Kushiel's Dart

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Kushiel's Dart
First edition cover
First edition cover
Author Jacqueline Carey
Cover Artist John Jude Palencar
Country United States
Language English
Series Kushiel's Legacy
Genre(s) Fantasy novel
Publisher Tor Books
Released 2001
Media Type Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages 701 pp (first edition, hardback)
ISBN ISBN 0-312-87238-0 (first edition, hardback)
Followed by Kushiel's Chosen

Kushiel's Dart is Jacqueline Carey's first novel and the first of the novels in her Kushiel's Legacy series.

Contents

[edit] Background

The idea for this book first came to Carey when she was reading Genesis and specifially the passage about "sons of God" coming into the "daughters of Men." Later, when she was writing a coffee table book, she encountered Jewish folklore, which paralleled the story in greater detail. She based Terre d'Ange on a nation founded by a rebel angel. [1]

[edit] Plot introduction

It takes place in a variant of post-medieval France. Elua, born from the blood of Yeshua (Jesus) led angels (Naamah, Anael, Cassiel, Shemhazai, Azza, Kushiel, Eisheth and Camael), once servants of the one God, to Terre d'Ange, where all except Cassiel lived lives of joy, mingling their blood with the people of the land. And the people that sprung from them were beautiful beyond compare, the envy of the world.

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

[edit] Beginnings

The main character, Phèdre nó Delaunay, is an anguissette, chosen by Kushiel to feel pain as pleasure and marked by him for this by a scarlet mote in her left eye. Sold into indenture by her mother, in the Court of Night-Blooming Flowers and left to a fate of ill-luck, since she is viewed as flawed and unable to serve because of the scarlet mote in her left eye. But her ill-fated life changes at the age of six, when the minor lord Anafiel Delaunay recognizes the flaw in her left eye as Kushiel's Dart; a mark in D'Angeline lore said to signify the selection of its bearer as Kushiel's chosen servant--one who finds pleasure in pain. Having recognized that Phèdre may bear rare talents and perhaps be reared as a unparalleled courtesan, Delaunay purchases her marque from Cereus House.

Phèdre lives in service with Delaunay and her new foster brother, Delaunay's first pupil, Alcuin nó Delaunay, and both children are given a full education, trained to be Delaunay's spies while serving Namaah. Her patrons come to desire her greatly, many of them paying exorbitant fees for her services and bestowing upon her valuable gifts.

While she is rising to prominence, political intrigues threaten the sovereignty of Terre d'Ange. Lyonette de Trevalion and her son Baudoin plot to overthrow King Ganelon and his grand-daughter and heir Ysandre; their machinations are uncovered and exposed by the combined efforts of Melisande Shahrizai and Isidore d'Aiglemort.

Not long after this, Alcuin makes his marque, and on his final assignment, learns the names of those responsible for the murder of Isabel L'Envers: two members of the Stregazza family. For having this knowledge, Alcuin is attacked, and the bodyguard Guy is killed defending him. Following this, Delaunay contracts the Cassiline Joscelin Verreuil to protect his charges; Alcuin takes to him immediately; Phèdre does not. Joscelin does not approve of Phèdre's line of work or her nature as an anguissette, and Phèdre finds him dour and too imposing.

While on assignation at the Palace one day, Phèdre slips away from Joscelin's guard and tracks down her master Delaunay, whom she knows is meeting someone in the rooms behind the Palace's theatre complex. She witnesses a conversation between Delaunay and the Dauphine Ysandre, ending in Ysandre asking for Delaunay's counsel.

Melisande contracts Phèdre for herself for a midwinter masque held on the eve of what would be known as the Bitterest Winter. She parades Phèdre before the nobles of Terre d'Ange, having her wear a gown of only white gauze studded with diamonds, and a velvet slip-collar with a diamond teardrop suspended from it and a lead attached. Phèdre loses herself entirely to Melisande that night, and when Melisande uses flechettes on her, she gives her signale for the first time. Melisande makes a gift of the ruined gauze-gown to Phèdre, and the worth of it is enough that she might complete her marque.

When Phèdre is at the marquist's, however, she is interrupted by a sailor, bearing a message from Admiral Quintilius Rousse to Delaunay; he knows that Delaunay's house is being watched, and gives the message to Phèdre instead: "When the Black Boar rules in Alba, Elder Brother will accede." Phèdre and Joscelin rush to their home, only to find Delaunay already dead, and Alcuin dying. In his final breaths, Alcuin tells Phèdre to tell Ysandre what has happened, to trust Admiral Rousse and the remaining Trevalions, that Thelesis de Mornay knows about Alba, and that the important figure is the Dauphine, not Ganelon.

