The Clan Aradoc and Clan Fein, two clans of the fens, have tenuous peace brought about by the taking of Agnir of Clan Fein into Clan Aradoc as a ward/hostage. For almost as long as she can remember she has been both a part of and apart from the Clan, learning their ways and growing up amongst their children, but never truly accepted as one of them. Except for Hadhnri, Chieftan’s daughter, who thinks of Agnir as not just of the clan, but as someone worthy of love. When their attempt to escape leads them to a hidden spring, a magic awakens in them that could bind the clans under one banner at last―or destroy any hope of peace. With just a thought, they can work their intentions into their leather work, bringing misfortune to their enemies and safety to their loved ones… just like the Fate’s Bane that haunts the legends of the clans.
But as the truce fails, and outsiders from beyond the fens seek a way to claim those fens as they own, war looms ever closer. Can their Makings save the clans, especially when the legends that gifted them that magic are known to always demand a price be paid?
C.L. Clark in the Acknowledgements at the back of the book calls this a story about tragic swamp lesbians, and boy did she nail her own novella. If you’re expecting a 100% happy ending, don’t read this book. If you’re expecting a definitive ending you’re out of luck also; there are at least four different potential endings for this story, in varying degrees of unhappiness. Largely because the story is written, you realize, like this is an oral tale told around the campfire at a Clanmoot. And seeing as I am firmly convinced this story is set in Ancient Ireland, the ballad/legend like take and the potentially unhappy ending(s) are to be expected; there is a reason that W.B. Yeats said “Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.”
Agnir and Hadhnri are two enjoyable main characters, though the thrust of the book is focused on Agnir. It comes across the page how torn she is between the Clans, and how afraid she is of the power behind her Making. Hadhnri on the other hand, seeing as it’s her Clan that is the most prosperous (and the one that took hostages) has a never-ending belief in her own worth, power, wonderfulness, and knowledge of her family’s love of her. She takes their relationship and their Making as her due. (A side note on their romance; props to Clark to make the impediment to their love that their are from rival Clans, not that they’re lesbians. I support the normalization of same-sex couples, especially when it’s keeping it on par with the Shakespearean influence.) Everyone else in the story seems to be (for the most part) people who exist to flesh out the cast list, and to be roadblocks to Agnir and Hadhnri’s happiness. I was seriously a little incredulous that there was not one person who turned out to be fully on their side. Certainly not their mothers, who I can only assume are dead as they are not mentioned once, even in passing.
My one complaint is that this should probably have been a book, not a novella; the story could have done with a bit more fleshing out. I feel like I was just started to get a feel on the story and the characters when it all came to an end. Aided by time passes quickly; months go by the span of a sentence. I don’t regret reading it, and I would recommend it, but I just wish there was more.
