The Darkest Road

This is the final installment in Guy Gavriel Kay's Fionavar Tapestry trilogy (see blogs re Book One and Book Two). Action packed and relentlessly paced, I dove in and did not surface except for absolutely necessary chores. The big unknown remains the child born as a result of Jennifer's rape by Rakoth Maugrim, the Unraveller. Jennifer refuses to try and determine the Darien's path, although everyone else is trying to steer him toward the Light and away from the Dark. The child, now in an adolescent's body, interprets her hands off approach as rejection and so decides to go to this father and find acceptance there, taking a magic dagger crafted in ancient times by the Dwarves.
Saved by the chanting of the Paraiko when she descended into Maugrim's dark thoughts, Kim has gone to free them from their captors in the caves at Kath Maigol. She calls upon Tabor and his flying unicorn to decimate the dark hordes that imprison them. Then Kim hurries west to try and intervene with Darien and then on to Lisen's tower to warn Jennifer/Guinevere of what she has done. Everything with Darien seems to drive him further toward Rakoth. Diarmuid, Arthur, Paul, Loren, Matt, and now Lancelot are saved from a watery death when Paul once again calls on the sea god, and then they are ferried to the front lines of battle by a ghost ship captained by the original First Mage of Fionavar, Amairgen. Meanwhile, Kim has taken Matt and Loren to the realm of the Dwarves to try and reassert Matt's sovereignty as King and bring them back to the side of the Light. They succeed in the nick of time, turning potential enemies into allies. Rakoth pulls out all the stops and throws every evil being he can command at the united forces of the High Kingdom. In spite of several powerful mortal and magical interventions, it truly seems that all is lost, until Darien gains audience with his father, and uses the lore of the dagger to stop Rakoth. Loves as well as lives are lost and gained. In the end, only two of the original five will return to this world. There is a summary of books one and two at the beginning of this 3rd volume, but don't even think of not reading the first two books.