Kushiel's Mercy by Jacqueline Carey

Imriel nó Montréve de la Courcel has endured a great deal in his short life: kidnapping by Carthaginian slavers, imprisonment in the stronghold of a Turkish warlord who believed he was the beloved of a God of Torture, falling in love with Sidonie, the daughter of Queen Ysandre of Terre D'Ange and Cruarch Drustan Mab Necthana of Albion, denying his love to marry Dorelei, Drustan's niece, who was slain by one of the magicians of Albion when she was pregnant, and who Imriel then had to track down and slay to avenge her.

But some good has come out of it. He and Sidonie have finally come together, becoming lovers, and are deeply in love with each other. Sidonie asks her mother if she may marry Imriel, but his mother, Melisande Shahrizai, was the greatest traitor the realm has ever known, and the deaths she caused have affected countless families and people all over Terre D'Ange. And their memories are long and potent, Imriel is still known as "Whore's son" by many of them.

Sidonie has been busy in Imriel's absence, however, petitioning the many temples of the companions to judge their love and see if it is true, knowing that if it is, the clergy will support them. So when she asks her mother if she may marry Imriel, the Queen gets advice from all of the advisors, including the priests. They have already judged Sidonie's love to be true, and now must question Imriel. He is nervous, but when he speaks of Sidonie, they are convinced, and he quickly gains the blessing of Elua's clergy.

Finally, the Queen speaks out, saying that she will allow them to love each other, but if they seek to marry, she will cut Sidonie out of the succession. Unless Imriel performs one mission for her... She doesn't say it aloud, but everyone, including Imriel, knows what she means. She wishes him to bring his mother back to Terre D'Ange to stand trial for her many crimes against the city, the country, and the people. Only then will his status as the son of a traitor be expunged in the queen's eyes.

Imriel asks for a reasonable delay to find out where his mother has gone, as nobody seems to know. He taps many sources of information, including Phèdre's old friend Hyacinthe, now Master of the Straits. He also taps members of the Unseen Hand, who send him information through members of a Carthaginian delegation come to treat with Ysandre.

Carthage is at war with Aragonia, who are long-time allies of Terre D'Ange, so when the delegation is let into the country, it is with a great deal of reluctance. The reluctance lessens when the Carthaginians bring rich gifts to give to the royal family and members of the Noble Houses. The leader of the delegation is Astegal, a general of Carthage, and his horologist, Bodeshmun. When Terre D'Ange turns down an offer of alliance with Carthage, they ask permission to show the people of the city a great sight that will appear during the upcoming lunar eclipse.

Meanwhile, Imriel visits with two members of the Delegation, either of which could be the informant he was seeking. He does manage to get the information out of the informant by getting him drunk, and then threatening him after he has had a carnal visit with one of the priestesses in Elua's temples. As he makes preparations to travel to Cythera, where his mother is now living, the night of the Lunar Eclipse comes, and Sunjata, one of the men Imriel talked to, asks him to step away so he can reveal something about Imriel's mother. Imriel does so, and the man injects him with a silver needle, telling him that this will save him from what is to come, and it will wear off in a month.

At that point, Imriel goes stark raving mad, and remains that way for a month. His foster mother, Phèdre and her lover/protector Joscelin, worry about him while he curses them and plots evil against them. Until a month has passed, when the fit abruptly leaves him, and he finds his world completely changed.

No one in the city seems to remember that Imriel and Sidonie were in love, or that Terre D'Ange was allied with Aragonia. Suddenly, Terre D'Ange is allied with Carthage against Aragonia, and Sidonie is in love with Astegal, and has left the city to become his wife. Imriel is shocked, but when he tries to tell anyone about the way it really is, they merely assume he is still mad. Desperate, Imriel meets with Barquiel L'Envers, his uncle who has long despised him, asking his uncle, who was not in the city and did not attend the viewing of the lunar eclipse, and was therefore unaffected by whatever affected everyone else, to help him escape and rescue Sidonie. His uncle agrees, agreeing with him for once about what has affected everyone else, and helps him slip away from his keepers to travel to Cythera.

On the island, he meets the ruler, the extremely ugly but also extremely intelligent Ptolemy Solon. Imriel's mother, Melisande Shahrizai, is his mistress, and Imriel finds that time and remorse have mellowed her somewhat. In exchange for her sentence being lessened to permanent exile from Terre D'Ange, she and Ptolemy Solon will help him find the information he needs to free Terre D'Ange and her people from the spell that Bodeshmun cast. But it will not be easy.

