The Fianw? : Books of Water

An outlawed oath revived-last hope of a dying land. As war ravages the cities and towns of the Southlands, bravery will vie with betrayal to shape a fearful future.Now grown to a young man, Brend follows his father, Hale, into the wild haunts of the West Wood. There, he binds himself to the ancient oath of the Fianwe, a last remnant of outlawed men loyal to the Star Queen, Tin'ntiri, and sworn to oppose the Dark God, Bale. Brend has hardly taken the oath before he is asked to travel to Cold Haven, harsh new home in the high mountains for his childhood friends, now refugees from Bale's invading army. There, Brend renews old bonds with Aly, Ned, and Tic, only to find his sense of love and loyalty challenged. The collapse of the Southlands increasingly forces Brend to covertly wield his wondrous birthright, a Cambiril-a Cloak of Midnight. It is a terrible risk, for the Cambirils are revealed by their use, and Bale desires them as nothing else-most especially the one Brend carries. The increasingly desperate and brutal war takes an especially troubling toll on Tic, who turns away from killing to become a Fianwe spy inside Bale's enslaved southern stronghold of Braeyk-helð. Meanwhile, Brend finds himself more and more torn between using the Cloak to defend what is closest and dearest to him or abandoning his friends to pursue a pressing dream that urges him toward an unknown land of mist-shrouded peaks where the Secret of the Gods lies hidden. The Fianwe, Books of Water is the second volume of The Thirteenth Essene.