Blood Song

Blood Song
Anthony Ryan
Raven’s Shadow #1

Blood Song Summary

Lord Vernier of the Alpieran Empire is introduced to the prisoner known as The Hope Killer. He has many names, Vaelin Al Sorna, Darkblade, Younghawk, Sword of the Unified Realm, but in this empire he killed the future emperor who was called the Hope. Lord Vernier is part of an escort taking him to fight a champion in the Meldinian Isles, where Vaelin is supposed to die. As they travel aboard a ship Lord Vernier, a chronicler and historian, asks to record Vaelin’s story.

Vaelin Al Sorna is the son of the Battle Lord of the United Realms. His father worked his way up from a commoner to be honored by King Janus. Vaelin’s mother disliked how often his father had to go and fight wars and killed people. Shortly after his mother died his father brought him to the Sixth Order, a religious convent where they trained warriors. His father left him and Vaelin was absorbed into the order with a class of other 10 year old boys. They are taught they have no outside family and their only family now are their brothers and sisters of The Faith.

The Faith does not have a God, and says that a God is a lie. There are six orders all specializing in something else. Vaelin is part of a small cadre with other boys, notably Norta, a spoiled noble’s son who hates being her; Caenis, a quiet boy who admires the king and royalty; Dentos, a whore’s son; Barkus, a blacksmith’s son; and a couple others. Together they train and become talented in all forms of combat, riding, woodcraft, and survival. Each year the trainees are given a test. The first year is test of the run. The boys are dropped off randomly along a river a good distance from the sixth order house, and have to return before the following dawn or they are kicked out of the order.

Vaelin gets an arrow shot at him, but an internal sense warns him and he dodges, and returns fire, killing a man. He is on guard and sneaks up on a fire he finds, and overhears two men talking about how they are hunting him. They killed and beheaded one of his groupmates instead. A large wolf appears and kills the men, and Vaeling buries the head of his friend then returns to complete the test. He meets with the Aspect of the Order, and is told that for now they must lie about what happened and say it was a bear attack. Vaelin hates lying but does anyway. The second year is the test of the wild. Each boy is left alone in the forest for a week during the winter and has to survive.

Vaelin makes a small shelter, but a terrible snow storm hits. He hears voices on the wind and goes to investigate and finds a man and young woman who he helps carry to his shelter. The next morning he learns the man is Eloan? And the girl also has a name. The girl is mute but Vaelin can read sign language since one of the masters at the sixth order uses it to teach. He learns from Eloan that the girl is a “denier”, someone who practices a different religion than the Faith. Deniers are punished and killed without exception, and Eloan helps them flee to other places. Vaelin spies some soldiers on horses nearby, and offers to help the pair. He takes the girls scarf to get her scent and runs in the opposite direction. The hounds chase him and his kills two before the third submit. One of the soldiers is about to kill him when Vaelin realizes they are off the Order. Another brother from the Fourth order shows up and deescalates the situation. Vaelin tells them he met the pair but did not know they were outlaws. They tell him the girl is a witch who practices “The Dark”, with magic that can control people if she touches them, but she never touched Vaelin. The dogs are Valerian Slave Hounds, and since he killed the third ones pack leader it will now be loyal to him. He names it scratch and completes the test. Scratch hangs out the rest of the book.

Throughout his training thus far Vaelin has seemed to have an incredibly strong intuition for when he is in danger and what the right course is. It is starting to seem magical. Barkus returns and tells them he found another one of their group dead in the test, so it is down to just Vaelin, Norta, Barkus, Dentos, and Caenis. During their horse training one day Vaelin meets a girl who he learns is his father’s bastard daughter with another woman, and they form a connection despite only talking once. There is a summertide fair they are allowed to attend, but Vaelin and Norta are not allowed to go due to brawling or something. Norta sneaks out anyway and Vaelin chases after him, learning on the way that the King’s Minister (Norta’s Father) is going to be hung for corruption. This is why Norta was not allowed to go and Vaelin has to stop him before he does something stupid. He catches Norta in the middle of the city and they are forced to injure and beat some members of the Realm Guard in their escape, earning notoriety.

Vaelin got help from a street urchin named Frentis when looking for Norta in the city. He gave the boy a few throwing knives for help (The order uses them as currency of a sort), and told the kid to come by the Order house some nights for training with them. Frentis does not show up for a long time, but eventually comes and says he threw a knife into the eye of the cities crime boss, now One-eyed Harold. Frentis joins the order to stay safe, and begins to excel at everything.

Each brother of the order is sent to spend a week with another order of their choosing. Most pick the fourth order since they are also warriors, but Vaelin picks the fifth since he feels called there.

