Son of the Shadows (The Sevenwaters Trilogy, Book 2) by Juliet Marillier
A magnificent saga set in the Celtic twilight of 10th century Ireland brilliantly brought to life, when myth was law and magic was a power of nature. Son of the Shadows is a haunting and powerful story of passion and destruction vividly told.
Sorcha's daughter Liadan has become, like her mother, a herbalist, healer and storyteller. She is a quiet, background figure at Sevenwaters, leaving centre stage to her twin Sean, the heir to Sevenwaters, and her older sister Niamh, the golden-haired beauty, in appearance so much a Briton, like their father, Hugh of Harrowfield.
Sorcha's six brothers have had no children; some are dead in the fight to regain from the invading Britons the islands sacred to the druids. Finbar is thought dead; left for ever part swan by the curse of Oonagh the witch, his fate in the wild is unknown. Conor is now the chief of the druids, seen at Sevenwaters only at festivals.
When Conor brings with him a young druid, Cieran, to celebrate Beltane, the fate of beautiful Niamh is sealed: she and Cieran fall in love, and are discovered. Niamh is forced to marry a political ally of Sevenwaters and depart forever - Cieran has accepted banishment, and broken Niamh's heart.
Returning from journeying with the newly weds to Niamh's new home, the Painted Man enters Liadan's life: she is kidnapped by his mercenary warriors and taken to heal one of their number who lies dying in the woods. Famed and feared throughout the region, the Painted Man is her doom, as Cieran was her sister's.
But the Painted Man may be the only man who can recover the sacred islands. Without them there is no hope of freedom for the people of Sevenwaters and their beliefs. The mystery surrounding Cieran is deeper still. There is a prophecy concerning the child that will be born to Liadan, and then the secrets will be told, to those who survive in this war-torn and dangerous land.
Like Marion Zimmer Bradley's MISTS OF AVALON this is a story with inbuilt magic. Vivid images of our Celtic past weave a tale of great mystery and romance.