Trial of Fire

First published in 2002 by Gollancz

This ebook edition published in 2013 by

Jo Fletcher Books
An imprint of Quercus Editions Ltd
55 Baker Street
7th Floor, South Block
London
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Copyright © 2002 by Mackenzie Oliphant.

The moral right of Mackenzie Oliphant to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

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

Ebook ISBN 978 1 78206 884 6

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places and events are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

You can find this and many other great books at:
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Also by Kate Jacoby

EXILE’S RETURN
First Book of Elita

VOICE OF THE DEMON
Second Book of Elita

BLACK EAGLE RISING
Third Book of Elita

REBEL’S CAGE
Fourth Book of Elita

For Aaron, with love

Acknowledgements

Thank you as always to my family and friends, for their endless patience, support and encouragement. More thanks to Leslie Gardner and especially to Jo Fletcher, for letting me tell the story.

And so we come to the final chapter in this saga. This was a time of confusion, of uncertainty, of faltering hope, and yet those at the heart of this story knew their time was fast approaching.

This was the time Robert Douglas had most feared, for it was his hand that would divide fate from hope, his destiny to find an answer to the Prophecy, or, while delivering his country from evil, destroy the very thing he loved most.

History had always worked against him. He’d returned from his self-imposed exile to find Lusara struggling under the rule of Selar, the conqueror; the Church floundering, the powerful Guilde growing stronger under Proctor Vaughn. Vaughn knew Robert was a sorcerer – and hated him for it.

The secret Enclave, hidden high in the Goleth Mountains, was home to sorcerers who no longer dared to live in the country, fearing for their lives from both Guilde and the evil sorcerers, the Malachi. The Enclave was protected by the Key; it was this powerful talisman which had given Robert the Prophecy.

While the people needed a release from tyranny, those within the Enclave, the Salti, begged Robert to help them, but Robert, a man of honour, could not reconcile the responsibilities placed upon him with his oath of allegiance to Selar, nor with the terrible fate of the Prophecy. This conflict raged within him for more than thirty years, becoming a dark stain inside him he could neither control nor destroy. In his own mind, he called it the demon.

The one person who understood both Robert and his demon was Jennifer Ross, abducted as a child and sent to live in Shan Moss forest. When, fourteen years later, Robert rescued her, he discovered she was not only a sorcerer, with powers vastly different to any other magic-wielder in Lusara, but the daughter of the Earl of Elita. Robert returned Jenn to her father as he had promised, but even as he realised his feelings for her were changing, he discovered that she was also a part of the Prophecy, named the Ally – and he knew that if he allowed it to come true,
she
would be the one he would destroy.

King Selar had a new friend, Samdon Nash. A sorcerer of incredible
power and evil, Nash was known as Carlan to his people, the Malachi. He would stop at nothing to posses the Key – and Jenn, the Ally.

And then fate took hold of Robert and his brother Finnlay once again, and the secret of sorcery died. Word flew across the land.

*

Nash secured his position at court, using a hideous perversion of the ancient Bonding to tie Selar to him, so the King would lose all free will and become Nash’s puppet.

Robert helped the Queen to safety, but it was Jenn’s impending marriage that finally broke him. Despite all his promises to himself, he spent the night with her, giving into the Bonding foretold by the Prophecy. Then he went into exile once again – this time determined to stay there and harm no others.

Though heartbroken, Jenn understood Robert and went through with her marriage to Duke Teige Eachern, Selar’s brutish cousin. When she found she was carrying Robert’s child, she kept the secret, allowing her husband to believe it was his.

Robert exiled himself in a remote abbey where he met Bishop Aiden McCauly, hiding there after escape from imprisonment on false charges of treason. The seeds of a deep and powerful friendship were born between the two. They were drawn from their sanctuary by threats to Robert’s brother and an attack on Jenn at Elita.

Racing across the country, they arrived at the castle in time to discover those besieging were Malachi, under control of the Angel of Darkness, the third protagonist in the Prophecy. Even as Jenn went into labour, as her father was killed and her son born, the enemy was closing in, threatening to overrun the castle. Exhausting all his defences, the demon within Robert finally cracked and broke, flooding through him with a fury that would not be denied. From the highest battlement he let loose the Word of Destruction, obliterating the Malachi and severely wounding the Angel of Darkness.

*

Five years later Robert returned again to Lusara, on an urgent mission: Selar was determined to invade neighbouring Mayenne, but his success would mean the end of Lusara. Robert set about gathering loyal men to stop Selar in his tracks.

With her husband’s death, Jenn took her son, Andrew, to live with her sister, while she joined the rebels. She and Robert travelled to the southern continent in search of answers to the Prophecy; though answers eluded them, the trip healed the rift between them, and Robert vowed to marry her … but on their return to Bleakstone, Robert’s allies insisted instead he
marry Selar’s daughter, Galiena, and, upon victory, that he take the crown. Jenn insisted that he agree; Lusara was more important than their love.

After the wedding, word arrived that Selar was advancing to the border and the rebel forces were mobilised.