The fifth order specializes in healing, and he meets Sister Sharon, a promising young healer. At first she is standoffish, but he saves her from a criminal, Gallus the climber, and they begin to become friends. On his last night in the order, another young female healer comes to his room and starts making advances on him, but a wolf howls outside and he senses something is wrong. She slashes at him with a dagger but he is able to deflect it so it only skims his shoulder. He restrains her and asks who she is. She says “Once there were seven”, then takes a poison pellet in her mouth and dies. He is running to save the aspect who he suspects is in danger, but the blade was poisoned so he is starting to succumb. He kills three men, the last one at the Aspects door, but saves Aspect Aleara’s life. Vaelin has a long battle with the poison but Sister Sharon saves him. At one point he thinks he is dreaming but tells her she is beautiful and they should run away together. In thanks, Aspect Aleara tells him some answers. His mother was a very promising healer in the order but left to marry his father. Also his mother is the one who asked he get sent to the sixth order. His whole life Vaelin has hated his father for this but now is confused and conflicted.

Back at the order house we learn all of the Aspects of the orders were attacked, with only the Aspect of the fourth dying. Vaelin’s father also resigned as Battle Lord and the king granted him a boon, he requested his son back. But since the King can not command the Orders of the Faith, Vaelin is allowed to refuse which he does. Vaelin and his team forge themselves their own starsteel swords, Barkus is a good smith.

Frentis gets kidnapped during his test of the wild and they have to go save him. Harold one eye, the guy Frentis hit with a throwing knife way back, took him. They find him in a secret basement carving symbols into Frentis’ skin. He uses magic to freeze Veilan and conjure a wall of fire in front of the others. He has been drinking blood and other dark stuff to gain power. He suddenly seems to speak like someone else to Veilan, like an entirely different being controlled him. Then Caenis jumps through the fake fire wall and kills him and they save Frentis.

The final test before they will be full Brothers of the Order is the test of the sword, where they will face three convicted criminals in an arena and have to kill them. Master Solace has been training them nonstop in the sword. Vaelin is the best. They begin the test and Vaelin goes last. He comes into the arena where spectators watch, and kill two of his opponents. The last one is a skilled swordsmen and Vaelin senses something is not right. He asks the man if he is actually a murderer (What he was told), and the man only attacks. Vaelin is forced to stab him and the man dies talking about his wife. Vaelin confronts Master Solace since he sure that man was no criminal, and they get angry and Vaelin’s cadre are forced to restrain him and take him away. They all passed the test and are full brothers. They go drinking, but Vaelin leaves and meets Eloan, the man from the test of the wild. He confirms the the man Vaelin killed was no murderer, but forced to fight or his wife would be carted off as a denier.

Vaelin goes to the castle and requests an audience with the king. He is famous enough by now as the Battle Lords son, the savior of an Aspect, and when he rescued Norta, that he is granted audience. The king agrees to punish the corrupt lords who made this happen, but in return Vaelin is going to go to the Cumbraelin forest to fight rebels and a certain young lord who is causing trouble will die. As Vaelin is leaving Princess Lerna meets him and he learns when he was a boy they were supposed to marry, that is why his mother wanted him sent to the Order. Lerna is smart and seems power hungry and Vaelin does not like her.

Fast forward to him and his Brothers helping a young Lord Al Hestian lead a group of soldiers against some Cumbraelan rebels led by the denier Black Arrow. King Jannus had told Veilan that the young lord was an oaf and it would be better for the kingdom if he died, but in reality he is kind and charming and a good leader of men. Eventually they attack the main bandit camp, and Vaelin is about to shoot Al Hestian with a bow, but the wolf appears and he does not, instead saving his life and helping with the attack. They win the battle, but the lord gets shot with an arrow right at the end. Vaelin goes feral and by himself chases down the archer, who he assumes is the leader Black Arrow.

He kills “Black Arrow” in a clearing and then has a vision. A lady with solid red eyes and no pupils appears to him in a vision, and tells him she is of a mysterious magical order and she can kind of send visions through time. She names Veilan the Raven’s Shadow since ravens symbolize change and Veilan brings change. She also tells him the wolf and his intuition are called the Blood Song, and are a form of magic. Veilan comes out of his trance, and Barkus is there. He recovered some documents from “Black Arrow” written by the fief lord of Cumbrael allowing the holder free passage. The young Lord Al Hestian dies (he is slowly dying and Veilan slits his throat to ease his suffering), asking Veilan to give his love to Princess Lerna. He came on this mission to win the king's favor to ask for her hand in marriage.

Veilan is pretty angry about this and returns to court to confront the king. He meets princess Lerna and the younger brother of Lord Al Hestian. He realizes him and Lerna are at fault for his death, and he dislikes her even more. The younger brother wants to go to war to avenge his brother but Veilan warns him not to. The King orders the Fief Lord of Cumbrael to come to court, but before he can his younger son, known in the fief as the “Trueblade” kills his father and starts a coup on King Jannus. Veilan is forced to war with his brothers, the younger Al Hestian marching with them. Before they left Veilan was named a Sword of the Realm and given his own regiment to command. Frentis also graduates and becomes a full brother I think around here.

