Bastard Prince: Volume III of the Heirs of Saint Camber

A small band of rebels attempts to overcome a tyranny of church and corrupt nobility in the rousing and tragic conclusion to Kurtz's fourth Deryni trilogy. When Marek of Festil, the bastard son of Gwynedd's last Deryni king, makes a move to gain the throne, the ruling council reluctantly allows King Rhys Michael to meet the challenge. (Having held the young man and his wife, Michaela, in their grip since arranging the deaths of his two older brothers, the nobles and high churchmen fear an assertion of independence before the king fathers a second child to assure the succession.) As Rhys Michael travels to Culliecairn to meet with Marek, another group of the now-proscribed Deryni seek to awaken the psychic powers of the king and queen through Michaela's young maid, Liesel. With strong characterizations and sustained tension, this volume once again reflects the atmospheric gloom of a dark and secret land, full of treachery and cruelty but shot through with light and a promise of hope. (June)