The Endlords have awoken from their eternal prison — the long night is upon the land and dark forces must sate their lust for destruction in the war to end all wars. This is the time when clans should stand together yet only the Sull, an ancient dwindling race, have heeded the warning signs. Sull legend warns of the Endlords and foretells The One Who Bears Loss, the warrior who will stay their malignant power. They believed this warrior would be one of their own but a clansman, Raif Sevrance, has found his destiny and must betray his past to fulfill it. The Sword of Shadows series is J. V. Jones' most ambitious work yet. A masterpiece of storytelling and world-building, it is rapidly becoming one of the major fantasy epics of the decade.
For dear Fergus for all his kindness
Thanks are due to Jim Frenkel and the good people at Tor for making this a better book.
Raif Sevrance of Clan Blackhail was out shooting ice hares in the Badlands with his brother Drey when his father and chief were slain back at camp. Upon returning to their clanhold, Raif and Drey found that Mace Blackhail, the chiefs foster son, had declared himself head of the clan. Mace had been present at the camp that day, and blamed the murders on Vaylo Bludd, chief of a rival clan. A week later, when word arrived that Vaylo Bludd had sacked the Dhoonehouse, events seemed to bear out Mace's story of Bludd aggression. Raif found himself isolated. He alone believed that Mace Blackhail was a liar and a chief-killer.
War against Clan Bludd followed, as Hailsmen sought to avenge their chiefs death. When Mace received word that a caravan of Bluddsmen were on tbp road, heading west to occupy the Dhoonehouse, he ordered an attack. Raif rode with the ambush party, and was horrified to discover that the caravan contained women and children, not warriors. He refused to kill them. By disobeying an order on the field and deserting his fellow clansmen in battle, Raif made himself a traitor to his clan. Four days later, Raif left Blackhail in the company of his uncle Angus Lok. Raif's oath to protect Blackhail had now been broken. There was no going back.
The two men headed south. When they arrived at Duff's stove-house, they disofcvered that the stoiy of the massacre of innocents on the Bluddroad had preceded them. When challenged by a group of Bludd warriors, Raif admitted to being present during the slaughter. He did not tell them that he took no part in the massacre-loyalty to his clan prevented him from defending himself at their expense. With this amission, Riaif forever damned himself in the eyes of Bluddsmen.
He was the only Bailsmen they knew for a certainty who was present during the slayings.
Angus Lok and Raif made their way to Spire Vanis, the city at the foot of Mount Slain. Upon arrival, they rescued a young woman named Ash March who was being hunted down by the city's Protector General, Marafice Eye. Angus had a strong reaction when he saw the girl and immediately put himself in danger to save her. Raif s newly formed skills with the bow proved invaluable. He single-handedly rescued the girl by placing arrows through her pursuers' hearts.
Heart-killing, it was called: the surest and quickest way of ending another person's life. Raif Sevrance was slowly coming to understand that he was master of it.
Having escaped from the city, Raif, Ash and Angus turned north toward Ille Glaive. During the journey Raif learned that Ash was the Surlord of Spire Vanis' adopted daughter. She had run away because she feared that her father intended to imprison her in the Inverted Spire, which lay beneath the tower known as the Splinter. Heritas Cant, a friend of Angus Lok's, provided the reason for Ash's Gather's behavior. According to Cant, Ash was the first Reach to be born in a thousand years. She possessed the ability to unlock the Blind, the prison without a key that contained the destructive might of the Endlords. The Endlords' purpose was to annihilate the world, and every thousand years they rode forth to claim more men for their armies. Cant informed Ash that she must discharge her Reach-power or die. The only place to do so safely was the Cavem of Black Ice; anywhere else and she would tear open the Blind and free the Endlords.
Raif and Angus agreed to accompany Ash to the cavem in the far north. As soon as their small party reentered the clanholds they were captured by Bluddsmen. The Dog Lord, Vaylo Bludd, ordered Raifs torture in the Ganmiddich tower. The Bludd chief had lost seventeen grandchildren during the slaying on the Bluddroad, and Raif Sevrance had to pay for those losses. After days of torture, Raif developed a fever and began to fail. Yet when Death came to take him she changed her mind. "Perhaps I won't take you yet," she told him. "You fight in my image and live in my shadow, and if I leave you where you are you'll provide much fresh meat for my children. Kill an army for me, Raif Sevrance, any less and I just might call you back" Raif feared the grim words would become his life.
The night before he was due to be killed by Vaylo Bludd, Raif was rescued by a group of Hailish warriors led by his brother Drey. "We part here. For always," Drey said as he let his younger brother, the traitor, slip away.
