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of MACQUINN—The Steadfast

      Brienna MacQuinn, mistress of knowledge, the lord’s adopted daughter

      Davin MacQuinn, lord of MacQuinn (formerly Aldéric Jourdain)

      Lucas MacQuinn, master of music, the lord’s son (formerly Luc Jourdain)

      Neeve MacQuinn, weaver

      Betha MacQuinn, head weaver

      Dillon MacQuinn, groom

      Liam O’Brian, thane

      Thorn MacQuinn, castle chamberlain

      Phillip and Eamon, men-at-arms

      Isla MacQuinn, healer

      HOUSE of MORGANE—The Swift

      Aodhan Morgane, master of knowledge, lord of Morgane (formerly Cartier Évariste)

      Seamus Morgane, thane

      Aileen Morgane, wife of Seamus, castle chamberlain

      Derry Morgane, stonemason

      HOUSE of KAVANAGH—The Bright

      Isolde Kavanagh, queen of Maevana (formerly Yseult Laurent)

      Braden Kavanagh, father to the queen (formerly Hector Laurent)

      HOUSE of LANNON—The Fierce

      Gilroy Lannon, former king of Maevana

      Oona Lannon, wife of Gilroy Lannon

      Declan Lannon, son of Gilroy and Oona

      Keela Lannon, Declan’s daughter

      Ewan Lannon, Declan’s son

      HOUSE of HALLORAN—The Upright

      Treasa Halloran, lady of Halloran

      Pierce Halloran, the lady’s youngest son

      HOUSE of ALLENACH—The Shrewd

      Sean Allenach, lord of Allenach, Brienna’s half brother

      Daley Allenach, the lord’s manservant

      HOUSE of BURKE—The Elder

      Derrick Burke, lord of Burke

      HOUSE of DERMOTT—The Loved

      Grainne Dermott, lady of Dermott

      Rowan Dermott, husband of Grainne Dermott

      OTHERS MENTIONED

      Merei Labelle, mistress of music

      Oriana DuBois, mistress of art

      Tristan Allenach

      Tomas Hayden

      Fergus Lannon

      Patrick Lannon

      Ashling Morgane

      Líle Morgane

      Sive MacQuinn

      THE FOURTEEN HOUSES of MAEVANA

      Allenach the Shrewd

      Kavanagh the Bright

      Burke the Elder

      Lannon the Fierce

      Carran the Courageous

      MacBran the Merciful

      Dermott the Loved

      MacCarey the Just

      Dunn the Wise

      MacFinley the Pensive

      Fitzsimmons the Gentle

      MacQuinn the Steadfast

      Halloran the Upright

      Morgane the Swift

      

       Lord MacQuinn’s Territory, Castle Fionn

       Brienna

      The castle was brimming with laughter and dinner preparations when Cartier and I entered the hall, blue passion cloaks on our backs, the night breeze tangled in our hair. I came to a stop in the heart of the grand room to admire the hanging tapestries, the high arch of the ceiling that melted into smoky shadows, the mullioned windows on the eastern wall. There was a fire roaring in a glazed hearth, and the women of the castle were setting the best pewter and silver on the trestle tables. They did not take note of me, for I was still a stranger to them, and I watched as a group of young girls decorated the table spines with a current of pine boughs and dark red flowers. A boy was rushing behind them to light a mountain range of candles, his eyes clearly taken with one of the auburn-haired girls.

      For a moment, it would almost seem as if this castle and these people had never known the darkness and oppression of the Lannon family’s reign. And yet I wondered what wounds remained in their hearts, in their memories after surviving a tyrannical king for twenty-five years.

      “Brienna.” Cartier came to a gentle stop at my side. He stood a safe distance away from me—a full arm’s length—although I could still feel the memory of his touch, I could still taste his lips on mine. We stood together quietly, and I knew he too was soaking in the clamor and rustic beauty of the hall. That he was still trying to adjust to what our lives were about to become now that we had returned home to the queen’s realm of Maevana.

      I was the adopted daughter of Davin MacQuinn—a fallen lord who had been in hiding for the past twenty-five years—who had finally returned to light his hall and restore his people.

      And Cartier, my former instructor, was the lord of the House of Morgane. The lord of the Swift—Aodhan Morgane.

      I could hardly find the will to call him by such a name. It was one I would have never imagined him possessing throughout all the years I had known him in the southern kingdom of Valenia, when I had been his pupil and he had been my teacher, a master of knowledge.

      I thought of how our lives had intertwined, from the very first moment I had met him when I was accepted into the prestigious Magnalia House, a Valenian school for the five passions of life. I had assumed that he was Valenian—he had taken on a Valenian name, was polished in etiquette and passion, and had lived nearly all of his life in the southern kingdom.

      And yet he had been far more than that.

      “What kept you?”

      I startled, Jourdain taking me by surprise as he stepped into my view, his eyes sweeping me from head to toe, as if he expected me to have a scratch. Which almost

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