Book description
The second book in the brand new trilogy from the author of the Tawny
Man trilogy, following on from the bestselling Shaman's Crossing.
The King's Cavalla Academy has been ravaged by the Speck plague.
The disease has decimated the ranks of both cadets and instructors, and
even the survivors remain sickly. Many have been forced to relinquish
their military ambitions and return to their families to face lives of
dependency and disappointment.
As the Academy infirmary empties, Cadet Nevare Burvelle also prepares to
journey home, to attend his brother Rosse's wedding. Far from being a
broken man, Nevare is hale and hearty after his convalescence. He has
defeated his nemesis, Tree Woman and freed himself of the Speck magic
that infected him and attempted to turn him against his own people. A
bright future awaits him as a commissioned officer betrothed to a
beautiful young noblewoman.
Yet his nights are still haunted by dreams of the voluptuous Tree
Woman, dreams in which his Speck self betrays everything he holds dear
in his waking life. Has the plague infected him in ways far more
mysterious than the merely physical?
Despite his fears, Nevare will journey back to Widevale in high
spirits, in full expectation of a jubilant homecoming and a tender
reunion with his beautiful fiancée, Carsina. But his life is about to
take a shocking turn, as the magic in his blood roars to life and forces
him to recognize that his most dangerous enemy, an enemy that seeks to
destroy all he loves, might dwell within him. 'Hobb is one of the
great modern fantasy writers… what makes her novels as addictive as
morphine is not just their imaginative brilliance but the way her
characters are compromised and manipulated by politics.'
The Times Robin Hobb was born in California in 1952 and majored in
Communications at Denver University, Colorado. Assassin's Apprentice was
her first novel, and was followed by the equally successful Royal
Assassin and Assassin's Quest. She lives outside Seattle, Washington.
Her website is: www. RobinHobb. com.
