Grave mercy

Robin LaFevers

Book - 2012

In the fifteenth-century kingdom of Brittany, seventeen-year-old Ismae escapes from the brutality of an arranged marriage into the sanctuary of the convent of St. Mortain, where she learns that the god of Death has blessed her with dangerous gifts--and a violent destiny.

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Subjects
Published
Boston : Houghton Mifflin 2012.
Language
English
Main Author
Robin LaFevers (-)
Physical Description
549 p. : map ; 22 cm
ISBN
9781328567659
9780547628349
Contents unavailable.
Review by New York Times Review

GETTING bundled off to a nunnery is rarely a prelude to adventure. But St. Mortain is no ordinary convent. The sisters there train young women to be assassins, "handmaidens to the god of death." The reverend mother puts it bluntly: "We kill people." In "Grave Mercy," the first book in a planned trilogy by Robin LaFevers, the convent's newest initiate, Ismae Rienne, 17, has a worldview shaped by abusive men: stone-throwing boys, groping teenagers and a violent father who married her off to a pig farmer for three silver coins. Pledging loyalty to St. Mortain, Ismae reflects: "I weigh the choice that is no choice at all. To be removed from the world of men and trained to kill them, or to be handed to one like a sheep." The nuns tell Ismae she is special, one of death's own daughters, with an inborn immunity to poison. They teach her to brew lethal concoctions while schooling her in history, anatomy, horsemanship and the "womanly arts." They equip her with an arsenal of killer accessories, from a garrote tucked in a fancy bracelet to a stiletto that hides in a stocking. The nuns then send Ismae out into a fictionalized version of 15th-century Europe with an assignment: go undercover at the high court of Brittany, where "Game of Thrones"-style intrigue is stirring, and await orders to kill. Yes, like Katniss in "The Hunger Games" and Katsa in "Graceling," Ismae is a female assassin. But what if Ismae has traded one kind of servitude - a forced marriage - for another? What if some of the people she's ordered to kill don't deserve to die? Worse, what if she falls in love with one of her targets? Despite Ismae's ugly past and her preoccupation with murder, "Grave Mercy" isn't heavy reading. It's darkly funny, a fantasy based on the rough contours of history, one that develops into an adventuresome - albeit predictable - romance. Ismae's deadpan wit allows LaFevers some of her best lines. "I do not care for needlework . . . unless it involves the base of the skull," the young assassin explains. On her blossoming romance, she later remarks, "I comfort myself with the knowledge that if Duval "ever feels smothered by me, it will be because I am holding a pillow over his face and commending his soul to Mortain." Humor and crisp writing keep "Grave Mercy," which stretches past 500 pages, from dragging, even though some of the longer scenes at the royal court feel slow compared with life at the convent. "Get thee back to the nunnery!" readers may be tempted to cry. Even as "Grave Mercy" charts Ismae's progress toward self-possession and maturity, it occasionally stumbles. Late in the story, Ismae learns that Gavriel Duval, the man she loves, is dying from a toxin in his bloodstream. She also discovers that she has an extraordinary power: the ability to cure poisoning through physical contact. She's never had sex before, but initiates it to save his life after finding him barely conscious and ready to die. (Though a literary curtain falls over the act itself.) This intertwining of sex with duty is an odd plot choice, one that feels out of sync with the fully realized person Ismae is becoming. And who is that woman? Someone who can question authority, act with integrity and take independent ownership of her life. In a lucid moment, Duval explains the role well. "I know that what our saints want is not always made clear to us," he tells her. "Sometimes, it is their wish for us to flail and struggle and come to our own choices, not accept ones that have been made for us." Jessica Bruder is the author of "Burning Book: A Visual History of Burning Man."

Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [April 8, 2012]
Review by Library Journal Review

LaFevers ("Lowthar's Blade Trilogy") launches a new young adult series with this story set in medieval France that follows 17-year-old Ismae, daughter of one of the old gods, as she escapes to a convent to avoid an arranged marriage. However, the sanctuary she seeks is one where women are trained to become assassins rather than traditional nuns. The tale embodies mystery and intrigue, great characters, romance, and a clever heroine, but the strange plot twists makes this at times a slow-moving experience. Erin Moon's narration is clear and pleasant. Verdict For fans of romantic fantasy and historical speculative fiction.-Denise A. Garofalo, Mount Saint Mary Coll., Newburgh, NY (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by School Library Journal Review

Gr 9 Up-Ismae's mother tried to kill her while she was still in the womb and her village believes that she is the child of Death. After escaping an arranged marriage, she finds sanctuary in the convent of St. Mortain where she will be protected. The sisters serve the old gods and believe Ismae is blessed by the God of Death to be his handmaiden. Over the next several years, Ismae is trained to be a fighter, a killer, and a seductress. During Ismae's most important assignment, she is sent to the high court of Brittany to do her god's bidding-but she's not prepared. Although she has the ability to kill a person in many ways, when she discovers that those she is told to kill do not display the mark of death and those she thought she could trust are telling lies, she questions everything around her, even her heart. Will Ismae know who to trust? Is she really the daughter of Death? Robin LaFevers' fantasy (Houghton Harcourt, 2012), the first in a planned series, is set in a world where gods interact with people and use them as their tools. Erin Moon is a brilliant narrator, giving the characters distinct voices and drawing listeners into the intrigue. A good addition to high school and public library collections.-Elizabeth L. Kenyon, Merrillville High School, IN (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Chapter One Brittany 1485 I bear a deep red stain that runs from my left shoulder down to my right hip, a trail left by the herbwitch's poison that my mother used to try to expel me from her womb. That I survived, according to the herbwitch, is no miracle but a sign I have been sired by the god of death himself. I am told my father flew into a rage and raised his hand to my mother even as she lay weak and bleeding on the birthing bed. Until the herbwitch pointed out to him that if my mother had lain with the god of death, surely He would not stand idly by while my father beat her. I risk a glance up at my husband-to-be, Guillo, and wonder if my father has told him of my lineage. I am guessing not, for who would pay three silver coins for what I am? Besides, Guillo looks far too placid to know of my true nature. If my father has tricked him, it will not bode well for our union. That we are being married in Guillo's cottage rather than a church further adds to my unease. I feel my father's heavy gaze upon me and look up. The triumph in his eyes frightens me, for if he has triumphed, then I have surely lost in some way I do not yet understand. Even so, I smile, wanting to convince him I am happy--for there is nothing that upsets him more than my happiness. But while I can easily lie to my father, it is harder to lie to myself. I am afraid, sorely afraid of this man to whom I will now belong. I look down at his big, wide hands. Just like my father, he has dirt caked under his fingernails and stains in the creases of his skin. Will the semblance end there? Or will he, too, wield those hands like a cudgel? It is a new beginning, I remind myself, and in spite of all my trepidations, I cannot extinguish a tiny spark of hope. Guillo wants me enough to pay three silver coins. Surely where there is want, there is room for kindness? It is the one thing that keeps my knees from knocking and my hands from trembling. That and the priest who has come to officiate, for while he is naught but a hedge priest, the furtive glance he sends me over his prayer book causes me to believe he knows who and what I am. As he mutters the ceremony's final words, I stare at the rough hempen prayer cord with the nine wooden beads that proclaim him a follower of the old ways. Even when he ties the cord around our hands and lays the blessings of God and the nine old saints upon our union, I keep my gaze downcast, afraid to see the smugness in my father's eyes or what my husband's face might reveal. When the priest is done, he pads away on dirty feet, his rough leather sandals flapping noisily. He does not even pause long enough to raise a tankard to our union. Nor does my father. Before the dust from my father's departing cart has settled, my new husband swats my rump and grunts toward the upstairs loft. I clench my fists to hide their trembling and cross to the rickety stairs. While Guillo fortifies himself with one last tankard of ale, I climb up to the loft and to the bed I will now share with him. I sorely miss my mother, for even though she was afraid of me, surely