On the death of her father, penniless Harry Crewe is unceremoniously packed off from the Homeland to Damar, where her brother is serving as an officer.
Falling in love with the untamed desert landscape on sight, Harry cannot understand her brother’s worried solicitude, but eventually attributes it to the fact that the Homelanders are but strangers in Damar and rumours of an impending war are rife. When Damar’s enigmatic king, Corlath, who has no reason to love the invaders, visits the
residency to offer an alliance against the threat from the north, speculation abounds.
That Corlath’s offer is rejected is of less moment than his chance encounter with Harry. Ignored by the
king but for one long, searching glance, Harry is still trying to determine if all the tall stories told of Damarian magic are true, when she suddenly finds herself a prisoner in the king’s camp, stolen from her bed while she, and all the other occupants of the residency, slept soundly.
Faced with a strange country, an unfamiliar culture, and a language she cannot understand, Harry has to rely on instinct, anger, and her undisputable courage to survive the first days. Adapting with an almost unseemly haste to her
new life and surroundings, she soon finds that some of the tales of magic are true, even if Corlath and his people do not regard their abilities as magical, but as gifts from the unseen. And when it turns out that she too possesses some of those strange ‘gifts’, called
kelar by the Damarians, she begins to guess some of the reasons for her abduction.
The land of Damar is in danger. A large, and largely inhuman, army masses in the north and, after fighting the invading Homelanders for almost fifty years, there are not enough Damarians left to oppose the threat. King Corlath, bearing the strongest kelar in generations, has unified all the independent tribes under his banner, but he fears that their efforts will be insufficient. Recognising the kelar strength in Harry during their meeting at the residency, he has no choice but to abduct her and try to convince her to
help in Damar’s fight. To that end he shows her the greatest honour, gives her a magnificent horse, a famous sword and much-needed training.
But kelar, the gift that unites them, also divides their efforts, as it drives each one down a different path. So it chances that Harry, who has been made a King’s Rider, leaves her new allegiance to go and gain help from the Homelanders. And it is here, back in the residency, that everything that has puzzled her about her old life and her new one, suddenly becomes clear.
If her new knowledge will help her gain the support she needs to defy the northern army, and make her peace with the king once she has done so – that is very different matter.
This book has been on my shelf for years,
read and re-read as the mood took me. Robin McKinley won several awards for it and it shows. The story makes an exciting read for a young adult – and a comforting read for one long grown up. Bridges are always useful.
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