The White Order (The Saga of Recluce #8)(159)
“I'll worry about that later.” Cerryl straightened and eased out into the foyer, now almost empty. He made his way toward the second rear hall, looking around, but he didn't see who he sought.
Cerryl's new quarters were as far as one could get from the main hall, in the building even behind the one in which Jeslek had his apartment. But the overmage had been correct-there was a bronze plate by the door, and the old tongue script spelled out “Cerryl.”
Still, Cerryl allowed himself a smile as he glanced around the room, the most spacious he had ever had, with real shuttered windows-two of them-and a wide desk and a chair with cushions .. . and a full-sized bed with cotton sheets and a red woolen blanket, and even a rug by the bed. And his own washstand-and an empty bookcase against the wall.
His eyes went from item to item. Hard as it was to believe, he was a full mage-admittedly over Jeslek's machinations and reservations, but a full mage-all he-or his father, had ever hoped for, and far more than he could have reasonably expected.
Yet... nothing was certain. War loomed with Gallos-and perhaps with Spidlar and even Recluce. Jeslek was even more angry at Sterol, and Sterol was using Cerryl against Jeslek, and Anya ... well, Anya was playing an even deeper game, and one Cerryl didn't understand the reasons for, only that she did play such a game. Then, Myral, who had helped him in so many ways, was not in the best of health.
Still... he was more secure, and more able, than ever before in his life. He had a place and a chance at being what he could be, and a chance at happiness ...
Thrap!
He turned.
“Very nice quarters.” Leyladin stood in the open doorway, a broad smile on her lips.
“I... just got them.”
“I know.” The bright green tunic and trousers shimmered, and she seemed especially alive.
Cerryl studied the blonde young woman with red highlights in her hair, taking in the dancing green eyes. He couldn't help smiling.
“I wanted to see your new quarters.” She smiled back.
Perhaps more than a mere chance at happiness. He crossed the room and took her hands.
After a moment, still smiling warmly, her green eyes melding into his gray eyes, she tightened her fingers around his hands.
L. E. Modesitt, Jr., lives in Cedar City, Utah.
TOR BOOKS BY L. E. MODESITT, JR.
THE SAGA OF RECLUCE
1 The Magic of Recluce
2 The Towers of the Sunset
3 The Magic Engineer
4 The Order War
5 The Death of Chaos
6 Fall of Angels
7 The Chaos Balance
8 The White Order
9 Colors of Chaos
10 Magi'i of Cyandor
11 Scion of Cyandor
THE SPELLSONG CYCLE
The Soprano Sorceress
The Spellsong War
Darksong Rising
THE ECOLITAN MATTER
The Ecologic Envoy
The Ecolitan Operation
The Ecologic Secession
The Ecolitan Enigma
THE FOREVER HERO
Dawn for a Distant Earth
The Silent Warrior
In Endless Twilight
Of Tangible Ghosts
The Ghost of the Revelator
The Timegod
Timediver's Dawn
The Hammer of Darkness
The Parafaith War
Adiamante
The Green Progression (with Bruce Scott Levinson)
Complete inner flap:
“Fascinating! A big, exciting novel of the battle between good and evil, and the path between.”
-Gordon R. Dickson on The Magic of Recluce
“Modesitt's logical structure of the interrelationship of order and chaos, magic and technology, is one of the most thorough in modern fantasy. The personal growth of his characters, and the depiction of their world, is well-written and credible-and involves the reader.”
-Voice of Youth Advocates
THE WHITE ORDER
L.E. Modesitt's bestselling fantasy novels set in the world of Recluce are among the most popular in contemporary fantasy. Rich in detail, Modesitt's Recluce books are a feast of wondrous marvels. Booklist notes, “Modesitt's elaborate and intelligent working out of a system of magic and a system of technology parallel to it is becoming more the lifeblood of the Recluce books with every new volume...his saga continues to gain in popularity.”
The White Order is the story of Cerryl, a boy orphaned when the powerful white mages killed his father to protect their control of the world's magic. Cerryl, raised by his aunt and uncle, is a curious boy, attracted to mirrors and books, though he is unable to read. When he is old enough, Cerryl is apprenticed to the local miller. The miller's daughter teaches Cerryl to read his father's books, and it seems that the talent for magic has been passed from father to son. When Cerryl witnesses a white mage destroy a renegade magician, the miller realizes the boy will not be safe there, so Cerryl must be sent to the city of Fairhaven to find his destiny.
Thus Modesitt takes one of the most enduring and mythic themes in fantasy and makes it his own. The White Order is a powerful new addition to the Recluce saga, guaranteed to add many new readers to Modesitt's devoted following.
“In Modesitt's universe, where good and evil, chaos and order, are in perpetual conflict, a young wizard finds that his destiny is to strike a balance, but at considerable personal cost. Modesitt creates a deeper and more intricate world with each volume.”