King Jannus names the father Lord Al Hestian battle lord. The man hates Veilan for letting his son die. Veilan and his cadre lead his regiment into a secret back path to attack the keep where the Trueblade rests. They learn according to the Cumbrean faith, Vaelin is the “Dark Blade”, the anti true blade. They storm the keep and Veilan corners the trueblade, but he has Sister Sharon captive. Veilan puts down his sword and talks to the man. Suddenly the same voice that spoke from Harold One Eye speaks through the lord and he seems confused when it ends. Veilan is convincing him to surrender when Barkus shows up and throws his new axe into his chest. Veilan is pissed, but realizes Barkus did it to save him. He talks to Sharon and they become closer, although she does not like that he kills people. They stay at the captured keep for a while.

Dentos and Norta rode out to tell the king news and report to the battle lord. When they did, the battle lord still planned to execute all the prisoners despite the King ending the war. Norta took objection, and then the Battle lord insulted him and his dead father a number of times until Norta attacked him. He cut off his hand and would have killed him but Dentos stopped him and Norta fled. When Veilan hears he goes to hunt down and kill Norta. He goes north into the lands of the Lorna? Strong tribal mountain warrior people. He meets one and is told he is allowed to pass in peace since their high priestess willed it. He tracks Norta to an ancient city but is knocked unconscious by a large cat. He wakes up after a number of people help heal him. The girl he helped save during his test of the wild is there, and her and Norta are in love. Apparently everyone here has some kind of dark/magic. Including Veilan with his blood song. He reconciles with Norta and takes his necklace and sword to report him dead. He also finds a member of the community burning books, who says he is a member of the seventh order. They used to exist openly and practice the dark, but infighting and war led them to go into hiding.

Veilan returns and reports Norta is dead. We learn here in an interlude with Lord Vernier in modern time that Veilan is not telling the chronicler everything we hear. He told the man he killed Norta. The battle lord does not believe Veilan and hates him even more now.

Down the line a bit King Jannus decides the realm needs more money, and plans a war with the Alpiran Empire to the south. The battle lord takes the main army and Veilan and his crew, the Wolf Runners, go ahead to secure a landing. They land and are attacked by a local garrison, where the future emperor known as the hope just happened to be residing. Veilan kills the hope in the battle, earning the moniker of Hope Killer and making everyone hate him. The battle lord draws up plans to split the army and hold multiple cities that is basically sending Veilan to draw the enemies ire and forces. Veilan and team take the city and the governor surrenders for his daughter.

Veilan is attacked by someone else's blood song, and incapacitated for 5 days. When he wakes up he seeks out the man, a stone mason, who can also control the song. He begins to teach Veilan how it works. Caenis has been managing the city in the meantime. The governors daughter catches the Red Hand (Bubonic plague esque), and the port town goes into quarantine. Sister Sharon has been working on a cure, so Veilan sends the fastest ship in town with Barkus and Frentis to retrieve her. Sister Gilma (another healer), dies caring for the girl. Veilan has befriended the stone mason singer, and in revenge someone burns down the stone mason shop and he is hurt. Men come from the other part of the army and they learn a city has fallen and an army is on the way here. Veilan, Dentos, Frentis, and some knights track the army at night and burn down their siege weapons. Veilan then announces himself as the hope killer and lures them away, but Dentos stays with him. They almost make it back to the city but their pursuers are closing in. Veilan then sees the blood song wolf and it summons a sandstorm. Veilan runs, and when the storm clears he sees Dentos hit by an arrow and dead. He makes it to the city. Veilan and Sharon do romance and relationship against the rules. Frentis was in a city that got recaptured and they know now if he is dead or captured.

Ships from the Unified Realm show up and bring word from the king. He has reached a treaty and the men are free to leave. But the only condition is that Veilan turns himself over to the emperor. He lies to the others to get them to leave, and drugs Sharon with sleeping stuff. Before he leaves one of the Cumbraelan archers in the army tells Veilan that he was black arrow and led the troops against Veilan back in the day.

Cut back to modern time. Veilan is being sent to the Maltish Isles to fight their champion. The Hope’s widow thought of the plan to avenge her husband, plus Veilan’s father burned the city where he will fight to the ground when he was battle lord. Veilan knocks the “Shield” out right away and makes a democratic case about anti violence and stuff, and they say the challenge is over and let him go. We end with him getting on a boat talking to Lord Verniers, and we know that he lied about much of his story to the chronicler.

Flashback to right after Veilan surrendered but before he gets taken by the Alpirans. Barkus shows up after swimming to shore from the ship that he was supposed to be on and Veilan confronts him. He figured out that Barkus planted those notes found on the supposed “Black Arrow”, and has caused a lot of strife. He thinks whatever force has controlled the men who attacks him also has Barkus, and makes the force admit it. He learned a while ago their is a prophecy about him battling “The One Who Waits”. Anyone who was close to death this force is able to take over and control. Scratch saves Veilan’s life and they kill Barkus, but then Scratch dies. Sad. THE END.