she would have given me a woman's counsel on my wedding night. But both she and my sister fled long ago, one back into the arms of death, and the other into the arms of a passing tinker. I know, of course, what goes on between a man and a woman. Our cottage is small and my father loud. There was many a night when urgent movement accompanied by groans filled our dark cottage. The next day my father always looked slightly less bad tempered, and my mother more so. I try to convince myself that no matter how distasteful the marriage bed is, surely it cannot be any worse than my father's raw temper and meaty fists. The loft is a close, musty place that smells as if the rough shutters on the far wall have never been opened. A timber-and-rope bed frame holds a mattress of straw. Other than that, there are only a few pegs to hang clothes on and a plain chest at the foot of the bed. I sit on the edge of the chest and wait. It does not take long. A heavy creak from the stairs warns me that Guillo is on his way. My mouth turns dry and my stomach sour. Not wanting to give him the advantage of height, I stand. When he reaches the room, I finally force myself to look at his face. His piggish eyes gorge themselves on my body, going from the top of my head down to my ankles, then back up to my breasts. My father's insistence on lacing my gown so tight has worked, as Guillo can look at little else. He gestures with his tankard toward my bodice, slopping ale over the sides so that it dribbles to the floor. "Remove it." Desire thickens his voice. I stare at the wall behind him, my fingers trembling as I raise them to my laces. But not fast enough. Never fast enough. He takes three giant strides toward me and strikes me hard across the cheek. "Now!" he roars as my head snaps back. Bile rises in my throat and I fear I will be sick. So this is how it will be between us. This is why he was willing to pay three silver coins. My laces are finally undone, and I remove my bodice so that I stand before him in my skirt and shift. The stale air, which only moments before was too warm, is now cold as it presses against my skin. "Your skirt," he barks, breathing heavily. I untie the strings and step out of my skirt. As I turn to lay it on the nearby bench, Guillo reaches for me. He is surprisingly quick for one so large and stupid, but I am quicker. I have had long years of practice escaping my father's rages. I jerk away, spinning out of his reach, infuriating him. In truth, I give no thought to where I will run, wishing only to hold off the inevitable a little longer. There is a loud crash as his half-empty tankard hits the wall behind me, sending a shower of ale into the room. He snarls and lunges, but something inside me will not--cannot--make this easy for him. I leap out of his reach. But not far enough. I feel a tug, then hear a rip of cloth as he tears my thin, worn chemise. Silence fills the loft--a silence so thick with shock that even his coarse breathing has stopped. I feel his eyes rake down my back, take in the ugly red welts and scars the poison left behind. I look over my shoulder to see his face has gone white as new cheese, his eyes wide. When our glances meet, he knows--knows--that he has been duped. He bellows then, a long, deep note of rage that holds equal parts fury and fear. Then his rough hand cracks against my skull and sends me to my knees. The pain of hope dying is worse than his fists and boots. When Guillo's rage is spent, he reaches down and grabs me by the hair. "I will go for a real priest this time. He will burn you or drown you. Maybe both." He drags me down the steps, my knees bumping painfully against each one. He continues dragging me through the kitchen, then shoves me into a small root cellar, slams the door, and locks it. Bruised and possibly broken, I lie on the floor with my battered cheek pressed into the cool dirt. Unable to stop myself, I smile. I have avoided the fate my father had planned for me. Surely it is I who have won, not he.   The sound of the bolt lifting jerks me awake. I shove myself to a sitting position and clutch the tattered remains of my chemise around me. When the door opens, I am stunned to see the hedge priest, the same small rabbit of a man who'd blessed our marriage only hours before. Guillo is not with him, and any moment that does not contain my father or Guillo is a happy one by my reckoning. The priest looks over his shoulder, then motions for me to follow. I rise to my feet, and the root cellar spins dizzily. I put a hand to the wall and wait for the feeling to pass. The priest motions again, more urgently. "We've not much time before he returns." His words clear my head as nothing else can. If he is acting without Guillo's knowledge, then he is most assuredly helping me. "I'm coming." I push away from the wall, step carefully over a sack of onions, and follow the hedge priest into the kitchen. It is dark; the only light comes from the banked embers in the hearth. I should wonder how the priest found me, why he is helping me, but I do not care. All I can think is that he is not Guillo and not my father. The rest does not matter. He leads me to the back door, and in a day full of surprises, I find one more as I recognize the old herbwitch from our