The Gold Falcon

Table of Contents

 

 

“Much as I dislike comparing anything to
The Lord of the Rings
, I have to admit that on this occasion it’s justified.”

—
Interzone

 

“There is a solid depth to Deverry and its inhabitants that make it seem
very
real. She’s also a master at creating tension, then balancing it with a quiet or humorous moment . . . effectively connects past events with present ones, showing the characters’ real growth . . . the best-written dragon in fiction. Recommended.”—
Starlog

 

“Katharine Kerr is both a good writer and a thorough Celtic scholar. Indeed, her work is beginning to invite comparisons with Katherine Kurtz’s massive Deryni saga.”

—
The Chicago Sun-Times

 

“Kerr fluently and gracefully limns her Celtic-based medieval world, depicting attractive and colorful men, women and elves.”—
Publishers Weekly

 

“. . . a solid fantasy background, engaging characters and a plot that is intricate without being tangled. Certainly Kerr can . . . be compared to that other great Katherine—Kurtz—and her Deverry series can stand honorable comparison with the Deryni books.”—
Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine

 

“One of the best sword and sorcery novels I have read in some time.”—Andre Norton

 

“No one does real, live gritty Celtic fantasy better than Katharine Kerr.”—Judith Tarr

 

Katharine Kerr’s

Novels of Deverry,
The Silver Wyrm Cycle

 

 

Now available from DAW Books:

THE GOLD FALCON
THE SPIRIT STONE

 

 

Forthcoming from DAW:

THE SHADOW ISLE

Copyright © 2006 by Katharine Kerr.

eISBN : 978-1-101-09889-9

 

All rights reserved.

 

 

DAW Books Collectors No. 1367

 

 

DAW Books are distributed by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

All characters and events in this book are fictitious.
All resemblance to persons living or dead is 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 author’s rights is appreciated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Paperback Printing, May 2007

 

AUTHOR
’
S NOTE

I seem to have inadvertently caused some confusion among readers of this series by my system of subtitles for the various volumes in it. All of the Deverry books are part of one long story, divided into four “acts,” as it were. Here’s the correct order:

Act One:
Daggerspell
,
Darkspell
,
The Bristling Wood
,
The Dragon Revenant
.

Act Two, or “The Westlands”:
A Time of Exile
,
A Time of Omens
,
Days of Blood and Fire
,
Days of Air and Darkness
.

Act Three, or “The Dragon Mage”:
The Red Wyvern
,
The Black Raven
,
The Fire Dragon
.

Act Four, or “The Silver Wyrm”:
The Gold Falcon
, which is the book you have in hand. Yet to be published:
The Spirit Stone
and
The Shadow Isle
.

THE POISONED ROOT OF IT ALL

IN THE YEAR 643, deep in the Dark Ages of the kingdom of Deverry, a loose coalition of clans, allied with the few merchants and craft guilds of that time, put a new and unstable dynasty on the throne of the high king. In those wars the Falcon clan lost most of its men, noble-born and commoners both. In gratitude, the king betrothed his third son, Galrion, to the last daughter of the Falcon, Brangwen. But her brother, Lord Gerraent, loved her far more than a brother should, and Prince Galrion loved the magical dweomer power more than he did his betrothed. When Galrion broke off the betrothal, his father the king banished him from the royal line forever. The prince took the name of Nevyn, which means “no one” in the Deverrian tongue, and went off to study the dweomer with the master who had hoped to teach his craft to Galrion and Brangwen both.

As for Brangwen, left heartsick and shamed, she fell into her brother’s arms and bed. Soon enough, she was with child. Only then did Nevyn realize how greatly he loved her and how badly he’d failed her. Although he tried to get her away from her brother, he failed to stop the inevitable tragedy. When she drowned herself in shame, at her grave he swore a rash vow. Once she was reborn again on the wheel of life and death, he “would never rest” until he put right the evil he’d done by bringing her to the dweomer power which should have been hers. Little did he realize that fulfilling this vow would take him four hundred years of a single dweomer-touched lifetime, while the other actors in their tragedy were reborn and died again and again.

During his long life other souls would find themselves tangled in the chains of his and Brangwen’s wyrd (fate or karma). Some were people he helped; others became his enemies. Nevyn took apprentices, such as Aderyn and Lilli, and made contact with other masters of the dweomer, such as Dallandra, one of the Westfolk, elven nomads who wander the plains to the west of Deverry proper.

Eventually Brangwen was reborn as Jill, the daughter of a mercenary soldier named Cullyn of Cerrmor and Seryan, a tavern lass. After more than a few adventures she finally saw her true destiny and went with Nevyn to study the dweomer as she should have done all those years before. Only then could Nevyn die.

Jill outlived him by many years. With the help of the elven dweomermaster, Dallandra, and her bizarre lover, Evandar, a powerful soul who had never been incarnated at all, Jill captained the first war against the savage Horsekin and their so-called goddess, Alshandra. In truth, Alshandra was a mortal spirit, though one of immense magical power, and in the end Jill managed to kill her, though she went to her death as well. One of those Jill left behind was the man she’d loved in her youth, the half-mad berserker Rhodry Maelwaedd, whose wyrd turned out to be something stranger than even a great master of the dweomer could have imagined.