A Time of Omens. Katharine Kerr

      

       Voyager

      KATHARINE KERR

      A Time of Omens

       A Novel of the Westlands

Copyright

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

       HarperVoyager

      An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

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      London SE1 9GF

       www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1992

      Previously published in paperback by Grafton 1993 and by HarperCollins Science Fiction & Fantasy 1994

      Copyright © Katharine Kerr 1992

      Cover design and illustration by Micaela Alcaino © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019

      A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library

      Katharine Kerr asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      All rights reserved under International and Pan–American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on–screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse–engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

      Source ISBN: 9780586211960

      Ebook Edition © AUGUST 2014 ISBN: 9780007375363

      Version: 2019–10–08

Dedication

      For Nance Jordan Ashton

      My Grandmother

       Contents

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Pronunciation Notes

Prologue: Wmmglaedd 1096

Past: Pyrdon and Deverry 843

One

       Two

       Present

       One: The Knave of Flowers Bardek, 1098

       Two: The Prince of Swords The Westlands, Autumn 1112

       Future

       Three: The Queen of Golds Arcodd, Summer 1116

       Keep Reading

       Appendices

       Author's Note

       Glossary

       Acknowledgements

       About the Author

       Other Books By

       About the Publisher

       A Note on the Pronunciation of Deverry Words

      The language spoken in Deverry is a member of the P-Celtic family. Although closely related to Welsh, Cornish, and Breton, it is by no means identical to any of these actual languages and should never be taken as such.

      Vowels are divided by Deverry scribes into two classes: noble and common. Nobles have two pronunciations; commons, one.

      A as in father when long; a shorter version of the same sound, as in far, when short.

      O as in bone when long; as in pot when short.

      W as the oo in spook when long; as in roof when short.

      Y as the i in machine when long; as the e in butter when short.

      E as in pen.

      I as in pin.

      U as in pun.

      Vowels are generally long in stressed syllables; short in unstressed. Y is the primary exception to this rule. When it appears as the last letter of a word, it is always long whether that syllable is stressed or not.

      Diphthongs generally have one consistent pronunciation.

      AE as the a in mane.

      AI as in aisle.

      AU as the ow in how.

      EO as a combination of eh and oh.

      EW as in Welsh, a combination of eh and oo.

      IE as in pier.

      OE as the oy in boy.

      UI as the North Welsh wy, a combination of oo and ee.

      Note