Phèdre and Joscelin rush to the Palace, but is turned away both by Ysandre's Guard and Thelesis' servants. While attempting to reach a secret passage from the theatre complex to Ysandre's rooms, Phèdre and Joscelin encounter Melisande, who takes them to her own quarters. Melisande betrays them, drugging Joscelin and sexually tormenting Phèdre before drugging her as well.

[edit] In Skaldia

Melisande sends Phèdre and Joscelin to be sold to the Skaldi as slaves, and they are taken past the borders of Camlach into Skaldi territory. Joscelin initially refuses to submit to the Skaldi, and most likely would have gotten himself killed, but that Phèdre steps in and persuades the Skaldi not to harm him. He is instead chained with their dogs until Phèdre can convince him that they will be best served by obedience, until such time as they can make an escape. She begins to teach him the Skaldic language. Phèdre becomes the bed-slave of Gunter Arnlaugson, the lord of the steading.

Gunter takes Phèdre and Joscelin to the Allthing held by Waldemar Selig, presenting them both as gifts to Selig. Phèdre becomes Selig's bed-slave, and learns of his plans to invade Terre d'Ange by betraying the traitor Duc Isidore d'Aiglemort, as well as learning that Melisande is the manipulator of the entire ordeal after seeing a letter from her to Selig. Following this, she convinces Joscelin of a plan to escape and return to Terre d'Ange to warn Ysandre of the coming danger and the treachery in her realm. Joscelin disguises himself as a Skaldic warrior, killing several guards so that he and Phèdre may escape from the camps.

It takes Selig's best riders four days to catch up with Phèdre and Joscelin; while Joscelin battles several of them, the young Harald the Beardless out of Gunter's steading attempts to recapture Phèdre; she kills him with her dagger in order to escape.

Several days out on their journey, Phèdre and Joscelin take shelter in a cave, where Phèdre patches his wounds, and the two end up having sex. The next morning, they find etched on the cave wall the sigil of Blessed Elua, and realize that he and his Companions rested in that same place during their wanderings.

Phèdre and Joscelin near one of the passes through the Camaeline Mountains only to discover the pass already blocked with Skaldi of the Marsi Tribe; this forces them to take the longer and much harder pass over the mountains, made more difficult when they lose both of their mounts to missteps, leaving them with only a shaggy grey pony.

[edit] Uncovering Treachery

Once back in Terre d'Ange, Phèdre and Joscelin encounter the men of the Marquis le Garde, one of the Allies of Camlach; she borrows names from Cereus House and tells them she is Suriah of Trefail, and that Joscelin is her cousin Jareth, refugees from a town that has been set upon by the Skaldi. When it looks as though they are going to be taken into custody, Joscelin holds their commander at knifepoint and demands horses for their escape. They proceed down a road called Eisheth's Way, until they encounter a Yeshuite wagon on the road. The Yeshuites give them shelter when they recognize Joscelin for a Cassiline, with whom their people share an affinity. They take Joscelin and Phèdre all the way to the City of Elua.

Once inside the City, Phèdre decides that the only person she can trust is her old friend Hyacinthe, whom she and Joscelin seek out immediately. From Hyacinthe, Phèdre learns that she and Joscelin were tried and convicted in absentia for the murders of Delaunay, Alcuin, and the entire household. Some few spoke on their behalf, including Gaspar de Trevalion and Cecile Laveau-Perrin. Deciding upon the best course of action to reach Ysandre, Phèdre sends a message to Thelesis de Mornay, written in Cruithne, that it might not be understood if intercepted. Thelesis comes to Hyacinthe's to fetch all three and bring them to Ysandre. Once Ysandre accepts the truth of their story, she wants to clear their names, but is persuaded by Phèdre that to do so would let Isidore know she knows of his betrayal. Ysandre instead takes them all into royal custody.

