Kate Forsyth, Tower of Ravens

Tower of Ravens By Kate Forsyth

In the mountains live wild satyricon, fairies with horns and hoofs instead of feet. Living among them is a female outcast who has human feet and no horn. She captures a flying winged horse and escapes to the home of Lewen, an apprentice witch and his family who tend to her injuries. They name her Rhiannon and decide that she should be taken to the city of Lucescere to the Tower of Two Moons to be tested for any power she might have.

They travel with a caravan of witches' apprentices but when they find the body of Connor A Yeoman of the Guard, they race to the capital to report the murder. Rhiannon doesn't volunteer the information that it was her arrow that killed the man but because she has his possessions she falls under suspicion. They travel to Fettercain Valley where the dead walk and children are snatched from their homes and killed. The laird, Malvern MacFerris invites the tired troupe to stay at his haunted castle but the evil that resides within the walls threatens their lives. It is up to Rhiannon and any power she may have to rescue her friends and break the malevolence that surround them.

Book one of Rhiannon's Ride is a fabulous fantasy where magic is taken for granted and the people acknowledge and grant equal rights to species straight out of mythology. The hero turns from a feral girl into a caring woman willing to risk her life to save those she has come to care about. The Highlands of medieval Scotland are the basis for TOWER OF RAVEN and Kate Forsyth proves once more that she is a master of creating a mythical world based on an actual bygone era.

Harriet Klausner