Imriel works with Ptolemy Solon to remember everything that happened since the Carthaginians arrived in Terre D'Ange, and is told that Bodeshmun holds a desert spirit imprisoned in a gemstone. That is what holds the spell in place. As long as the emerald is hidden, and the word for releasing it unknown, the spell will stay.

They disguise Imriel as one of his mother's agents, Leander Maignard, using magic to make Imriel look like him and believe he is Leander as well. With Leander's entire history in his head, and on a mission to seduce Sidonie, Leander/Imriel is sent to Carthage where Sidonie is living.

There, he manages to get in to see her, and becomes an accepted visitor by Bodeshmun, who tells him if he discusses Terre D'Ange with her or her past, he will be killed by Bodeshmun. He manages to get close to her and realizes that she has gaps in her memory, and worse, that she realizes there are gaps in her memory, but is biding her time to find out why. He also witnesses what happens when a break in her memory reveals itself, and witnesses Bodeshmun's magic firsthand when he kills someone.

By the time Sidonie must travel to "New Carthage", Sidonie trusts him and asks him along to keep her from being bored. Imriel/Leander is also looking for the item on her that keeps Sidonie from remembering her past, as the effect of the spell from Terre D'Ange should fade when she enters another land, but cannot find it. However, he does manage to replace the ring that Astegal uses to control her with a fake copy, and then remembers who he really is. He goes to see Sidonie and gets her trust by telling her something of her past that she could not remember, then strips away all of Leander's clothing, which is spell-marked to make him look like Leander, to show her who he really is.

He has her strip, thinking that the token which controls her is clothing, but realizes that Astegal and Bodeshmun have tattooed the back of her neck, and that is the controlling item. At her request, he cuts it away, and the spell breaks, letting her remember everything that had been done to her. They make their escape from the Palace, killing Bodeshmun on the way out and stealing the token on which is the word that will free the demon controlling the spell.

All too soon, though, they are tracked by Astegal's desert troops, and are forced to take refuge in Amilcar, the last refuge of the Aragonian troops loyal to the old King. Aragonia was also at war with Euskerria, a mountain people who live on lands claimed by both Terre D'Ange and Aragonia. Terre D'Ange was ready to cede the lands claimed by the Euskerrians to their sovereignty to bring peace, but Aragonia was not willing to do the same. Since the Aragonians need allies, Imriel and Sidonie suggest cedeing the lands and asking the Euskerrians to fight on the side of Aragonia against the Carthaginians. After much argument, an agreement is reached, but the only help the Aragonians can give them to escape is a single guide, and a feint that will allow them time to slip out of the city.

It quickly becomes clear that the same desert troops who tracked them before are also on their trail, and Imriel and Sidonie must beg the Euskerrians for help to kill the troops following them.

But will the Euskerrians agree? and even if they do, the conquering of the troops of Carthage won't be easy. Sidonie wants to kill Astegal by her own hand, and Imriel is minded to let her. Even if they manage to do all these things, they still must find the emerald and free their city and country from the spell. And how can they even do that when returning to Terre D'Ange will put Sidonie back under the spell that Imriel freed her from?

The crowning book to a wonderful series, Kushiel's Mercy is one of the best books I have ever read. It literally has everything: war, love, battles, mystery, intrigue, politics, chases and sex. Oh yeah, sex. Lots and lots of sex. Mostly between Imriel and Sidonie, but also between Imriel and Sunjata when Imriel is disguised as Leander, as most worshippers of Elua seem to be bisexual by both choice and culture. Practically anything that readers will enjoy is in this book, all done so well that you find yourself in awe. This isn't writing that proclaims "Look at me! Look at how well I write!", but the excellence sits in the background, merely letting the story tell itself without getting in the way. It isn't until the book is over that you realize how great the writing was... you are too immersed in the story, otherwise.

This is a big book, but even so, it's one you are going to have a hard time putting down. I got it last night and read it in about three to four hours. I couldn't rip myself away from the story even to put it down when I went to the bathroom! I heartily recommend this book, both for the almost but not quite our world setting, the wonderful, complex characters, and the story. The story will keep you coming back to the world of Terre D'Ange, and make you want to stay there.