WOBURN ABBEY: home of the RUSSELL family, earls, and, later, dukes of Bedford. The site was once a medieval abbey, the lands given to the Russells by the monarchy after the dissolution of the monasteries in the sixteenth century. Woburn Abbey is open to visitors for much of the year, and if you ask nicely, the curator might show you an engraving of the Abbey as it would have been in the seventeenth century.
THE TROY GAME
BOOK ONE
HADES’ DAUGHTER
Theseus bested the Minotaur with the aid of Ariadne, Mistress of the Labyrinth, so when Theseus betrays her, Ariadne turns her wrath upon him. Catastrophe strikes the Mediterranean, and the great city of Troy falls leaving its people to wander homeless for many years. Among them is the Kingman, Brutus, and he carries with him the Troy Game, the greatest secret the western world has ever known. When the Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis, offers him and his people a splendid future if he can resurrect the Game, he does not hesitate to take it. So it is that on the shores of the Thames in ancient Britain the Troy Game begins again…And everywhere lurks Ariadne’s legacy of hatred, carrying Western Europe into a maelstrom of darkness.
BOOK TWO
GOD’S CONCUBINE
For 2000 years the Troy Game has survived Asterion’s attempts to control it. He allows the Game’s creators to be reborn…to lead him to the golden kingship bands of Troy. It is a vastly different world in which they find themselves, and it is the eve of the Norman invasion of England. Yet Brutus’ most deadly enemy may be the Troy Game itself. Left to its own devices for 2000 years, it has become manipulative…devious…alive! Asterion, abroad in Anglo-Saxon London, is desperate to find it.
THE CRUCIBLE
The forces of darkness are battling for man’s soul, but just who are they?
BOOK ONE
THE NAMELESS DAY
1377…and the Archangel Michael sends Brother Thomas Neville on a mission across Europe to find the means to thrust the demons on earth back beyond the doorway of Hell.
But the armies of God and Satan are arraying themselves for the final battle…and it seems that Neville’s soul is to be the battlegound.
BOOK TWO
THE WOUNDED HAWK
As Neville comes closer and closer to finding the casket which hides the most terrible secrets of the Church, he begins to realise the casket might release a greater horror than the one he wishes to thrust back into hell. And is his friend Hal, son of the Duke of Lancaster, all that he seems to be?
BOOK THREE
THE CRIPPLED ANGEL
England is reeling under supernatural plagues and treachery-driven rebellions. Mankind’s fate rests on the outcome of three battles: Agincourt, where Bolingbroke challenges Philip for Catherine and for France; the sacrificial ground before Joan’s pyre, where Neville must choose between his love for Margaret and the will of the angels; and the Field of the Angels itself—Heaven, where Christ watches…and waits.
THE AXIS TRILOGY
The international bestsellers.
BOOK ONE
BATTLEAXE
The Sentinels walk the land, the TreeFriend has been found, and the people of the Plough, the Wing and the Horn must set aside their differences and unite under one leader against the evil rising in the north…
BOOK TWO
ENCHANTER
Winner of the 1996 Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy Novel. The spellbinding sequel to BattleAxe, returning us to a world in the grip of prophecy and war…
BOOK THREE
STARMAN
As the Prophecy of the Destroyer hurtles towards fulfilment, Azhure and StarDrifter unravel the mysteries of the Island of Mist and Memory, where they finally confront WolfStar; Faraday moves east to replant the ancient forests of Tencendor; and the Sentinels begin a lonely journey planned for them thousands of years ago…
THE WAYFARER REDEMPTION
It’s forty years since Axis defeated Gorgrael and created a new, peaceful Tencendor…
BOOK ONE
SINNER
Caelum SunSoar has succeeded Axis as supreme ruler of Tencendor, but simmering tensions threaten to tear his country apart.
BOOK TWO
PILGRIM
Qeteb waits, as he has waited tens of thousand of years, for the StarSon…for revenge…for the hunt through the Maze. Death lurks in every twist of the Maze, but only those who have the courage to endure death can learn the secrets of the ancient Enemy.
BOOK THREE
CRUSADER
The Star Dance has picked Tencendor as the final battleground and DragonStar as the last weapon it can throw against the Demons.
Qeteb rages, and Tecendor’s people huddle in sanctuary. But are they safe?
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Many thanks to Lavinia Wellecombe, curator of Woburn Abbey, for showing me about parts of the Abbey not normally open to the public; to Janine Barton, for being such an amusing and informative companion as she drove me about so much of Llangarlia; and to Polly and Robert Arnold, for providing a comfortable place to stay so near to where Caela hid one of the kingship bands.
About The Author
Sara Douglass was born in Penola, South Australia and moved to Adelaide when she was seven. She spent her early working life as a nurse before completing three degrees at the University of Adelaide. After receiving a PhD in early modern English history, Sara worked as a Senior Lecturer in Medieval History at La Trobe University, Bendigo. She left University to start her own business in 2000.
Sara’s first novel, BattleAxe, was published in 1995 and she has been writing and publishing ever since. Three of her novels are winners of the Aurealis Award for Best Fantasy.
Sara now lives in Hobart, Tasmania.
Visit Sara’s website at: www.saradouglass.com
Visit the Voyager website: www.voyageronline.com.au
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BOOKS BY SARA DOUGLASS
THE AXIS TRILOGY
Book One: BattleAxe
Book Two: Enchanter
Book Three: StarMan
Threshold
Beyond the Hanging Wall
THE WAYFARER REDEMPTION
Book One: Sinner
Book Two: Pilgrim
Book Three: Crusader
THE CRUCIBLE
Book One: The Nameless Day
Book Two: The Wounded Hawk
Book Three: The Crippled Angel
THE TROY GAME
Book One: Hades’ Daughter
Book Two: God’s Concubine
Book Three: Darkwitch Rising
Copyright
Voyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, Australia
First published in 2005
This edition first published in 2010
by HarperCollinsPublishers Australia Pty Limited
ABN 36 009 913 517
www.harpercollins.com.au
Copyright © Sara Douglass Enterprises Pty Ltd 2005
The right of Sara Douglass to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000.
This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced, copied, scanned, stored in a retrieval system, recorded, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
HarperCollinsPublishers
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Douglass, Sara.
Darkwitch rising.
ISBN 978 0 7322 7160 2. (pbk.)
ISBN 0 7322 7160 6. (p
bk.)
ISBN 978 0 7304 4436 7 (epub)
1. Charles II, King of England, 1630-1685—Fiction.
2. Brutus the Trojan (Legendary character)—Fiction.
3. Great Britain—History—Civil War, 1642—1649—Fiction.
4. Troy (Extinct city)—Fiction. I. Title. (Series : Douglass, Sara. Troy game ; bk. 3).
A823.3
About the Publisher
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Table of Contents
Prologue
Part One
Part Two
Part Three
Part Four
Part Five
Part Six
Part Seven
Part Eight
BOOKS BY SARA DOUGLASS
Darkwitch Rising Page 65