SOLVED. Fantasy, either YA or a bit more mature, about a girl traveling who meets a soldier (?) who used to be a slave, carrying a lyre that is a prince in disguise [s]

[Bernie]

I read this book sometime in the late 1990s/early 2000s, and I cannot remember the name of it! I wouldn't be surprised if it was written in the 1980s or even earlier. It's a fantasy and I believe it was shelved in the YA section of the library but it was a bit mature for YA.

I think the heroine's name is Gillian, and she somehow becomes the carrier of a lyre/harp/instrument that she's meant to take to a certain destination and is told that it's very valuable. Along the way she meets a soldier/mercenary/lone wolf type, can't remember his name, who accompanies her for at least part of the time. Sometime during this journey she is either kidnapped or captured by bandits/slavetakers and is (I think?) raped and traumatized. She is either rescued or escapes, and her soldier friend helps her overcome her tragedy because when he was a slave he was also raped. I think at the end of the book they discover that the lyre/harp was a prince or a lord in disguise who was traveling in that shape to avoid detection.

For some reason I think the title has something to do with fortune's wheel or changing fortunes or something. This is basically all I can remember. It bears some similarities to The Knight, the Harp and the Maiden, but I know it is a different book. I must have taken it out of the library a dozen times and if anyone can help with the title I will be forever grateful.

[Ashley]

It's not The Naming by Allison Croggon is it? I'm not sure about a prince lyre, but I know there's a heroine who is meant to take something to a certain destination and she starts out as a slave, and there's definitely a lone wolf type.

[Bernie]

Ashley, unfortunately that's not it. But it does look like I might enjoy that book! Thank you so much for the suggestion.

Also, the lyre/harp/whatever in disguise might have been an elf? Or an elven prince? Not sure if that helps or hurts. I've been in the depths of google lately with no luck.

[Bernie]

Bumping in the hope someone might see this and know the answer!

[Sara]

Can it be one of the novels from Katherine Kerr's Deverry Cycle? The first book is Daggerspell, but the Elves aren't in it as much as in some of the later novels; for example The Dragon Revenant or A Time of Omens. The books was published once a year during the end of the 80's and start of the 90's.

The series follows the main characters through different times and different ... versions (I can't find the English word, but it's like their souls live in different persons in different times) of them.

The main heroine is named Jill and I remember there was a magic Elf prince that had something to do with her.
Within Temptation's song "Jillian" is about her.

(view spoiler)[Jill was abducted by a lord in one of the books, can't remember which or what happened, but I think that rape can have happened. My memory is a bit cloudy, I read the books when I was 13 and haven't thought much about them for the last 10 years... (hide spoiler)]

[[deleted user]]

There's no lyre that changes into a prince, but I think you might be confusing another book with that detail with Cynthia Voigt's On Fortune's Wheel, which is otherwise quite similar to your premise.

[Bernie]

Sara, that bears some investigation. Thank you for the suggestion!

Polly, I own and love On Fortune's Wheel, and it's not the same book. However it may have unconsciously influenced the title of my unknown book as I read them around the same time. I keep hoping the answer will come to me in a dream!

[Bernie]

Bump.

[Bernie]

OH MY LORD I FOUND IT!!!

Instrument of Fate by Christie Golden! It's actually a lute and not a lyre, but the main character's name is Gillien.

Thanks very much for the suggestions, everyone! I'm marking this one SOLVED.