Lady Carliss and the Waters of Moorue

Lady Carliss and the Waters of Moorue is the fourth book in The Knights of Arrethtrae series.

Description[]

Knights Of Arrethtrae #4: Lady Carliss And The Waters Of Moorue

Lady Carliss faces the challenge of her life. Can she save the kingdom before it's too late? Determined, smart and a master of both the sword and the bow, Lady Carliss has proven herself as a veteran Knight of the Prince. Returning from a mission of aid, Carliss is plunged into adventure once again as she searches for the marauders responsible for kidnapping a friends' family. Along the way she is reunited with Sir Dalton and discovers that the struggle in her heart is far from over. When Dalton falls to the vicious attack of a mysterious, poisonous creature, Carliss finds herself in a race against time. As Dalton clings perilously to life she must find the antidote in the distant and strange city of Moorue. While there Carliss uncovers the master plot of a powerful Shadow Warrior that will soon overtake the entire Kingdom. Her faith in the Prince and her courage as a knight are tested as she faces evil Shadow Warriors and a swamp full of dreadful creatures. The lives of many, including Dalton's, depend on Carliss. But she cannot save them all, for time is running out.

Chapters[]

Prologue: Pushing Back the Darkness
Chapter 1: Lady Carliss
Chapter 2: A Reluctant Hunt
Chapter 3: Carliss and the Bow
Chapter 4: A Friend and a Foe
Chapter 5: The Oaf
Chapter 6: The Alchemist
Chapter 7: Day One
Chapter 8: Northern Journey
Chapter 9: The Mooruvians
Chapter 10: Destiny
Chapter 11: The Waters of Moorue
Chapter 12: The Legend of Morning Star
Chapter 13: Martyrs to Be
Chapter 14: The Assassin
Chapter 15: The Secret of Lord Malco and Moorue
Chapter 16: Wounded Warrior
Chapter 17: A Sacrifice
Chapter 18: Day Eight...Morning Star
Chapter 19: Who Shall Live?
Chapter 20: The Pit of Despon Swamp
Chapter 21: Escape from the Pit
Chapter 22: Valiant Knight
Chapter 23: Day Nine...a Hopeless Mission
Chapter 24: The Freedom of Peace
Epilogue: Who Will Go?

Summary[]

Cedric of Chessington continues his accounts of the Knights of the Prince with the ongoing story of Sir Dalton and, more notably, Lady Carliss.

Beginning with the visit of Sir Orland to her family farm, Carliss embarked on a journey of devotion to the Prince alongside her brother Koen. This eventually led to her fighting alongside Sir Dalton to defeat the evil Shadow Warrior Drox and free the many fellow knights kept in his vile prison. However, Carliss found herself developing feelings for Dalton despite having previously assumed that there would be no romance in her life. With Dalton apparently promised to Lady Brynn, Carliss sought to distance herself from him by traveling to Varlaken with several of the freed prisoners.

As she is leaving Varlaken to return to Salisburg, she is caught up by one of her new acquaintances, a slightly older woman named Salina. Having decided to leave Varlaken herself, Salina invites Carliss to take a detour from her journey to Salisburg and visit with her family, including her brother and fellow knight Alston. Upon arriving at the farm, however, they find it abandoned and Salina's family apparently carried off by marauders. After sneaking up on the invaders in a mission in which Salina seemingly recklessly endangers both of them out of fear for her family, Carliss learns that Salina's family is apparently being taken to Moorue.

Carliss insists upon returning to Salisburg for help, agreeing to return to Salina's family farm for supplies only on the condition that their stay is brief. Unexpectedly, Carliss runs into Dalton, who has been searching for her after she disappeared on the road to Salisburg. The reunion is cut short, however, when they are attacked by monstrous lizard-like creatures. One of the beasts stings Dalton, but Carliss manages to shoot the other and recover its corpse.

With Dalton obviously suffering the effects of some sort of venom, Carliss reluctantly agrees to take him to the nearby village of Pembrook rather than back to Salisburg. Pembrook soon proves less than hospitable, as seen when Carliss sees a group of children tormenting a large, apparently simpleminded fellow named Ganoaf. Her compassion for the man results in him leading them to an elderly couple, Eunice and Petolemew, who welcome the group into their home. Petolemew, though plagued with short-term memory loss, proves to have a volume that identifies Dalton's bestial attacker as one of the Esca Lizards of Moorue.

