| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: Medium-Low Violence level: High (it's war. What do you expect?) Back Cover: "Despite a great working of Wild Magic and High Magick that struck at the heart of the Demon Queen's evil plots, Knight-Mage Kellen and his Elven allies are seen as enemies by the human Mage Council, thanks to the manipulations of High Mage Anigrel, the Demon Queen's pawn. In the midst of war, the Elves and their magical companions must find a way to shatter the Demons' hold on the human Golden City of the Bells. Without High Magick, the forces of Light will be destroyed by the forces of Darkness. Fearful for their safety, the Elven King orders all children and pregnant females - Elves, Human, and Centaur alike - to be taken to the safety of a too-small Elven Fortress. In ancient books on High Magick, Cilarnen, a banished High Mage in training, learns a great secret that can make him incredibly powerful ... at the cost of drastically shortening his life. The allies decide to prepare a cave system near an Elven city as a refuge for those driven from their homes by the war. Kellen is put in command of a force of engineers and warriors, not knowing until it is nearly too late that the caves are full of Shadowed Elves. Vestakia, the half-Human, half-Demon healer with whom Kellen is trying hard not to fall in love, lest he break his year-long vow of chastity, finds that instead of just being able to sense Demon-taint, she has begun to be able to read the mind of her Demon father, Crown Prince Zyperis. The Demon Queen, Savilla, is preparing a great sacrifice that will summon He Who Is back to the world and leave her ultimate ruler forever. Being Crown Prince for eternity does not sit well with the ambitious Zyperis. When the Wild Mage Idalia learns of Savilla's plans through Vestakia and the dragon Ancaladar, she knows there is only one way to prevent the coming of He Who Is. A very different sort of sacrifice must be made.” |
So at the end of the second book, our heroes have discovered how to kill demons, which is apparently something the demons never counted on. Unfortunately, the only way to do it is for two very different groups of mages—who may find it actually physically painful to work together—to work together. This appears to be one of the functions of Knightmages, to make it possible for Wild Mages and High Mages to cooperate. So you could say that Kellen has a very important role to play in the whole thing.
Or, at least he should. That's how it looked like it was going to be set up, which is why I always find the ending just that faintest bit disappointing. Not that Kellen doesn't play a very important role indeed, in a mostly military capacity. And they do eventually manage to get the High Mages on board by the simple expedient of showing them a real live group of demons to fight. Compared to that, Wild Mages and centaurs and elves are only a mild annoyance to their concept of the proper order of things. But it irks me that Kellen (who is the main character) is sort of off to the side fighting a battle while Idalia ends up doing the really important stuff. I mean, it makes sense given the way it's set up and their different abilities and skill sets, but from a storytelling perspective it does seem a little off.
The other thing that seems a bit off to me is that one last Shadowed Elf cave they have to clear out before heading off to the final confrontation. It seems like it would fit better in the second book, which was all about fighting the shadowed elves. Of course, then the second book would have been ridiculously long, and this one would have been much shorter. I still say it would be a more logical division of the story, though.
Nonetheless, these are small problems, and the story division can be easily sidestepped by simply reading the whole thing straight through. I still thoroughly enjoyed it, in spite of these small irritations. Still love the elves in all their maddening OCD behaviors. Still love Kellen with his rock-headed stubbornness and magic-backed fighting skills. That's the most precipitous rise to General of the whole army that I've ever seen. Anigrel's ending is both satisfying and appropriate, but somehow I can't help feeling sorry for him. He was just so very trusting of all the wrong people, and the demon queen started in on him at a very young age. And finally there's the surprise twist at the end for Jermayan and Idalia, which is very characteristic of Mercedes Lackey. She just can't let a tragedy stand.