Janny Wurts
PERIL’S GATE
The Wars of Light and Shadow
VOLUME 6
THIRD BOOK OF THE ALLIANCE OF LIGHT
HarperVoyager An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF, UK
First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1999
Copyright © Janny Wurts 1997
The author 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
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Source ISBN: 9780007101085
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2008 ISBN: 9780007318087
Version: 2019-01-04
To Jeff Watson, the guardian gryphon in charge of technical wonders without which more deadlines would have been missed
Contents
Third Book
Map
Winter Solstice Night 5670
Arithon s’Ffalenn, called Master of Shadow! For the sake of your crimes against our fair city of Jaelot, your spirit shall be delivered by sword and by fire to your rightful hour of death…
– Mayor of Jaelot, decree of execution
Third Age Year 5669
The storm settled over the Eltair coast just after the advent of nightfall. Like the worst winter gales, it stole in on cat feet. The fitful, fine sleet dusting over sere landscape changed on a breath into muffling snow as the temperature plunged below freezing. The moment caught Arithon s’Ffalenn, last living Prince of Rathain and birth-born Master of Shadow, crouched in the iced brush of a hedgerow.
Each labored breath burned his lungs like cold fire. His sprint was cut short, though the city of Jaelot’s stone walls lay scarcely a bowshot behind him. A skulking fugitive hard-pressed by enemies who hunted by sword and by spellcraft, he shot a concerned glance sidewards as Fionn Areth folded, gasping, beside