Anne Kelleher - Silver's Bane

“Anne Kelleher’s engrossing fantasy, Silver’s Edge…weaves an enticing tale as Nessa braves unknown dangers to find her father and bring him safely home in this beguiling story of courage and adventure.”

—BookPage

“Ms. Kelleher weaves another fantasy epic of grand proportions, sweeping the reader off into lands, legends and lore. Part Arthurian, part Tolkien and part fairy tale, the mix creates an incredible world for the reader’s fertile mind to take root. It starts off slowly, but then takes off with a bang and never releases you from its grasp.”

—The Best Reviews, on Silver’s Edge

“The characters are complex and multifaceted, and the writing is rich with colorful prose…. Women control their fates, and fear is not an option when it comes to the tough decisions that must be made in a time when all that is held sacred is facing destruction.”

—Romance Reviews Today on Silver’s Edge

“Silver’s Edge is a first-class fantasy. The characters are vivid, believable; they captured this reader’s heart, taking me on an unforgettable journey as they confronted their fears, made tough decisions and accepted the consequences of those decisions, no matter what it cost them.”

—In the Library Reviews

“…displays vivid imagination.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Fascinating—a most ingenious blend of science fiction and fantasy.”

—New York Times bestselling author Marion Zimmer Bradley on Daughter of Prophecy

This book is dedicated with love to all the women

in my life—friends, teachers, mentors, guides and

guardians who are far too many to list—and most

especially to my mother, Frances Kelly;

my stepmother, Alice Kelleher;

my grandmother Rose Castaldi;

my sisters, Sheila Kelly Bauer, DJ Kelleher and Pam Boyd;

my daughters, Kate, Meg and Libby; all those yet to

come and all those who have gone before.

Blessed be.

Faerie—the sidhe word for their own world. It includes the Wastelands

The Shadowlands—the sidhe word for the mortal world

The Wastelands—that part of Faerie to which the goblins have been banished

Lyonesse—legendary lost land that is said to have lain to the east of Faerie

Brynhyvar—the country that, in the mortal world, overlaps with Faerie

The Otherworld—the mortal name for Faerie

TirNa’lugh—the lands of light; the shining lands—mortal name for Faerie; becoming archaic

The Summerlands—place where mortals go at death

Humbria—mortal country across the Murhevnian Sea to the east of Brynhyvar

Lacquilea—mortal country lying to the south of Brynhyvar

Killcairn—Nessa’s village

Killcrag—neighboring village to the south

Killcarrick—lake and the keep

Alemandine—Queen of sidhe

Xerruw—Goblin King

Vinaver—Alemandine’s younger twin sister and the rightful Queen

Artimour—Alemandine’s half-mortal half brother

Gloriana—mother of Vinaver, Alemandine and Artimour

Timias—Gloriana’s chief councilor and the unacknowledged father of Alemandine and Vinaver

Eponea—Mistress of the Queen’s Horses

Delphinea—Eponea’s daughter

Finuviel—Vinaver’s son by the god Herne; rightful King of Faerie

Hudibras—Alemandine’s consort

Gorlias, Philomemnon, Berillian—councilors to the Queen

Petri—Delphinea’s servant gremlin

Khouri—leader of the gremlin revolt and plot to steal the Caul

Nessa—nineteen-year-old daughter of Dougal, the blacksmith of Killcairn

Dougal—Nessa’s father; Essa’s husband; stolen into Faerie by Vinaver

Griffin—Dougal’s eighteen-year-old apprentice

Donnor, Duke of Gar—overlord of Killcairn and surrounding country; uncle of the mad King and leader of the rebellion against him

Cadwyr, Duke of Allovale—Donnor’s nephew and heir

Cecily of Mochmorna—Donnor’s wife; heiress to the throne of Brynhyvar

Kian of Garn—Donnor’s First Knight

Hoell—mad King of Brynhyvar

Merle—Queen of Brynhyvar; princess of Humbria

Renvahr, Duke of Longborth—brother of Queen Merle; elected Protector of the Realm of Brynhyvar

Granny Wren—wicce woman of Killcairn

Granny Molly—wicce woman of Killcrag

Engus—blacksmith of Killcarrick

Uwen—Kian’s second in command

The Hag—immortal who dwells in the rocks and caves below Faerie; the moonstone globe was stolen from her when the Caul was forged

Herne—immortal who dwells within the Faerie forests, from which he rides out on Samhain night, leading the Wild Hunt across the worlds

Great Mother—mortal name for the Hag

The Horned One—mortal name for Herne

Special thanks to Rosmari Roast, herbalist, wise woman and friend, for eleventh-hour research; to my agent, Jenn Jackson, and my editor Mary-Theresa Hussey for seeing the potential before I did; to Laura Rose and the rest of the Goddess Girls: Anne Sheridan, Susan Grayson, Leslie Goodale, Lisa Drew, Barbara Terry, Jamie King, Louise Rose, Alicia Tremper, Judy Conrad—you guys are the best midwives in the world; to Judy Charlton for reiki; to all the folks in the CT over 40 chat room on AOL, especially GtimeJoe; to all my fellow LUNA-tics in the LUNA-sylum for cheerleading. But most of all, this book would never have been written without the unwavering love and unstinting support of one man: Donny Goodman, I adore you.

Before

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Afterward

It was the weight of the world above her that nearly drove Vinaver mad. The thought of it crept, unbidden and unsought, from the deep places of her mind, a fat white worm of fear threatening to suffocate her from within, even as she struggled through narrow fissures and sloping corridors of unyielding stone. The pressure bore down on her from all directions, and the fear rose, writhing and squirming, coiling and expanding, filling her lungs, constricting her throat, wetting her palms, so that the lych-light at the end of her slim hazel-wood staff dimmed to a pinprick until she felt she would be swallowed by the dark.

The solid rock surrounding her was nearly as foreign to the intrinsic nature of her kind as the deadly silver from the mortal Shadowlands, for the sidhe of Faerie were creatures of light and air. But Vinaver had been forced to learn the first time her journey had taken her into the places where sunlight was not even a legend, that when the longing for the light and airy open spaces threatened to overwhelm her, she should close her eyes, and breathe, and let the crushing sensation roll over and through her like an enormous wave, until her mind quieted, leaving her feeling as exhausted and battered as the sea after a storm. But at least she was able to grip her staff and go on.

This was the last place anyone would ever think to find a sidhe. Her kind were never cave dwellers, stone carvers or earth diggers. According to the Lorespinners, the Un-derlands had been the realm of the goblins once, in the earliest time before the great Goblin Wars, when the sidhe, led by Vinaver’s mother, the great Queen Gloriana, had bound them into the Wastelands above. At least they’d still been bound in the Wastelands when Vinaver had started on this quest. She had no idea how long she’d been below the surface. There was no day or night, there was no sun or moon to mark the passage of hours, or the advance of seasons. She found the longer she was there, the less time had meaning.