Into the Dark Lands
CBC Books | CBC | Posted: April 3, 2017 8:44 PM | Last Updated: April 4, 2017
Michelle Sagara West
War has its cost, and the Servants of the Bright Heart and the Servants of the Dark Heart have been locked in a struggle that has defined life — and death — for millennia. But the end is coming, and only the Lady who has served the Bright Heart for the whole of her immortal life has seen it, in a vision that spans time and demands the highest of prices.
Erin is a healer, and against the nature of her birthright she has learned to wield a sword and use it to bring death to the enemies of her people. Scarred by the losses that war always demands, she is the chosen champion of Light and the enemy of darkness.
But no magical sword or simple quest awaits Erin. Her journey and her doom lie in the Dark Heart's stronghold, and in the hands of her people's greatest enemy. (From BenBella Books)
From the book
All life has a beginning, and in that sense even the mountains and the earth we dwell upon are alive. But imagine, if you can, a thing that has no such life, and no unfolding: It is, it has been, it will be. This is a hard task, but I ask it only for a moment, for I will tell you of our beginnings, and I, too, must start somewhere.
There was the Light, and there was the Dark. The Light was glorious, ordered, strong; the Dark, ugly and twisted. Each slept in perfection, each spread cold dreams in a wide net, reaching ever outward. Thus did They find each other.
The Light touched the Dark; the Dark the Light — and both were awakened. And where They touched, They frayed into small, moving strands of Light and Darkness. Thus were the Sundered born, the Servants of the two, like parents to your eyes, but lesser and diminished by the method of their creation. Still, the Sundered of the Light cleaved to Light; the Sundered of the Dark, to Darkness.
From Into the Dark Lands by Michelle Sagara West ©1991. Published by BenBella Books.