Knight of Darkness

Varian DuFey is a despised knight who is part Adoni. Though not precisely good, he works for the PenMerlin of Avalon to piss off his mother, Narishka, who conceived him by tricking Lancelot duLac. Because of this, he had a hellish upbringing, but was reached by Arthur, who made him a knight of the Round Table even over the other Knights objections. When Arthur's final battle took place, Varian was too young and as yet unable to face the temptations offered by his mother, so he sat it out... and was promptly labelled a traitor by the other knights. They still treat him with scorn and casual cruelty, and, being the contrary creature that he is, Varian also stays at Avalon so he can piss them off as well.

When one of the six Knights protecting the grail is captured, tortured and killed by Morgen and her creatures, the PenMerlin sends Varian into Camelot to see if he can find out what, if anything, Tarynce of Essex spilled before he died. Normally a single Merlin guards a treasure, but because of the grail's importance, six knights guard it, each holding a single clue to where it is hidden. If Morgen manages to track down the other five knights and wrings their clues from them by torture, she could claim the Grail and use it to control the world.

Merewyn of Mercia is the victim of a stupid bargain she made. Betrothed to a man both old and ugly, she traded her beauty for a moon-turn to an Adonai so that she would repulse the man. Narishka, the Adonai she summoned, took her to Camelot, so that her service would be eternal, because Camelot's sky has no moon. Cursed into wearing the form of a lame, ugly, hunch-backed crone, she serves as Narishka's personal slave, eternally hoping to get her old form and beauty back. When she stumbles and is nearly beaten in a tavern in Glastonbury, Varian comes to her aid despite her looks, and she finds herself entranced by the first man who has ever shown her kindness.

In that same tavern, his mother attempts to sway Varian to her side, and fails. Enraged, she goes to Morgen and bewails her failure. Morgen laments that Varian has no weaknesses, but his mother says he does. It is pity. She resolves to use pity to bring him down.

Later, when Varian, still on the trail of Tarynce of Essex, goes to speak with Bracken, one of Morgen's MODs or "Minions of Death", his mother lays a spell on him that leaves him unable to transport himself, and then binds him with a bracelet that leaves him unable to use his other magic. She locks him in a cell and tortures him, healing him only to keep on torturing him. Finally, she sends in Merewyn to tend his wounds, now restored to her true beauty and with orders to seduce him to the side of Morgen. Merewyn, desperate to regain her beauty, agrees, but finds herself unable to continue. Going to the Mandrake Blaise, she reveals she knows him to be a servant of Avalon and asks for his help in freeing Varian.

Between them, they manage to free him from his magical shackles, but Blaise is unable to free him from his mother's spells. With Varian unable to magically transport himself, and them being hunted in Camelot, they flee for the Prison where Morgen imprisons her old, tossed-away lovers, Val Sans Retour, or the Valley of No Return.

Chased by Mandrakes and Gargoyles, they finally gain the Valley, to find it has other properties as well. The edges are warded so that once you go in, it is impossible to get out, and it is strewn with traps for those trapped within. Another trap also waits for Merewyn, the first woman to ever enter the Valley. The men trapped inside have the worst case of blue balls imaginable, and they look to Merewyn as an answer to their problems, especially a set of triplet brothers, Erik, Merrick and Derrick, who attempt to kidnap Merewyn to assuage their need. When it becomes clear that Blaise and Varian have no intention of handing her over, the three brothers (including Erik, who has been turned into a ferret) set out to guide them to Emrys Merlin and Nimue, who are still alive inside the Valley, which is news to both Varian and Blaise, since both are long thought dead or trapped inside ice.

Travelling past the many traps and dangers of the Valley, Merewyn and Varian slowly fall in love. When it seems that Narishka can still steal Merewyn's beauty away, she asks Varian to make love to her, and he does so. But he also convinces her that he loves her no matter what she looks like, and her beauty returns. But why? Has Narishka thought of some new plot with which to entwine them?

They reach Merlin and Nimue, only to realize that neither will help them escape. They didn't have enough power to contain Morgen when they created the Valley, and they cannot stand against her now. If they help Varian and the others escape, Morgen will come to the Valley, kill Emrys Merlin and Nimue, and they cannot allow that. Still bound by his mother's magic, Varian has no choice to submit, until Merewyn finds a way to free him, but loses her voice in the process. Morgen invades the valley, but Varian and a newcomer named Faran help keep her off and fire the bridge that connects Merlin and Nimue's section of the valley from the rest of the Valley of No Return. Morgen sends a message. Send either Merewyn or Varian to her, or she will kill everyone in the Valley. Merewyn makes love to Varian one last time, knocks him out, and tells Narishka to take her back.

When she does, Morgen and Narishka are pleased, for she is pregnant, and now they have the perfect way to control Varian. Merewyn despairs, knowing her sacrifice was for naught.

Varian, returned to consciousness, confesses to Merlin that he needs Merewyn... and attracts the attention of the God Damé, who takes Varian to Merewyn in Camelot. Even when Merewyn mouths that he must flee, Varian refuses to leave without her. Narishka and Morgen show up, claiming hold over Merewyn, but Damé says Merewyn sold him her life while she was in the Valley, and since the Valley has a moon, her term of service to Narishka is over. As they lead Merewyn away, Narishka tries one last time to steal her beauty and youth, but Varian takes the blow for her. When Merewyn declares she loves him anyway, despite what he looks like, the spell is broken and Varian is restored to youth and handsomeness.

They marry and the other knights begin to treat him better, but there is still a traitor loose in Avalon, and Merewyn knows who he is, for she has seen his face back when she was a hideous crone. When she finally reveals him, he attacks both Merewyn and Seren, inciting the rage of both men, Varian and Kerrigan. His fate will not be kind. for it is up to both ruthless men to determine.

Okay, much as I enjoyed the story, I found it very similar to that of Kerrigan. Both men came from mothers who raised them badly and abandoned them, and both had serious mother issues that generally translated to women. Both are seen as bad, even evil by some. Though the details differed (Varian was *also* treated badly by his stepmother and father), they were so similar I was afraid the author was going to fall into a rut. I'd read the next one, but if the story was very similar to the first two, I'd have a hard time continuing the series. I also rather disliked the idea of Varian's marriage as a bandaid concerning the other Knight's treatment of him. He gets married and they start treating him better. Okay, why exactly? Just because he married? Or, as the book states, because with her at his side, they see him as more a man than a demon? That just doesn't ring true given *why* the other knights despised him in the earlier portions of the book. I'd accept that they might treat him better around *her*, but the kind of reasons that were stated for the other knights not liking him didn't seem the kind of things that would just go away simply because he married a beautiful woman who obviously adores him.