King Ganelon dies of a stroke, precisely three days after Hyacinthe predicts that he would; following the funeral, Ysandre gives out that she is retiring to a Courcel estate to mourn, when in actuality she is summoning a council of those few she can trust: Thelesis, Gaspar, Percy de Somerville, the Duchese Roxane de Mereliot of Marsilikos, her uncle Barquiel L'Envers, Tibault the Comte de Toluard of Siovale, the Prefect of the Cassiline Brotherhood, as well as Phèdre, Joscelin, and Hyacinthe. At this meeting, Ysandre reveals that at the age of sixteen, she was promised to wed Drustan mab Necthana of the Cruithne, a betrothal made between two young monarchs-to-be, in love with each other and with the dream of uniting their nations. Ysandre also reveals the truth of Delaunay's heritage: that he was the son of the Comte de Montrève, who disowned him for his unwillingness to marry and produce heirs, and an Eisandine woman named Sarafiel Delaunay; Anafiel Delaunay was working to fulfill the alliance because the Cruithne had come seeking not power, but a dream. Needing as many allies as possible, Ysandre decides to recall the exiled Marc de Trevalion and his daughter Bernadette, and to have the loyal Ghislain de Somerville wed Bernadette to cement the bonds. She also decides to send the Glory-Seekers of Prince Baudoin to Isidore, knowing that they will not be overjoyed at serving the man who betrayed their Prince.

It is Ysandre who decides to send Phèdre as her ambassador to Alba and Eire (Kushiel's Legacy) to convince the Dalriada to help Drustan reclaim his throne, and then to have Drustan bring his army to Terre d'Ange to help Ysandre secure hers before they wed. Phèdre agrees, if somewhat reluctantly; Joscelin, loathe to leave her, swears his sword into Ysandre's service and is allowed to accompany her to Alba. Before they leave, Ysandre secretly brings the marquist Robert Tielhard to Phèdre so that her marque may be completed before she leaves, making her a truly free D'Angeline citizen.

Hyacinthe comes up with the idea to transport Phèdre safely to Quintilius Rousse by traveling along a Tsingani road that is unused by D'Angelines. He disguises Phèdre as his cousin, a Tsingani by-blow on a prostitute, and Joscelin as a Mendacent, a traveling bard, from Eisande. At the horse fair in Kusheth, Hyacinthe is reunited with his grandfather and his extended family, unanimously accepted as one of them. However, they cast him out again for speaking the dromonde, which he does in order to assure Phèdre that Melisande will not find her when the latter turns up at the fair.

While traveling across Kusheth, the party is intercepted by Quincel de Morhban, the reigning Duc of the region; in exchange for safe passage to Quintilius Rousse and no questions asked about their mission, Phèdre offers herself to the Duc for one night. The Duc agrees, and Phèdre and the others reach Quintilius, who agrees to take them to Alba.

The Master of the Straits attempts to halt their passage to Alba, coming to them in a fierce storm, as a face in the waves, and demands a toll. Remembering the story of Thelesis de Mornay, Phèdre pays their passage with one of the Skaldic hearth-songs taught to her by Hedwig.

[edit] In Alba

The Master of the Straits lets them pass, and they come to the far western shore of Alba, where a delegation is waiting for them; Moiread, Drustan mab Necthana's younger sister, saw their coming in a prophetic dream. Phèdre and her companions are taken to meet the Dalriada; they enter the hall through the Sun Door, a great honor, as it is the second-highest in rank. Here Phèdre informs Drustan that the price of marrying Ysandre is helping her secure her throne from invasion, and that the Master of the Straits will only allow the Albans to cross to Terre d'Ange after Drustan wins his own throne back. The joint Lords of the Dalriada, Grainne and Eamonn, greet the D'Angeline delegation and become part of the discussion on whether or not to go to war; Grainne wishes to give aid in restoring Drustan to his throne, but Eamonn does not consider that this is their fight, thinking that the D'Angelines bring only trouble. They are eventually reconciled only when Phèdre has sex first with Grainne, and then says she will only sleep with Eamonn as well if he proves his courage by going to battle; he agrees. Eamonn is goaded by this, and agrees to lend Drustan the aid of the Dalriada.

From the various tribes of the Albans and Dalriada, Drustan raises an army of six thousand foot soldiers, seven hundred horsemen, and fifty chariots. On the eve of battle, Drustan stops to give an inspirational speech to the troops, but is interrupted at the very beginning by the presence of an absolutely enormous black boar. Taking this as an extremely favorable omen, the army charges, and thus subverts an attempt by the usurper Maelcon to launch a surprise attack; if Drustan had kept speaking for another ten minutes, Maelcon would have been able to trap them, but with the advantage, Drustan's troops win the battle. Drustan slays Maelcon himself, but among the casualties on his side is his younger sister Moiread, who takes a spear to the middle when some of Maelcon's men attempt to capture Necthana and her daughters.

