Once there were great magicians born to the Maghuin Dhonn, the folk of the Brown Bear, the oldest tribe in Alba. But generations ago the greatest of them all broke a sacred oath and now only small gifts remain to them. Moirin possesses such gifts - she has the ability to summon the twilight and conceal herself, and the skill to coax plants to quicken. She has a secret, too. From childhood onwards, she has been able to sense the presence of unfamiliar gods in her life: the bright lady, the man with a seedling cupped in his palm.
Moirin is raised in the wilderness by her reclusive mother, Fainche, and it isn't until she is befriended by Cillian, son of the Lord of the Dalriada, that she learns her father was a D'Angeline priest dedicated to serving Naamah, goddess of desire.
After Moirin undergoes the rites of adulthood, she finds divine acceptance ... on the condition that she fulfils an unknown destiny, one that lies somewhere beyond the ocean. And that destiny promises both pleasure and pain, as she finds herself facing an ambitious mage, a noble warrior princess desperate to save her father's throne, and the spirit of a celestial dragon.
Moirin is alone, and far from the land of her birth, with nothing but a few resources of her own to draw upon, and few friends she can call upon, in what is about to become a nation of enemies.
And there are hard questions ahead that she will have to answer: whether she can forgive a deliberate betrayal; whether she will fight against all odds for her love; and whether, when all believe her dead and her life and her religion hang in the balance, Moirin can sacrifice her beliefs, or will hold true to her goddess even in death ...
Moirin is alone, and far from the land of her birth, with nothing but a few resources of her own to draw upon, and few friends she can call upon, in what is about to become a nation of enemies.
She has her natural ability with a bow, for survival, and a facility for languages - and then there are the gifts of her gods: a small ability for foretelling, for concealment, and to coax plants to grow. Alongside them all she has the gift of Naamah: the gift of desire. Yet these are small advantages against the challenges she will face - betrayal, treachery and indoctrination - and some of them may not prove to be advantages at all.
There is a long, difficult journey ahead of her, in her search for Bao, the young Ch'in warrior who carries a piece of her soul as well as her heart, and harder decisions to make. Whether she can forgive a deliberate betrayal; whether she will fight against all odds for her love; and whether, when all believe her dead and her life and her religion hang in the balance, Moirin can sacrifice her beliefs, or will hold true to her goddess even in death ...
A second volume in a fantasy trilogy that began with Kushiel's Avatar follows the forbidden love affair between Prince Imriel of Terre d'Ange and his cousin, Sidonie, whom he is forced to leave behind in order to join the princess he must marry, an arrangement that places his throne in jeopardy. Reprint.
