The Mage's Daughter by Lynn Kurland

Morgan of Melksham thinks of herself as no more than a shieldmaiden. She's trained long and hard to become an elite swordswoman, but as far as she can remember, her past is a mystery, even to her. She was requested by Miach of Neroche, the youngest brother of the Emperor of Neroche, to possibly wield a magical singing sword called the Sword of Angesand. But, unwarned by Miach and hating magic with an almost pathological hatred, she broke the sword to bits on the edge of a stone table and soon after was poisoned by Miach's nemesis and author of the attacks on Meroche, Lothar of Wychweald. If Miach did not want her to die, he had to transport her to someone who could heal her when his magic could not.

He sent her to Nicholas of Lismór, who had raised Morgan from the time she was young. Nicholas, unknown to Morgan, is a powerful mage, and he worked to heal her from the poison that should have killed her. Now, somewhat healed, she withdraws for the rest of her convalescence to the Tower of her tutor in swordplay, Weger. Weger is an uncompromising man with a strong distaste for magic and a keep located in an area that is completely dead to magic. Morgan expects to be thrown out of the keep when Weger sees how weak she has become, but instead he allows her to recover, and does not, to her surprise, throw her out.

When Miach shows up at the Tower to learn swordplay from Weger, she is both delighted and angry to see him. She likes him a great deal, but is unable to get past the fact that he lied to her about who and what he was, and he lied about what he wanted her to do. But Miach's ability to survive Weger's harsh teaching and even begin to thrive and improve impresses her, and his ability to forgo sleep to maintain the wards of Neroche with his magic also impresses her, although she cannot bring herself to admit it.

But another one of Weger's students is one of Lothar of Wychweald's many by-blows, and he seeks to kill Miach in order to curry favor with his father. But even though Miach has only been a student of Weger's for a few days, he has enough skill to beat off Searbhe, but the young man keeps trying, until Weger himself throws the young man out. Weger also knows who Miach is, and is not sure he approves of the young mage, especially since he also has deep feelings for Morgan and wants to win her for himself. Morgan comes to realize Weger's feelings but knows that to choose Weger would mean a retreat into a safe life, and she finds she wants to know who she truly is.

In a night conversation between Weger, Morgan and Miach, Morgan discovers that her mentor in swordsmanship is also a powerful mage, and she is shocked, since Weger hates Magic and mages as much as she does. But the knowledge that Weger is over a thousand years old frightens her. For someone as afraid of magic as she is, it is like one of the stones under her feet suddenly being gone, and when the time comes for Miach to leave, along with the brand on his forehead signifying that he passed Weger's training, he also finds Morgan coming with him.

She and Miach return to the keep of Nicholas of Lismór, where Morgan learns more about her past than she ever wanted to know. Her real name is Mhorghain, and she is part Elvish. Her mother was wife to Gair, a powerful dark mage. In an attempt to prove a boast to her about how powerful he was, and to prevent her from leaving him, he uncapped a well of black power. His wife died saving Mhorghain and partially recapping the well, but She, Gair and her children were killed in the process. That was the story told, but, of course, not completely true. Mhorghain lived, but ever after hated magic.

She possesses it, of course, from both of her powerful parents. She used it to heal Miach, and is very unhappy about having it. Soon she learns that Nicholas is himself a powerful mage. He was human, but married to one of her mother's sisters, and it was only his devotion to her that saved him from the wrath of his father-in-law and Mhorghann's grandfather, after Gair killed Mhorghain's mother. The two of them stay at Lismór for a time but find themselves attacked by monsters, and Miach dispatches them, but wonders how the monsters tracked them, since his spells should have kept them from being detected.

More attacks follow, and Miach and Morgan leave Lismór to keep from bringing any more chaos into Lismór. They then head for the lands of Torr Dorainn and Sile, Mhorgain's grandfather.

Silé is proud to meet Mhorghain, but his distaste for Miach cannot be more clear, but it is to this man who Miach will have to subject himself if he wishes to gain Morgan/Mhorgain's hand in marriage. But can Miach overcome his own reputation as a thief of magic and gain the attention of her grandfather, when Silé is preparing to give her away to anyone *but* Miach?

Studying in the library of Torr Dorainn brings the solution of the attacks on himself to light, and he discovers that the well opened by Gair was never completely resealed. It is still open, and more evil is leaking out into the world, and Miach, for all his magic, is unable to reseal the well. As he seeks for a way to accomplish the closing of the well, he and Morgan are falling in love, to the point where she only wants him, and no one else. But Miach has much to do before he can free himself to marry Mhorghain, no matter how much he... or she... wants it. Can he win Silé's approval to court Mhorghain, and even if he can, can he defeat the evil that would kill not only him, but his family and Mhorghain as well?

This is the second in the Nine Kingdoms trilogy. The first was Star of the Morning, where we first met Morgan/Mhorghain and Miach. Morgan had a lot of baggage in that first volume, and she's still carrying quite a bit of it here, but manages to dump quite a bit of it during the course of the novel. However, I didn't feel upset at Morgan as much as I did during Star of the Morning as we finally get to see why she hates Magic so much, and quite a reason it is, too!

Seeing evil magic and magic wielded by your father kill your siblings, mother and father as well must have severely traumatized Morgan, and the story bears that out in how Nicholas relates the days after she came to him. Her mother's ring was a symbol of her anguish and any time she caught a glimpse of it, she screamed and went nearly catatonic. This only increased my admiration for Morgan, as her ability to survive both her childhood and a poisoning that should have killed her.

By contrast, Miach appears too good to be true. He never seems to get angry, except on Morgan's behalf and is basically an all-around nice guy who at times seems too slick. But in the end I enjoyed the book very much, and it was nice to see Morgan realize what a romance with Miach meant to her life, and in the end, she chose him, even if it meant leaving her comfortable life where she could have gone on with the same attitudes and opinions forever.

I'd caution readers to read "Star of the Morning" first, though, as otherwise exactly what happened in the story before, and Morgan's reasons for disliking Miach aren't completely clear.