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Darkwitch Rising

Page 65

by Sara Douglass


  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

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  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

  25 Ryde Road, Pymble, Sydney, NSW 2073, Australia

  31 View Road, Glenfield, Auckland 10, New Zealand

  77–85 Fulham Palace Road, London, W6 8JB, United Kingdom

  2 Bloor Street East, 20th floor, Toronto, Ontario M4W 1A8, Canada

  10 East 53rd Street, New York NY 10022, USA

  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

  Australia

  HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

  25 Ryde Road (PO Box 321)

  Pymble, NSW 2073, Australia

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com.au

  Canada

  HarperCollins Canada

  2 Bloor Street East – 20th Floor

  Toronto, ON, M4W 1A8, Canada

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.ca

  New Zealand

  HarperCollinsPublishers (New Zealand) Limited

  P.O. Box 1

  Auckland, New Zealand

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.nz

  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road

  London, W6 8JB, UK

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.co.uk

  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

  10 East 53rd Street

  New York, NY 10022

  http://www.harpercollinsebooks.com

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Part One

  Part Two

  Part Three

  Part Four

  Part Five

  Part Six

  Part Seven

  Part Eight

  BOOKS BY SARA DOUGLASS

 

 

 


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