Phèdre spends the battle with Necthana and her daughters, and thus is witness to Moiread's death. After the battle is over, she knights those of Quintilius Rousse's men that survived to fulfill a promise he made to them. She bequeaths the title of Chevalier on some twenty soldiers, whom Rousse thereafter names "Phèdre's boys". That night, Phèdre sleeps with Hyacinthe, to comfort him over the sorrow of Moiread's death.

Drustan and Quintilius Rousse decide to sail their forces across the strait at its narrowest point, and proceed from there across Azzalle to join up with the armies of House Somerville and House Trevalion. They travel to Dobria, and there an Alban fisherman warns them not to fish more than three spear-casts off of the coast, for the sea beyond is the fishing ground of the Master of the Straits. Unfortunately, some of the Segovae clan arrive late and fail to hear the warning; one of them catches and kills an eel too far off of the coast, incurring the wrath of the Master of the Straits. He washes up the flagship bearing Drustan, Rousse, and Phèdre on his own island, and deposits the rest of the fleet on another. Drustan and Rousse both immediately try to take responsibility for the offense. Gildas, the servant of the Master of the Straits, calls Drustan, Rousse, Phèdre, and Hyacinthe to come ashore; Joscelin insists on accompanying Phèdre, to which Phèdre replies that she will kill him herself before letting anyone else die for his vow, but Gildas lets him come along because he is Companion-Sworn to her.

The Master of the Straits tells them that the union of Alba and Terre d'Ange is one-half of what will free him from being bound to the island; if they can guess the other half, he will let them go free, and gives them one night to answer or die. As temptation, he shows in his magic cauldron an image of Ysandre de la Courcel at a war camp.

Phèdre and Hyacinthe both guess the riddle: that in order for the Master of the Straits to be freed, someone else must take his place. Hyacinthe insists on being the one to stay. The Master of the Straits further requires that whoever would take his place name where his power comes from; Phèdre guesses the Lost Book of Raziel, and Hyacinthe clarifies that the Master has only pages from it, that the One God (Kushiel's Legacy) gave to Edom, the first man, to grant him mastery over sea and earth, then took away for Edom's disobedience.

With the assurance of Hyacinthe taking his place, the Master of the Straits offers to let the group see in his cauldron what has been going on in Terre d'Ange since their departure, to catch them up on events, and then to get them, their men, their horses, and their arms safely ashore. He shows them the following scenes: tens of thousands of Skaldi passing through the Camaeline Range, moving along the Rhenus River and attacking D'Angeline ships; Isidore d'Aiglemort in command of five thousand soldiers under the banner of the Allies of Camlach; Percy de Somerville's forces crossing Namarre; the rearguard of Isidore's own army, the former Glory-Seekers of Baudoin de Trevalion, falling upon his men, betraying the traitor Duc, along with some few others of the Allies of Camlach who remained loyal to the Crown, managing to slow Isidore's progress; Isidore interrogating a captured Glory-Seeker and learning how Waldemar Selig double-crossed him; the defensive D'Angeline forces broken by the Skaldic armies and forced back to the city of Troyes-le-Mont, which had been prepared for a siege; the rest of Rousse's fleet joining with the Azzalese; and finally Ysandre de la Courcel at Troyes-le-Mont.

The Master of Straits offers to set their fleet wherever they wish, but stipulates that he can not help them once they leave the water. Quintilius Rousse bids him to bring them to the mouth of the Rhenus and as far up the river as his powers will allow, to meet up with his fleet and the forces of Ghislain de Somerville, and thus secure the northern border. They decide to leave in the morning; that night, Phèdre sleeps with Hyacinthe again.

[edit] The War

Thirty of the ships go up the Rhenus to meet the armies; Eamonn mac Conor goes with some of the troops to find the rest of Rousse's fleet. When the invasion begins, Selig sends some fifteen hundred men to attempt to cross the Rhenus River in Azzalle, thus tying up the Azzallese forces and keeping them from reinforcing the D'Angelines at Troyes-le-Mont. Drustan has his Alban forces attack these Skaldi and totally routs them. It quickly becomes apparent, however, that the Skaldic forces far outnumber them; Drustan gives his troops the option of going home, rather than facing almost certain death in Terre d'Ange. They agree to stay, however, on the condition that, if they fall, someone carry word of their deeds back to Alba so that the poets may sing of their deeds and their families may know how they died.

