Shadowfell (Shadowfell, #1)

by Juliet Marillier

Hope is easy enough to find on a sunny day, when a person’s clothing is dry and her belly is full and the prospect of a good night’s rest lies ahead. It is much harder to keep that flame alight when autumn closes in and the rain falls in sheets, drenching every tree and bush and turning the ground to a treacherous quagmire. It is still more difficult when the wind gets up, chilling the air and sending every creature scurrying for what meager shelter it can find.

“The law’s the law. It’s akin to the old customs and the old songs. When you’re in the dark, you need a lamp. The law is our lamp.”

But it would be wrong. Harness an evil power to serve a noble cause and surely that cause would be sullied forever.