This is the third and last book of the Bridei Chronicles, and it will be a long time before I get these characters and their story out of my head. I even have dreamed about them at night - I never do that!
This beautiful story takes place in sixth century Scotland and the series itself begins with Bridei coming to be foster son to the Druid Broichan at the age of four and the books go through the first years of him being King of Fortriu. However it is not Bridei's story alone but the story of those around him. The Well of Shades is Faolan's story and he may well be my favorite male character ever. In this book Faolan combines a mission for Bridei with a quest to face his very dark past. He did something too terrible for him to ever share with anyone when he was seventeen and has never returned to his home or known what followed after he left that bloody night. Due to events in the second book, he is becoming a changed man from the cold "King's assassin" he had become. The third part of his mission is to seek out his fallen companion's family and tell them how he died. Faolan's journey is one of bravery, despair, discovery, and love of not only a woman but a child.

This story goes back and forth between what is happening to Faolan and what is happening in Bridei's court, but it is done smoothly and since it is all happening simultaneously it all needs to be read in that way.

Marillier's characters make the reader care so much about them and they are so totally individuals. Bridei's wife Tuala is from the Otherworld, their son (whose story I want written!) has special gifts at the tender age of two. This is also the time when Christianity is coming to the land where the Old Religion has been since time immortal, and Marillier is not afraid to address this especially in this book. LOVED LOVED LOVED this trilogy.