Princess of the Sword by Lynn Kurland

Morgan was a swordswoman, sent to the Kingdom of Neroche to deliver a sword to the King and his brother Mochriadhemiach, the Archmage of the Kingdom, better known as Miach. Morgan found, much to her dismay, that the sword was magical and wanted her to wield it, singing when she held it. But since she was deathly afraid of and hated magic, she destroyed the sword by breaking it.

To her own horror, she found herself falling in love with Miach, originally thinking he was a farmer, and somehow retaining her feelings when she found out he was the strongest magician in Neroche, and in many other places besides. But Morgan's past held secrets, and her dreams were dark, more like nightmares. To her own horror, she found out she was the lost daughter of Gair the Archmage, who had, for his own amusement and to prove his strength, opened a well of darkness, intending afterwards to close it again.

But he'd overestimated his own strength, and the opening of it killed him. Morgan's mother, also a mage, attempted to close it, along with her brothers, and all failed. The well was partially closed, but still remained open, trickling evil into the land. The cataclysm that took her mother, father and brothers away seared Morgan, and she was made to forget what had happened to her to prevent her from possibly going insane.

She was somehow adopted by a group of mercenaries, and then by another man who hated magic and taught swordscraft, Weger. There, she grew to be an excellent swordswoman, but one who hated and feared any sort of magic. With the revelation of her parentage, Morgan was upset, but soon realized she also had magic, and in addition, was the granddaughter of Sile, king of the Elves. Mhorgainn, as she was truly named, and Miach sought to finally close the well of evil, but Morgan will have to force herself to remember that dark day if she ever wants to help Miach find the spell that her father used to open the well in the first place.

Having gotten permission from her grandfather to marry her once the whole business with the well is done with, Miach and Morgan must break into Buidseachd, the holding of Wizards and a Wizard school, to search among the spells of the dark wizard Droch in order to look for clues to breaking the spell. But Droch nearly catches them, and they are only saved through the assistance of another wizard, who puts them in his rooms and escorts them out through the kitchen the next morning.

That wizard turns out to have been Solléir, wizard of light, and Miach's former tutor at the school. Droch hates Miach, and challenges him to a game of chess in order to look into his books. The game is also a trap, slowly closing Miach in a crushing band of magic that, if he cannot escape him, will turn him into one of Droch's living chess pieces. But Miach escapes the trap and wins, also freeing the pieces who fought on his side.

In the end, however, his mission is a failure, and Miach finds nothing of Gair's dark spells in those of Droch. His mentor tells him this was unlikely, because Gair and Droch hated each other with a passion, so it doesn't seem likely that Droch would have anything to do with Gair's spells. But this means that they must rely on Morgan's memory of the day her parents and siblings died. Miach was unwilling to make her remember it because he didn't want to drag her through the pain of reliving that day again. But Morgan manages it, and because she has finally faced up to her fears of what happened back then, her dreams are no longer so dark and filled with pain and fear.

However, the details she remembers of the spell makes it abominably clear to Miach that Morgan may be the only one who will be able to close the well and end the stream of evil that infects the land from its opening. But even as they seek to close the well, others wish to open it again for their own power, such as Lothar, another dark mage. He's kidnapped Miach's brother, the King of Neroche, in order to force Miach to either stay out of his way or help him reopen the well. But Miach seens the closing of the well as more of a priority than rescuing his brother.

They also learn that two of Morgan's brothers survived the day at the opening of the well. But both are in hiding, both from wounds and because the evil emanating from the well has the destruction of any heirs of Gair as their orders when they coalesce into creatures. But will the closing of the well force Morgan to sacrifice her only remaining family as the cost of finally closing the well and banishing the evil from the realm? And when Miach's brother dies and he inherits the mantle of Kingship, will that be the final deal-breaker for Morgan that sends her back into a life of solitude? Or will she be able to reconcile her love of Miach and her dislike of fancy court protocols and ceremony?

This book is the third in a trilogy, the others being "Star of the Morning" and "The Mage's Daughter", and in it, Morgan finally realizes who she is and was and comes to peace with all of who she is, both her magic and high status. It's quite amazing to see her go from being a simple mercenary (and entirely happy with who she is) to being a mage, a princess and the supreme warrior on nearly the entire continent during the course of the series, and realize that she can be happy loving Miach and being everything she is, not just a small part of that (mercenary swordswoman).

In this volume, Morgan, who has finally come to terms with being a mage and daughter of Gair, must face the last piece of her past that gives her nightmares- the last day of her entire family being alive, and also face the fact that her parentage gives her blood access to magic that is dark and used only for killing. But while that is but one piece of the magic she has to wield, there are others from her parentage that are beautiful and used for the creation of beauty. Just because she has darkness in her heritage doesn't mean she must consign herself to darkness forever, for everyone has both light and darkness within them.

I liked seeing the growth of Morgan, and how she came to care for Miach. She will never be as lighthearted as her husband, never able to joke the way he does, but that doesn't prevent her from being an admirable woman capable of loving and being loved by her husband. I really enjoyed the journey and this volume, in particular, was all just so good that I was able to race through it while enjoying every word. Recommended.