One of the only ones who is fluent in Briton, he acts as a translator between Red and the Sevenwater family, though he obviously has no liking for the man. He was once a carefree, handsome, and happy man who loved his wife dearly, but then she died and he threw himself into his role as the Lord of Sevenwaters, becoming proud and stern.

Yet, there are worse threats than the Britains, for when Lord Colum unexpectedly marries again, his new wife; the enchantress Lady Oonagh, wastes no time in beginning her campaign of malice and magic against his children, finishing by transforming Sorcha’s six brothers into swans.Knowing nothing of any other form of parental guidance, I accepted this as the way things were done. Sorcha being 12 is very puzzling, (and in fact as mentioned above I keep forgetting that she is so young) but then I think it’s probably something that will add weight to her years of hardship – not phrasing that very well but it wouldn’t surprise me if she isn’t a good deal older by the time she completes her ordeal. I’ve read quite a few fairytale retellings and I think so far this has got to be one of the most hard hitting in that respect.

Together they embark on a perilous journey, compelled by powerful forces—and even more powerful feelings. Liadan is an exceptionally talented healer who is also supernaturally gifted; receiving sporadic visions of the present and future, able to hear and see beings of the Otherworld, and she has also inherited her mother's ability to communicate silently, mind-to-mind, with her twin brother Sean.A man, or a troop of men, who did not know the way would become hopelessly lost there, prey to the sudden mists, the branching, deceptive paths, and to other, older things, things a Viking or a Briton could not hope to understand. In a short space of time, Marillier has given us enough information to care about each one of Sorcha’s brothers and be upset at their fate.

But magic knows no boundaries, and Sorcha will have to choose between the life she has always known and a love that comes only once. I love Sorcha’s storytelling and her gentle ways – it helps to remind me that she’s still a child really which I think I forgot sometimes because she’s so mature in some respects. Though he catches Sorcha "committing adultery", (she was really just hugging her brother), he believes in her innocence, saying that no one who looked at Red the way she did could turn unfaithful. Ebooks fulfilled through Glose cannot be printed, downloaded as PDF, or read in other digital readers (like Kindle or Nook). From then on I knew what starwort was, and I began to teach myself about other plants that could hurt or heal.But now there is also an invader inside the keep: the Lady Oonagh, a sorceress as fair as day, but with a heart as black as night.

Before he is turned into a swan, he is engaged to Eilis, though her father marries her away after he disappears. Father was away for much of the time, building alliances with neighbors, checking his outposts and guard towers, recruiting men. Set mainly in ancient Ireland, the series covers four generations in the family of Sevenwaters, which enjoys a special relationship with the people of the Otherworld.Yet at the same time, Marillier makes no bones about the fact that this is a world where men very much hold authority. If it had been Liam, now, who was the eldest, or Diarmid, who was the next one, I might have expected it. Though under Red's protection, Sorcha encounters a new danger in the form of Lord Richard, Red's uncle and the one behind the attacks on Sevenwaters. She is fearful that he will try to claim his rights as a husband, but he assures her that, if she wants, the marriage will be only in name and will protect her.