Cast in Sorrow

## **Blurb**

THE END OF HER JOURNEY IS ONLY THE BEGINNING…

The Barrani would be happy to see her die. So Kaylin Neya is a bit surprised by her safe arrival in the West March. Especially when enemies new and old surround her and those she would call friends are equally dangerous…

And then the real trouble starts. Kaylin's assignment is to be a "harmoniste"—one who helps tell the truth behind a Barrani Recitation. But in a land where words are more effective than weapons, Kaylin's duties are deadly. With the wrong phrase she could tear a people further asunder. And with the right ones…well, then she might be able to heal a blight on a race.

If only she understood the story….

## **Plot**

The party approaches Alsanis, the Barrani waystation where the Regalia happens, around the Heart of the Green. Nightshade is grudgingly accepted as the speaker because of the crown (tiara in last book) and Kaylin as the harmoniste because of the dress. Five bodiless winged creatures meet them at the gate; the Consort holds out her hand for three to land on and absorb into her, weakening her into unconsciousness; Kaylin intercepts two more, protected by her wards.

Moving rooms and magic clothing are passé to Alsanis: his power extends to portals to realms without physics, extent, or time. The Warden of the Green stops the other local Barrani (without True Names since they never took the Test of Names in the High Halls) from mortal-baiting Kaylin and Severn, and introduces Kaylin to two sentient eagles called the Dreams of Alsanis. Kaylin learns lore from them and the water elemental living in the entry fountain. When the Consort refuses to wake, even when Ferals and a fire-breathing griffon attack the waystation, Kaylin enters a mystical journey to find the Consort's consciousness.

She falls into a pit larger than Elantra, but lands gently thanks to her familiar Hope assuming draconic form. There, she is asked to choose between the runes of Comfort and Grief, but insists on taking both; she asks Alsanis to take her to Teela, which puts her in the middle of the battle. She can see the griffon's name, and Speaking it uncorrupts Lord Iberrienne back to human form and no more than usual Barrani racism. Teela and Nightshade are both injured and angry, but reveal that six years earlier, Teela met personally with the emperor to ask that Kaylin not be eliminated as an unacceptable risk.

Lord of the West March Lirienne, Teela, Iberrienne, and Kaylin are trapped in the Heart of the Green, and told by the Dream Eagles that to find the Consort, Kaylin must Speak to the water elemental in a dry fountain. She is unable to do so, but Hope flies through the solid stone at  the fountain's base. With pestering, Teela tells Kaylin that on her diasterous first regalia, she and 11 other children took a loyalty oath to each other and shared True Names before the attack; on her second trip to the Heart of the Green as harmoniste, she attempted to bespeak the 11 lost children of the Cohort back into the world, but failed and nearly broke herself trying. Her despair recounting this story summons winged Nightmares; Kaylin protects Teela with her body but both fall back into the giant pit. Elementals of fire, water, and the small dragon transformed to full size help Kaylin carry Teela to a fountain full of names, where she's able to exchange Teela for the Consort and return to the dry fountain and the other Barrani.

Kaylin gets a few hours of sleep before her dragon starts attacking the Eagles and breathing his stone-dissolving mist on the tower. The attack triggers an early start to the regalia, where Kaylin needs to sort the random words Nightshade spouts off into ones usable in a story and ones she can feed to her dragon as a distraction, while Teela interacts with the reinacted death scene of her mother and 11 friends. Kaylin realizes the regalia caused the Barrani to fuse with the Heart, as their Names became interlocked; she uses Teela's mother's selfless dying wish (in contrast to the anger and self-interest of the others) to tell a better story, offering a chance for the no-longer children to choose their own path provided they give up on remaking the world. This requires her to renounce the power of the familiar to un-kill her adopted sisters Jade and Steffi, and maybe even her own mother, something the Cohort thought she wouldn't be able to resist when they started the events that led to the familiar being summoned. The Cohort agree to be "mere" immortals, and Hope is set free, he chooses to stay with her anyway.

## List of Characters

1. Kaylin
2. Severn
3. Teela
4. Lirienne
5. Hope
6. Nightshade
7. Consort
8. Ynpharion
9. Evarrim
10. Haverel
11. Barian
12. Avonelle
13. Avanel
14. Tanniase
15. Serian
16. Gaedin
17. Iberrienne
18. Andellen
19. Tenebriel
20. Vivienne
21. Sedarias
22. Annarion
23. Eddorian
24. Allaron
25. Valliant
26. Terrano
27. Serralyn
28. Torrisant
29. Fallessian
30. Karian
31. Mandoran
32. Alsanis