Waldemar Selig has the cunning to instruct his troops to build siege-towers to assault the city walls; Drustan mab Necthana and his Alban strike teams set fire to the siege towers, then draw the pursuing Skaldi lines into ravines and narrow paths, where they are ambushed by the D'Angelines and Dalriadans, led by Ghislain de Somerville.

It is Phèdre who comes up with a plan to trap the Skaldic forces besieging Troyes-le-Mont between the city walls and an advancing army. The forces of Somerville, Trevalion, and the Albans would not be enough, however; Phèdre wants to persuade Isidore d'Aiglemort to turn against Selig and back to his own country. Ghislain takes Phèdre under a banner of truce to parlay with Isidore. She brings to his attention the fact that he will be a dead man no matter what, but offers him the choosing of the manner of his death, proposing that he regain his honor and die a hero by fighting for Terre d'Ange. What eventually persuades him is the revelation that Melisande was the one to betray him to Selig; Isidore agrees to the plan not to help Ysandre, but to spite Melisande.

Knowing this plan will work most effectively and give the D'Angelines the greatest advantage if those inside the city know of it beforehand, Phèdre decides to make a suicidal attempt to sneak through the Skaldi lines and warn those on the battlements not to fire on Isidore's troops. She slips out of the Alban-D'Angeline camp in the dead of night, and manages to gain the wall and shout a message to be delivered to Ysandre before the Skaldi drag her down. When Selig learns what she has done, he begins to skin her alive as a message to Ysandre; he is interrupted almost immediately by Joscelin, who followed Phèdre from the camp, and who challenges Selig to the holmgang. When Selig refuses, Joscelin goes into the position of terminus, making it look as though he is going to kill both himself and Phèdre, but then kills her captor instead and in the following confusion, hauls her towards the fortress. They are brought inside by Barquiel L'Envers; Ysandre brings a healer to Phèdre immediately, and Phèdre informs her that an army of seven thousand, half Albans and half Isidore's men, is approaching the city.

During the battle, the Camaeline cavalry, with Isidore at its head on his black horse, charges straight through the center of the battle. Isidore's horse goes down, but he gets back up and takes Selig's horse down with a Skaldic axe; during the following fight, Isidore takes seventeen wounds, but his sword finds Selig's heart. Isidore is not yet dead from his wounds by the time Phèdre makes her way to him; he confesses that he fears Kushiel's punishment. Phèdre gives him water and witnesses his death.

[edit] After the Battle

The remaining soldiers of the Allies of Camlach ask permission to pursue the surviving Skaldi back over the borders, which Ysandre grants. She also agrees to accept ransom for the Skaldi taken prisoner. She and Drustan are united before their armies with dignity and respect, saving their joyous celebration for private. Phèdre spends much of the next few weeks as Ysandre's personal aid, translating between Cruithne and Skaldi.

Before Ysandre leaves Troyes-le-Mont, the Duc de Morhban brings in Melisande Shahrizai, who has been sold out by her kinsmen Marmion and Persia Shahrizai. Initially Melisande denies all the charges put against her, until Ysandre surprises her with Phèdre, who steps forward to accuse Melisande. Ysandre sentences Melisande to die at dawn; Melisande requests for Phèdre to visit her in her cell during the night. In that conversation, she reveals that rather than allowing Selig to rule Terre d'Ange, she had every intention of seizing control of Skaldia. Phèdre leaves her and spends the night alone on the battlements of the city, only to discover later that Melisande somehow escaped her cell before daybreak. Ysandre interrogates everyone, even Phèdre, but then apologizes for casting any suspicion on her.

Ysandre clears Phèdre's name entirely, and bestows all of Anafiel Delaunay's estates onto her. Phèdre insists that the house in the City of Elua be sold, as she could not bear to live there after all that had happened. At this point, Phèdre officially becomes the Comtesse de Montrève, inheriting Delaunay's mother's estate in Siovale as well. Ysandre also rescinds her grandfather's edict against Delaunay's poetry.

After the wedding of Ysandre and Drustan, Phèdre travels to Montrève with Joscelin and her three new retainers, the Chevaliers Remy, Ti-Philippe, and Fortun, lately of Phèdre's Boys. She stays in this estate for several months, before Gonzago de Escabares comes to visit her, bearing a gift of his own, and one from Melisande, relayed to him by another: Phèdre's sangoire cloak. From this, Phèdre learns that Melisande escaped to La Serenissima, and has to decide how to respond to her challenge.

[edit] Characters in "Kushiel's Dart"

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Reference

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