MAGE OF CLOUDS

In the Before time, the mage-lights ruled the night skies, and the cloudmages drew that magic into the stones known as the clochs na thintri. And though they could have worked great wonders for the benefit of humankind, invariably, each time the magic returned to these spell-stones over the millenia, the cloudmages used it to wage war.
Nearly two decades ago, the mage-lights had returned to the sky and a young woman named Jenna had found the stone known as Lamh Shabhala, the master stone that was the only means through which to reawaken the power of all the other clochs. Jenna had lived to become First Holder, but she'd sacrificed even more than she'd gained, cut off from family and friends, and caught up in a magical war which would see far too many dead. And through an uneasy peace was instituted in the aftermath of the war, a peace that has existed, however precariously, until the present day, that delicate balance is about to be shattered once again.
Jenna MacEagan has been Banrion in the realm of Inish Thuaidh since the end of the devastating conflict with the lords of all the other Tuatha. But now the Ri Ard, the High King of those Tuatha, has grown frail and may soon be replaced. And when Jenna's own half brother Doyle appears in the heart of Dun Kiil Keep to tell her that their mother has died and to warn her that both he and the future Ri Ard await only the right moment to strike at Jenna and those she holds dear, she knows she can no longer put off the inevitable. She must send her daughter Meriel to the Order at Inishfeirm to be trained in the use of the clochs na thintri. For Jenna feels that one day Meriel may well be called upon to fill her place as First Holder, the wielder of Lamh Shabhala.
Yet Inishfeirm may not prove either the training ground or the haven that Jenna expects it to be. For Meriel is not like her mother, and she has no desire for power. As she begins her training with the cloch known as Treorai's Heart, Meriel finds it offers her a magic more to her liking and one which is extremely rare - the ability to heal. And she finds both a mentor and friends among the Order. But when Doyle makes good in his threat and stages an attack on the Order, friendship turns to betrayal and Meriel finds herself thrust into the hands of her mother's enemies. Suddenly she has become a pawn in a deadly game where lives are worth far less than the clochs na thintri.
Will Jenna trade everything she has fought for - and so many have died for - to save her daughter's life? Or will Meriel become a helpless sacrifice in the devastating struggle between her mother and her uncle?

In Farrell's second richly imagined Cloudmages fantasy (after 2003's Holder of Lightning), the younger generation takes center stage. It's been almost 20 years since the mage-lights returned to the sky and Meriel MacEagan's mam, Jenna, found Lamh Shabhala, the mage-stone that reawakened the other clochs. With it, Jenna has become the Banrion of Inish Thuaidh and has managed to form an uneasy truce with the other Tuathaan. But the old Rí Ard is dying, and his successors - Jenna's half brother Doyle Mac Ard and the Ri Ard's daughter Edana - are more than willing to reopen the war with the Inishlanders. And while Lamh Shabhla and its holder may be too powerful to attack directly, her family is not. The author deftly manages Meriel's journey from the sheltered and innocent Banrion's daughter of the book's opening chapters to the grounded and powerful woman she will become - and from hostage to healer. Intriguing, fully developed characters abound. This entry can only enhance Farrell's reputation as one of the rising stars of Celtic fantasy.
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No longer the young, untried girl who stumbled upon Lamh Shabhala, most powerful of the stones that gather the power of the mage lights, Jenna the First Holder has been Banrion, too, since the last, devastating war among the lords and their holders, but that is about to change. The old Ri Ard is weak, possibly dying, and Doyle, Jenna's half brother, is set on obtaining Lamh Shabhala and will spare nothing --not even the life of his niece Meriel, Jenna's daughter --to get it. So Meriel is sent to the Order at Innishfern to be trained to assume Jenna's first-holder duties. Meriel doesn't want the power or responsibility of Lamh Shabhala, however, for she is at heart a healer. In no time at all, Meriel becomes the pawn in a deadly tug-of-war between her mother and her uncle, and the peace she desperately longs for, for herself and her land, seems to be out of reach. A wonderful continuation of the Cloudmages series, begun in Holder of Lightning [BKL Ja 1 & 15 03]. Paula Luedtke
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