Though Imrhien's memory is clouded by sorcery, she must take cital news to the King-Emperor of Caermelor. She hopes that there she may also find Thorn, the fearless ranger who has won her heart.
Since no commoner may approach the royal court, Imrhien assumes a new identity as Rohain, a noble visitor from the distant Sorrow Isles. She soon discovers that the King and his rangers have departed to battle the unseelie hordes which have suddenly declared war against mortals.
Attacks by nightmare monsters of the Wild Hunt, led by the unseelie Lord Huon, grow ever more frequent and brutal. And when evil forces lay seige to the royal sanctuary on a hidden mystic island, Rohain is confronted with a horrifying discovery.
To protect those she loves, the Lady of the Sorrows must undertake a desperate quest to discover who she is and why an unhuman evil would wreak such destruction. But the truth of Rohain's past will prove more incredible - and far more tragic - than any she could possibly have imagined.
The second Bitterbyne book and now I understand what bitterbyne means. So lets talk about the cover. It certainly feels cool, but I don't full get what the center picture is. I thought maybe it was Rohain's (Imrhein's? Ashalind's?) estate, but that doesn't place a massive roll in it. I suppose it could be Caermelor from a distance since half of the book is court life. Then there's the owl in the left hand corner which I suppose means the white owl the fey Prince keeps cursing about, but I still don't really understand why?? And the we get a glimsp at who I assume is Rohain in the right hand corner, which left me really disappointed as throughout the whole book every guy character who has fallen in love with her and some of the adoring females go on about how beautiful she is, as is the way of the Tailth. Yet on the cover she just looks like a cranky rich b*tch narrowing her eyes at her servant. Which we all know is not true because Rohain was once a servant herself. It would be interesting to see if the Bitterbyne Books became a movie.
So it starts over where it left off at the carlin's where Rohain can now speak again. The carlin tells her she must dye her hair and pretend to be the Lady of the Sorrows to talk to the King-Emperor. They wander on about court life with plenty of missing Thorn untill Rohain tells the Duke of Roxburg about Waterstair and they all journey (very quickly considering how long it takes Rohain to journey somewhere sometimes) and get rich and then Rohain gets an estate, but the evil King-Emperor loving Dianella with a magicial uncle (why is it always a creepy uncle?) discovers that shes not from the Sorrows and threatens to reveil, but Rohain bargins with them and goes back to good old Isse Tower.
Rohain is dishearted however to find out Gretel is dead losing her link to her past, until Pod tells her she was found in the scary Huntingtowers full of evil unseelie beasts. So Rohain and her two faithful friends Vivianne and Caitri journey with her to Huntingtowers, but before they get very far they are attacked and get saved by kinghts in shining armour. Rohain finally finds Thorn and they pledge their hearts to each other. Later Rohain finds out Thorn is indeed the King-Emperor!
And like all good Kingly people he has to rush over when they just announce their betrothal, so he orders them all to this mystical island telling Rohain the past is the past. And because shes swoning over Thorn she agrees and takes her friends and some other court people who like her to the Island.
They do a lot of story telling, but then Rohain kinda kills the island by letting these evil wight birds in and then the island turns into a volcano and goes off. Rohain and her friends escape on this boat, but they are met by tsumani waves and they all go into the water. Rohain gets washed up on this abanded part of the world and she soon finds that Vivann and Caitri are still alive.
They all discover they are near Huntingtowers and Rohain must go and discover her past, but much to her dislike her friends insist they join her. She then finds a gold braclet and gets taken back into her memories and discovers her epic past.
Now I am at a loss as to what to call our main character. Imrhein, Rohain, Ashalind? I suppose we should call her Ashalind since when we see her past memories we realise her real name is Ashalind.
0j <3
