Sword & Sorcery Fantasy, 1980/90s. Magic worked like beads on a string. Shadow thorny evil to be defeated living in well. Female warrior blacks out & slaughters party

[Cal]

Apologies for the long title and likely to be sparse details. I remember reading this book about 15-20 years ago but for the life of my I cannot remember it's name and only patches of what the book was about.

- Classic 1980/90's sword and sorcery book. There is an evil that must be defeated (and for the life of me I can't remember if it was a person, thing, dark tower, big black orb etc). I think it's maybe an evil sorcerer?

- There is a female warrior/paladin who's history in the past was that she tried to defeat the big bad with a group, and she blacked out/was possessed and slaughtered most of the the group before she regained consciousness. Now she's struggling with going back again to fight it.

- The main protagonist of the book is a mage/wizard who works spells by imagining them as beads on a thread within a tapestry in his mind which was his version of a grimoire. Has to really concentrate to prepare before using any. He's not the most charismatic of characters

- Part of the plot involves the mage/wizard being recruited to clear out a 'curse' on a towns well and then finds out there is some shadow/invisible big thorny evil that he has to fight which has been plaguing the town.

That is about all I remember and I'm really hoping someone here might have read it too.

[Michele]

cal, can you remember anything about the cover? was it a short book, long book, humungous? can you remember if it was standalone, or part of a series? did it seem like a YA book or for adults? is the MC young, old, middle-aged?

[Lobstergirl, au gratin]

Robert suggested Prophecy by Greg Gorden in a deleted thread. He said it "begins with a wizard investigating a dried-up well of a village, and that the book has detailed descriptions of how the wizard is working on his magic. Also, the other main character is a warrior (I think female) with some secrets in her past."

Cal believes that could be the correct book but can't obtain a copy.

Ky said, "Cal, it's on archive.org. You'll have to make an account but all it takes is an email, and then you'll be able to read this book for free and see if it's your book."

[SamSpayedPI]

https://archive.org/details/prophecy0...