village hovering nearby. If I did not need to concentrate so hard on putting one foot in front of the other, I would ask her what she is doing here, but it is all I can do to stay upright and keep from falling on my face in the dirt. As I step into the night, a sigh of relief escapes me. It is dark out, and darkness has always been my friend. A cart waits nearby. Touching me as little as possible, the hedge priest helps me into the back of it before hurrying around to the driver's bench and climbing in. The priest glances over his shoulder at me, then averts his eyes as if he's been burned. "There's a blanket back there," he mutters as he steers the nag out onto the cobbled lane. "Cover yourself." The unyielding wood of the cart presses painfully into my bruised bones, and the meager blanket scratches and reeks of donkey. Even so, I wish they'd brought a second one for padding. "Where are you taking me?" "To the boat." A boat means water, and crossing water means I will be far from the reach of my father and Guillo and the Church. "And where is this boat taking me?" I ask, but the priest says nothing. Exhaustion overwhelms me. I do not have the strength; plucking answers from him is like pulling meager berries from a thorny bush. I lie down in the cart and give myself over to the horse's jolting gait.   And so my journey across Brittany begins. I am smuggled like some forbidden cargo, hidden among turnips or in hay in the back of carts, awakened by furtive voices and fumbling hands as I am passed from hedge priest to herbwife, a hidden chain of those who live in accordance with the old saints and are determined to keep me from the Church. The hedge priests, with their awkward movements and musty, stale robes, are kind enough, but their fingers are unschooled in tenderness or compassion. It is the herbwitches I like most;, their chapped, raw hands are gentle as lamb's wool, and the sharp, pungent smell of a hundred different herbs clings to them like a fragrant shadow. Often as not, they give me a tincture of poppy for my injuries, while the priests merely give me their sympathy, and some begrudgingly at that. When I awake on what I reckon to be the fifth night of my journey, I smell the salty tang of the sea and remember the promise of a boat. I struggle to sit up, pleased to find my bruises pain me less and my ribs do not burn. We are passing through a small fishing village. I pull the blanket close against the chill and wonder what will happen next. At the very edge of the village sits a stone church. It is to this that the latest hedge priest steers our cart and I am relieved to see the door bears the sacred anchor of Saint Mer, one of the old saints. The priest reins his horse to a stop. "Get out." I cannot tell if it is fatigue or disdain I hear in his voice, but either way, my journey is almost done, so I ignore it and clamber out of the cart, keeping the blanket clutched tight around me lest I offend his modesty. Once he secures the horse, he leads me toward the beach, where a lone boat waits. The inky black ocean spreads out as far and wide as my eye can see, making the vessel seem very small. An old sailor sits hunched in the prow. A shell bleached white as bone hangs from a cord at his neck, marking him as a worshiper of Saint Mer. I wonder what he thinks of being woken in the middle of the night and made to row strangers out into the dark sea. The sailor's faded blue eyes skim over me. He nods. "Climb in. We en't got all night." He thrusts an oar at me, and I grasp it to steady myself as I get into the boat. The small vessel dips and rocks and for a moment I am afraid it will tip me into the icy water. But it rights itself and then the priest steps in, causing the hull to sink even lower. The old sailor grunts, then returns the oar to its pin and begins rowing. We reach the small island just as dawn pinkens the eastern horizon. It looks barren in the early, spare light. As we draw closer, I see a standing stone next to a church and realize we've come to one of the old places of worship. Gravel crunches under the hull of the boat as the old sailor rows right up onto the beach. He jerks his head toward the stone fortress. "Get out then. The abbess of St. Mortain be expectin' ye." Saint Mortain? The patron saint of death. A tremor of unease washes through me. I look at the priest, who averts his eyes, as if looking at me is too great a mortal temptation. Clutching the blanket close around me, I climb awkwardly from the boat and step into the shallows. Torn between gratitude and annoyance, I curtsy slightly, careful to let the blanket slip from my shoulder for the merest of seconds. I t is enough. Satisfied at the priest's gasp and the old sailor's cluck of his tongue, I turn and slog through the cold water to the beach. In truth, I have never flashed so much as an ankle before, but I am sorely vexed at being treated like a temptress when all I feel is bruised and broken. When I reach the patchy grass that grows between the rocks, I look back toward the boat, but it has already put out to sea. I turn and begin making my way to the convent, eager to see what those who worship Death want of me. Excerpted from Grave Mercy by Robin LaFevers All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.