Cambridge, a bustling medieval town in England, is the
scene for a meeting between a local lady and a foreign
woman with a child. The new arrival is jeered by a crowd
and the local, Lassair, has to help calm matters in BLOOD
OF THE SOUTH. This stranger is wealthy, from her clothing,
but has no companions on the quay. Lassair helps her find
a
room and returns to her master, Gurdyman the alchemist.
Called a wizard by some, this man hands her a piece of
lapis lazuli to enhance psychic ability and tells her to
look into a round dark seeing stone which Lassair
inherited
from her Norse father. She sees an ominous vision. Lady
Rossaria, the newcomer, needs an escort to locate her
kinsfolk, and Lassair, as a healer, joins the little
party.
Riding through the sodden fenland, the group comes upon
the
body of a woman, drowned and alone. Was this accidental?
Who is the woman, and why has nobody missed her? Lassair's
awakened second sight seems to tell her that the woman was
killed, and her curiosity and sense of decency prompts her
to investigate among her fenland relatives.
I enjoyed the realistic depiction of the fenland and its
denizens. As soon as they see a healer calling, the
isolated people suddenly remember a cough or ache and ask
her to advise or give them herbal medicine. Houses and
monasteries are made of wattle and daub, with little
wealth
anywhere. The people live on fish, wildfowl and sheep.
Interspersed we get the tale of a Norseman called Rollo
who
journeys around the Mediterranean, solitary and spying.
While the pace is steady rather than fast, this reflects
the times when people travelled slowly, rather like the
Brother Cadfael books. Anyone who reads medieval murder
mysteries will have fun puzzling out the tangled truths
and
family trees along with Lassair. As we do not initially
know Rollo's purpose his odyssey is less gripping, for all
the talk of battle and Turks, but does illustrate the
travel that the Norse engaged in and different
civilisations on the trade routes. Alys Clare has written
several other books in this Norman Aelf Fen series
and
anyone finding themselves absorbed by the story in BLOOD
OF
THE SOUTH will be bound to track down some of the other
intrigues.
Apprentice healer Lassair encounters a mysterious veiled
noblewoman who brings unexpected peril
When Lassair encounters a veiled noblewoman on the quay at
Cambridge one morning, set on by an angry mob, she assumes
involvement with her will be brief. She has no idea that
the woman, alone but for her infant child, brings both
mystery and peril. Then a devastating flood hits the fens,
and among the wreckage and debris washed up at Aelf Fen is
a body; Lassair, in the company of a sheriff's officer,
wonders if she is dealing with murder . . .
Meanwhile, in the south, Lassair’s partner Rollo is moving
with relief towards the conclusion of his mission for King
William in the Holy Land. But then disaster strikes, and,
with the mighty forces of an emperor on his heels,
abruptly he turns from hunter to hunted. In order to
escape alive, he risks help from a stranger, and embarks
on a voyage that turns out to be far more dangerous than
he could ever have imagined.
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