Glenna McReynolds - Celtic Saga 01 The Chalice and the Blade

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THE CHALICE AND THE BLADE

Celtic Saga 1

Glenna McReynolds

"Are you awake, lady?" Dain asked.

Awake? Ceridwen thought hazily. How did one awaken into death? And who would choose not to be

awake when Death's messenger was so achingly beautiful?

She would not have expected glittering black eyes from a faerie prince, yet his eyes were darker and

brighter than a night full of the moon and stars, an onyx color to match the sleek, flowing length of hair

that framed his face, streamed down his chest, and pooled on her breasts in a loose, silky confluence.

Ah, and his face. His was the kind of strange beauty no mortal man embodied and no mortal woman

could resist. Truly, he was a magical being.

"Sweet prince of thetylwyth teg," she whispered.

Silly chit, Dain thought, to mistake him for something even half so pure and noble as a prince of the faerie

folk. Before he could assure her that he was not, he felt her fingers tangle in his hair and exert gentle

pressure, pulling him down.

"A kiss of peace, sweet prince?" she asked. "To welcome me into paradise?"

She was not very strong, yet somehow was strong enough to have her way, drawing him ever closer.

Their lips met, hers sweetly, innocently closed, expecting the blessing of a saint. He couldn't have

delivered that even if he were pure of heart, for when his mouth touched hers, instinct usurped reason.

She tasted like a woman, every woman, all women, a rich mélange of flavors he couldn't begin to

absorb. They ran through him, rousing a wildness he had long thought broken to his will…

Bantam Books

New York

Toronto

London

Sydney

Auckland

This edition contains the complete text of the original hardcover edition.

NOT ONE WORD HAS BEEN OMITTED.

THE CHALICE AND THE BLADE

A Bantam Book

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Bantam hardcover edition published October 1997

Bantam paperback edition / August 1998

Maps by Jackie Aher.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 96-39010

ISBN 0-553-57430-2

Published simultaneously in the United States and Canada

Bantam Books are published by Bantam Books, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group,

Inc. Its trademark, consisting of the words "Bantam Books" and the portrayal of a rooster, is Registered

in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and in other countries. Marca Registrada. Bantam Books, 1540

Broadway,New York,New York10036 .

PRINTED IN THEUNITED STATES OF AMERICA

To my parents,

Richard and Lois Gillis—

always in my dreams,

never far from my heart.

Acknowledgments

For the generous gifts and loans of historical, astronomical, and ofttimes magical tomes, and for other

various bits of whimsy, inspiration, support, and knowledge, the author would like to thank: Margaret

Aunon, Sandra Betker, Debra and Tom Catlow, Victoria Erbschloe, Margaret Frohberg, Joy Hopely,

Jane Ronald-Houck, Mary McReyn-olds, Jean Muirhead, Susan Parker, Olivia Rupprecht, Debra and

Tom Throgmorton; Dean and Kerrie, for making some magic; also, Rebecca Kubler and Lance Gillis, for

their enthusiastic reading of the manuscript; Cindy Gerard, lovely muse, for not only reading the

manuscript with enthusiasm (over and over again), but for doing so with a pencil in her hand, which she

used; and Stan, Kathleen, and Chase McReynolds, for contributions too numerous to list—all of them

from the heart.

My special thanks and appreciation go to Elizabeth Barrett, for her empathy, her insights, her patience,

and for taking what was and making it better. 'Twas ever thus—namasté.

Author's Note

Writers doing research are a sojourning breed. We spend our days wandering through other people's

work, diligently searching when we know what we want, exploring for epiphany when we don't; dallying

for a short time between one set of bound pages, practically setting up house in the next.

In the writing of this novel, I incurred some rent, most notably to Giraldus Cambrensis and hisJourney

ThroughWales 1188. It was also with great pleasure that I discovered the work of Mircea Eliade; in

particular, his bookThe Forge and the Crucible: the Origins and Structures of Alchemy, and an article he

wrote forParabola, "The Myth of Alchemy."

On a historical note, during the Middle Ages the frontier betweenEngland andWales was known as the

March. The March lords, originally followers of William the Conqueror, were barons whose holdings

comprised the borderlands. They were laws unto themselves, subject to the king ofEngland , but not to

English Common Law. What they had, they kept by the power of their, swords, building castles and

warring on their neighbors—the Welsh—and ofttimes on each other. On the other side of the border, the

Welsh did the same, their disunity being their greatest flaw, with the Welsh princes as inclined to war on

each other as on the land-hungry barons. The March was an integral part of the history of Wales for over

four hundred years, reaching its demise under the reign of Henry VIII with the act of February 1536,

statute 27 Henry VIII clause 26 (in this century referred to as the Act of Union), whose purpose was to

incorporate Wales into England.

One historical fact that I turned to fancy concerns the Thief of Cardiff. The story is true, though the nom

de plume is not. A Welshman, Ifor Bach of Senghennydd, did steal a Norman earl from his bed one night

in retaliation for the confiscation of some land. Over a hundred men-at-arms and an even greater number

of archers guarded the castle keep atCardiff while the "immensely bold" Ifor scaled the walls and made

off with William of Gloucester. Ifor did not release the earl until the stolen estates were returned.

A number of Welsh names and words appear in the book, and I would offer two notes on

pronunciation: c always has the "k" sound, as in candle; dd is pronounced like the English "th," as in

those.

On the map ofWales , Merioneth has been resurrected to an autonomous principality from an earlier

time. The River Bredd, along with Carn Merioneth/Balor Keep, andWydehawCastle , have been

conjured from imagination, the caverns beneath Carn Merioneth even more so. As for thetylwyth teg, I

cannot help but believe, so sure am I that I've met a few.Amor… lux… veritas.

Glenna McReynolds

October 1996

The

Chalice

and the

Blade

Cast of Characters

Carn Merioneth

Rhiannon—Lady of Carn Merioneth from the matriarchal lineage of a Magus Druid Priestess

fromAnglesey

Ceridwen ab Arawn—daughter of Rhiannon

Mychael ab Arawn—son of Rhiannon, twin brother to Ceridwen

Arawn—Lord of Carn Merioneth

Nemeton—famed bard of Brittany, Beirdd Braintof the Quicken-tree, builder of theHartTower

Moriath—daughter of Nemeton

WydehawCastle

Dain Lavrans—the mage of Wydehaw

Lord Soren D'Arbois—a March lord, Baron of Wydehaw

Lady Vivienne D'Arbois—wife of the baron

Elixir and Numa—Dain's hounds

Ragnor the Red—captain of Wydehaw's guard

Madron—witch who lives in Wroneu Wood

Edmee—daughter of Madron

Morgan ab Kynan—Thief ofCardiff , a Welsh Prince

Morgan's band of men:

Owain—the captain

Rhys

Drew

Rhodri

Dafydd

Balor Keep

Caradoc—the Boar of Balor, ruler of the keep

Helebore—excommunicated priest, Balor's leech

Snit—minion of Helebore

Gwrnach—destroyer of Carn Merioneth, father of Caradoc

Gruffudd—a guardsman at Balor

The Quicken-tree

Rhuddlan—leader of the Quicken-tree

The Quicken-tree:

Moira

Elen

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摘要：

THECHALICEANDTHEBLADECelticSaga1ByGlennaMcReynolds"Areyouawake,lady?"Dainasked. Awake?Ceridwenthoughthazily.Howdidoneawakenintodeath?AndwhowouldchoosenottobeawakewhenDeath'smessengerwassoachinglybeautiful?Shewouldnothaveexpectedglitteringblackeyesfromafaerieprince,yethiseyesweredarkerandbrighterthan...

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