Courage of falcons - Holly Lisle

Kait Galweigh, her Sabir lover Ry and his cousin Ian, have captured the Mirror of Souls, an artefact which can confer immortality, but only at huge cost to the innocents whose souls are used to feed it. Though the Mirror calls to Kait - she had hoped to use its magical powers to restore to life her slaughtered Family - she knows its evil is too great and that it must be destroyed before Crispin Sabir gets his hands on it. But the only way to do that is if Kait becomes a Falcon like her uncle, one of the covert group of wizards sworn to the service of good under the aegis of the god Vodor Imrish. And that decision binds her more surely than any iron chain. While Kait and her friends are battling the ages-old evil of the Mirror, her cousin Danya, raped and Scarred by Crispin, is being groomed for godhead by the Dragon Luercas, who now inhabits the body of her dead son. Impersonating Ki Ika, the Summer Goddess, and her son Iksahsha, the Chosen One, they are gathering together a mighty army of the Scarred, ready to invade and conquer the Rich Lands. The destruction of the Mirror will avert a great disaster . . . but for Kait and her friends, the nightmare is only just beginning. Courage of Falcons is a masterful fantasy with strong, well-realised characters, a cracking plot and a villain who exudes evil from every pore.