foxmask

THE BRIDEI CHRONICLES

The Dark Mirror
Blade of Fortriu
The Well of Shades

Hearts Blood

For young adults
Wildwood Dancing
Cybeles Secret

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Published by Roc, an imprint of New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Previously published in a Macmillan Publishers Australia Pty. Ltd. edition.

First Roc Printing, December

Copyright Juliet Marillier, 2010

Sevenwaters Family Tree by Gaye
Godfrey-Nichols of Inklings Calligraphy
Studio ( www.inklings.com.au )
All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARKMARCA REGISTRADA
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA:
Marillier, Juliet.
Seer of Sevenwaters/Juliet Marillier.
p. cm.
A Roc book.

eISBN : 978-1-101-47513-3

1. ProphetsFiction. 2. Mythology, CelticFiction. I. Title.
PR9619.3.M26755S44 2010
823.92dc22 2010029391

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To my granddaughter Isobel

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

My thanks to Gaye Godfrey-Nicholls for lending me her reference books on runes and divination; to Glyn Marillier for answering my sailing queries; and to Elly Marillier for advice on medical matters, including how early medieval healers might have dealt with a serious kidney problem. The members of my writers group provided their usual excellent advice and encouragement. My agent, Russ Galen, is a source of ongoing support.

I consulted a number of reference books before writing the runic divination scenes in this novel. Two were especially useful: The Secret Lore of Runes and Other Ancient Alphabets by Nigel Pennick (Rider, 1991) and Rune Magic by Donald Tyson (Llewellyn, 1992).

I wrote much of Seer of Sevenwaters while undergoing cancer treatment in 2009. During that period I received wonderful personal support from my family and friends, and also from my readers all around the world. Readers, your encouragement helped me to meet my own challenge as bravely as my characters do theirs, and I salute you.

Observant readers will notice two characters in the Sevenwaters Family Tree who do not appear in this novel. Conri and Aisha are introduced in my novella Twixt Firelight and Water , which appears in Legends of Australian Fantasy , a collection of stories by well-known fantasy writers. The anthology was published by Voyager Australia in June 2010. It was edited by Jack Dann and Jonathan Strahan.

CHARACTER LIST

the hirs of

seven waters

PROLOGUE

P ull! In the name of all the gods, pull!

I haul on my oar, every muscle straining. Cold sweat shivers on my skin. Salt spray blinds me. Or do I weep? Were going to die. Were going to perish in the chill of the sea, far from home. Pull! Pull! We haul with our guts, with our hearts, with our last strength. We seventeen, we survivors, exhausted, sick at hearthow can we prevail against such seas? Freyja shudders a moment, balanced between muscle and swell, then plunges broadside toward the rocks. The waves snatch up the ship, and with a surge and a decisive smack, hurl her down on the reef.

A jagged spear of rock splits the prow. Splinters fly. The fine oak disintegrates like kindling under the axe. Fragments fall on the deck, a momentary pattern of augury, gone almost before I can read the signs: Eolh : protection; Eoh : comfort; Nyd : courage in the face of death. The sea surges in, erasing the runic shapes in a heartbeat. The air fills with screaming; abandoned oars fly everywhere. Struck on the temple, a man falls. Another lies limp over his bench, a red stain spreading across his tunic. Others stagger along the boat, pushing, shouting. My heart thunders. I struggle to my feet. The purchase is perilous. The shuddering deck has a tilt like a church roof. The reef is opening Freyja as a hunters knife opens the carcass of a deer.

Felix! The rope, quick!

Paul, gods, Paul with his feet still tied... I stagger over to where he lies half on, half off the bench, clutching a broken oar. The rope around his ankles is caught on a jagged length of split wood. A wave washes over me, drenching me to the chest and submerging him. The water recedes. Paul chokes and wheezes, sucking in air. Freyja s timbers groan, grind, shatter. The ship is in her death throes. Crewmen fall, shrieking, into the maelstrom. Nowhere to climb to. Nowhere to shelter. No surface broad enough, flat enough, high enough for even one man to balance on and wait for rescue. Theres land not far off; smoke rising. This storm will drown us before anyone can come.