Katharine Kerr - The Gold Falcon

Voyager

An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Voyager 2006

Copyright © Katharine Kerr 2006

Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2020

Cover illustration by Andrew Davis

Katharine Kerr asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

Source ISBN: 9780007128723

Ebook Edition © JULY 2014 ISBN: 9780007371150

Version 2020-03-02

Cover

Title Page KATHARINE KERR THE GOLD FALCON Book Four of The Dragon Mage

Copyright COPYRIGHT Copyright Dedication Author’s Note The Poisoned Root Of It All Arcodd Province Summer, 1159 Keep Reading Glossary Appendices About the Author Other Books By About the Publisher Voyager An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk First published in Great Britain by Voyager 2006 Copyright © Katharine Kerr 2006 Cover design © HarperCollins Publishers Ltd 2020 Cover illustration by Andrew Davis Katharine Kerr asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books. HarperCollins Publishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication. Source ISBN: 9780007128723 Ebook Edition © JULY 2014 ISBN: 9780007371150 Version 2020-03-02

Dedication DEDICATION For Peg Strub, M.D. , whose sharp eyes saved my life.

Author’s Note 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, Dawnspell, Dragonspell. Act Two, or ‘The Westlands’: A Time of Exile, A Time of Omens, A Time of War, A Time of Justice. Act Three, or ‘The Dragon Mage’: The Red Wyvern, The Black Raven, The Fire Dragon, The Gold Falcon. There will be two more books to be published soon: The Spirit Stone, The Shadow Isle.

The Poisoned Root Of It All

Arcodd Province Summer, 1159

Keep Reading

Glossary

Appendices

About the Author

Other Books By

About the Publisher

For Peg Strub, M.D. ,

whose sharp eyes saved my life.

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, Dawnspell, Dragonspell.

Act Two, or ‘The Westlands’: A Time of Exile, A Time of Omens, A Time of War, A Time of Justice.

Act Three, or ‘The Dragon Mage’: The Red Wyvern, The Black Raven, The Fire Dragon, The Gold Falcon.

There will be two more books to be published soon: The Spirit Stone, The Shadow Isle.

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 that existed at 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.