Since the only known cure for the venom being the legendary swamp lily of Moorue, Carliss and Salina set out for that region leaving Dalton with their hosts. Eunice provides the pair with some explosive powder devised by her husband, and they are joined-to Salina's disgust-by Ganoaf, who is determined to remain by Carliss' side. During the northward journey, Carliss experiences a strange, compelling dream about herself and Dalton, from which she is awakened aggressively by a concerned Ganoaf. On the way to Moorue, and after eventually reaching the city, the group learn of a strange new phenomenon: the Waters of Moorue.

Not long afterwards, Carliss is reunited, through the efforts of a boy named Akiyama, with Si Kon, another of the knights freed from Drox's prison. He welcomes the group into his home and shares how he and his family-his wife Takara and their daughters Mariko and Kei-have shared the message of the Prince and established a haven that also includes Akiyama's family. Si Kon also shares with Carliss his concerns regarding the Waters of Moorue, a substance that allows its users to experience blissful visions. Unfortunately, the use of the waters is ultimately detrimental and self-destructive, and they are being exported by Malco, whom Si Kon believes to be one of Lucius' Shadow Warriors. These concerns led him to send a message to the nearest haven, which he initially believed Carliss and Salina were responding to; however, though his messenger has apparently been lost, Carliss feels that she is meant to be there.

Determined to find the swamp lily for Dalton, and if possible to locate Salina's family, Carliss resolves to "walk the bridge" leading into the Despon Swamp, an act that has supposedly led to the deaths of many users of the Waters of Moorue. As preparations are being made, Si Kon's younger daughter Kei admits to Carliss to having sampled the waters herself and accepts knight's counsel to admit this to her parents. Si Kon also takes Carliss to meet with some of the other Followers in Moorue, including a man named Soro who knows more about the legend of the swamp lily that includes tales of a fabulous sword called the Morning Star. Another meeting of the Followers is planned later, with Carliss heading into the swamp with Si Kon and Ganoaf while Salina heads off on her own business.

Failing to get far enough into the swamp to find anything, Carliss returns only for Akiyama to arrive with word that Si Kon's house has been set ablaze and his family and the other Followers seized. Guards sent by Lord Malco's lieutenant, Baron Karoshi, arrive to take the trio and a returning Salina into custody as well. However, upon being brought before Karoshi, Carliss sees Salina's brother Alston by his side, and thus learns that Salina, her brother, and Karoshi are all Vincero Knights. Salina notes that the lizards at the farm were an attempt on Carliss' life but gloats that Carliss' reprieve has only served to ensure Dalton's demise and that of the Followers of the Prince in Moorue as well.

After briefly being imprisoned with Si Kon, Carliss and Ganoaf are brought back to Karoshi and led before Malco. It is at this point that Ganoaf is revealed to be a Silent Warrior as he attacks Malco, and Carliss succeeds in killing Karoshi before more Shadow Warriors enter and subdue the heroic pair. While Ganoaf is taken away to be tortured, Malco shows Carliss around his opulent castle and shows her how the esca lizard venom is extracted to create the Waters of Moorue. Carliss learns that her earlier dream was caused by Salina tainting her drinking water with Malco's concoctions, and she denounces his wickedness and refuses his overtures.

Having failed in his missions to sway her, Malco shows his true colors and forces several esca crystals into Carliss' mouth, intending to leave her trapped by their effects forever. Carliss resists using the power of the Prince and is taken to a cell where she is soon joined by Ganoaf, both of them scheduled for execution by esca lizard. Ganoaf, badly injured but recovering due to the Life Spice within his body, reveals that his mission is not Malco's death but Carliss' protection. He then reveals the grim reality that Malco has been taking prisoners, like the Followers, and feeding them to the now bloated esca lizard population in order to keep up his production of the Waters of Moorue.

The pair are led to their execution, but Ganoaf breaks free of his restraints and the cage being used to lower them into the midst of the lizards. His efforts allow Carliss to flee, and he tasks his trained hawk Spirit with protecting her as she heads out into the swamp. Exhausted and bereft, she is unexpectedly aided by a stranger who leads her to the swamp lilies. He bids her to eat one of the swamp lilies, and Carliss finds herself falling into a deep sleep.