Jenn headed to the Enclave, where she was chosen by the Key to replace the dead Jaibir, the leader of the colony. Robert arrived too late to stop it: with Jenn now joined to the Key for life, Robert could no longer trust her; he left to rejoin his army.

Still determined to help, Jenn joined Robert’s army. That night, when their camp was attacked by Malachi, one young woman was captured, Sairead, the girl Robert’s closest friend had fallen in love with.

At dawn the battle was engaged. Both sides fought hard, but there was no clear winner, even though Robert killed Selar.

As Robert slept fitfully that night, Malachi crept into the camp, freed Sairead and abducted Micah, her lover, Robert’s closest companion. When the armies lined up for battle the following day, Robert faced his bitterest enemy, Nash, the Angel of Darkness.

Robert rescued Micah, but was stabbed in the back by Sairead. Believing Micah had betrayed him, Robert turned to fight Nash, who was severely wounded, his power virtually gone. Robert too was hurt, but Jenn felt the build-up of power and knew Robert was preparing to use the Word of Destruction to kill both himself and Nash – he would defy the Prophecy he hated with his
own
death.

Jenn rushed between them, using her own awesome powers to split them apart. Nash was spent, but alive, and Kenrick’s men rescued him from the field. Robert remained standing long enough to see Kenrick’s army racing away in terror and to hear the cheers of his own men. Then he collapsed into Finnlay’s arms.

*

The war was over, and Kenrick – now King – fled back to Marsay with the wounded Nash and the dispirited Malachi. Micah, desolate to be banished from Robert’s side, left to play bodyguard to his friend’s son, Andrew. Robert’s army buried its dead that night as Robert himself lay dying, his wounds severe, the demon inside him making them worse.

Finnlay fetched Jenn, hoping she would tell Robert that she loved him and that Andrew was his son so Robert might have something to fight for. But Jenn’s choices were too limited; the only way to save Robert was with another lie: she told him that she had never loved him – and the demon struck out at her, but with Robert so weak, it could do no damage. Now the demon was working to heal him, but he looked at her with hatred. She left
for the Enclave, knowing that she had irrevocably lost his love – but that he was now free of her, free to fulfil a destiny his country cried out for.

*

For the next eight years, Robert worked in the background, carrying out small raids against the Crown and Guilde, gathering support and information. Though he achieved much, he was not yet ready to move against Kenrick, who had grown into an even worse tyrant than his father – the boy was a powerful, though untrained, sorcerer firmly under Nash’s control.

Though the country was desperate, Robert couldn’t move until one last piece was in place. In a monastery in Flan’har, and with his most trusted allies around him, Robert announced that he was placing Jenn’s son, Andrew, on the throne of Lusara. He would fight and destroy Nash, while Andrew dealt with Kenrick, his cousin. Bishop McCauly and the others would remain in Flan’har, ready to support Andrew when the time came.

Andrew, growing up strong in the care of his mother in the Enclave and Micah at home, knew nothing of Robert’s plans until Robert kidnapped him one night. In his secret home buried inside the caves under Nanmoor, Robert detailed enough of his plans to horrify the fourteen-year-old boy before returning him to his home at Maitland. Here Robert saw Jenn for the first time since the Battle of Shan Moss, eight years before.

After his fight with Robert at that same battle, Nash was broken in body, but not in spirit. As his life had been sustained by the blood of others, his wounds required more to heal – and this blood he found hard to obtain. Crippled but unbowed, he set out to place his Bonded Malachi spies in the courts of southern princes, and to capture Jenn’s son with an eye to replacing Kenrick with him, if the King did not obey.

But even as he sent his men south to kidnap Andrew, another more desperate struggle erupted and, to his surprise, Nash discovered that he had a daughter of his own blood. With all haste, he set out to find her, imprisoning Valena, the mother, and using the child’s blood to repair his injuries, increasing his power tenfold. For three days he lay vulnerable while his body was rebuilt, but at dawn on the fourth he rose, strong, whole and more powerful than he’d ever thought possible.

Nash’s Malachi attacked Andrew and Micah, but Jenn and Robert intervened, rescuing the boy. In revenge, Andrew’s aunt and uncle were murdered by the Malachi and, fearing more reprisals, Robert took them all back to the Enclave.

Though they were now safe from Nash, the Malachi and even Kenrick, Robert felt the evil had followed him, in the shape of the demon nestling inside him, burning with anger and hatred: if he lost control, he would use the Word of Destruction as he’d been told in the Prophecy. But even as his
ability to contain the demon cracked and broke, Jenn’s love held him secure. He saw at last that she’d been his all along.

Robert presented Jenn with the one thing they’d always believed could help their struggle against Nash: the Calyx. But as they took it before the Key, hoping for the answers they desperately needed, disaster struck. Key and Calyx joined to become one and, in the process, the protective walls around the Enclave fell away, leaving them open to discovery by Nash. With his new powers, Nash cried with delight, promising to cross the country to find them, kill Robert and take the Key – and Jenn. His victory was assured.