Upon awaking the next morning, Carliss discovers the Morning Star waiting for her among the lilies. Having picked a handful of the plants, she draws forth the gleaming blade only for the rest of the lilies to die around her. Regardless, she follows Spirit through the swamp only to encounter the esca lizard nest and the monstrous mother lizard. Escaping, she makes her way out of the swamp and finds Akiyama, whom she saves from a pair of Malco's guards.

With the time to save Dalton running short, Carliss faces a dilemma: leave and hope to save him and recruit help for the prisoners in Moorue, or try to save the prisoners and give up any hope of saving Dalton. She soon realizes that she must choose the latter, and after collecting Petolemew's explosives from her horse sends Akiyama away to keep him and the animal safe. Venturing back into the swamp, she encounters a number of Shadow Warriors before reaching Malco's prison pit. There, she is joined by a force of Silent Warriors led by Branton, who fight against both Shadow Warriors and esca lizards as they endeavor to free the Followers and other prisoners.

Aided by several of the warriors, Petolemew's explosives, and the might of Morning Star, Carliss sets her charges on their path out of the swamp. However she leaves them in order to return to the nesting area and slay the mother lizard in hopes of bringing an end to Malco's manufacture of evil. Branton and several other Silent Warriors arrived to escort her to safety, and the servants of the Prince vowed to fight together again in the ongoing battle against Lucius. Despite this victory and the rescue of the Moorue Followers, Carliss despairs over Dalton's apparently inevitable death.

Unexpectedly, Akiyama proposes the idea of sending the last swamp lily to Dalton using Spirit. Carliss sets off the last of Petolemew's explosives and places the lily in the bag and is correct in believing that Spirit will recognize where she wants him to go. Carliss then heads to Brimwick Downs ahead of the refugees from Moorue, and alerts the haven there of their approach before continuing to Pembrook. She arrives to find that Eunice has managed to give Dalton some of the medicine made from the root and takes over the care of her fellow knight.

Koen soon arrives at Pembrook, and once Dalton has begun to slowly recover Carliss and her brother transport him back to Salisburg. There, Carliss is thanked by Lady Brynn, Dalton's long time romantic interest, for her role in saving the man's life. Hurting inside, she returns home with Koen to the great relief of her family. Resigning herself to a life of service to the Prince apart from Dalton, Carliss prepares to return to Moorue and continue the work of the Prince there.

Unexpectedly, she is joined at Brimwick downs by Dalton, but initially refuses his request to join her and Koen in Moorue. Having struggled for so long with her feelings for Dalton, Carliss is stunned when Dalton admits to having feelings for her and to have ended his relationship with Brynn due to her lack of commitment to the Prince. The two happily agree that they would like to get to know each other better. Much to Carliss' surprise, Dalton asks whether he was in the dream she had while under the influence of the Waters of Moorue. Upon learning that he traveled with a large man who claimed to know her, and having noticed Spirit's disappearance, Carliss' joy grows even fuller in the knowledge that Ganoaf also escaped the evil of Malco.

Cedric concludes his telling by noting that many are called by the King, but few will do as Carliss did and answer. He notes that, while the battle against Malco continued for many years, Carliss bravely continued it with Dalton beside her.

Appearances[]

Characters[]

The King
The Prince
Akiyama
Alston
Barstoon
Borad
Branton
Brynn
Carliss
Cedric
Dalton
Drox (mentioned)
Eunice
Ganoaf
Karoshi
Kei
Kikomay (mentioned)
Koen
Lowtar
Lucius
Malco
Mariko
Norsington
Orland
Petolemew
Salina
Si Kon
Soro
Takara

Groups[]

Animals[]

Chaser
Rindy
Spirit

Creatures[]

Death ravens
Dragamoths
Dragons
Esca lizards
Hounds of despair

Items[]

Esca crystals
Life Spice
Morning Star
Swamp lily

Locations[]

Kingdom Across the Sea
Arrethtrae
- Akiyma
- Altica Valley
- Basillow
- Brimwick Downs
- Chessington
- Jem River
- Moorue
  - Despon Swamp
  - Esca Prime
  - Intar
  - Romnov
  - Vi Dogam
- Northern Mountains
- Pembrook
- Salisburg
- Varlaken
- Wallen