The Lady of the Sorrows

infobox Book |
name = The Lady of the Sorrows
title_orig =
translator =


author = Cecilia Dart-Thornton
cover_artist =
country = Australia
language = English
series = The Bitterbynde Trilogy
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd
release_date = 15 May 2003
media_type = Print (Hardback & Paperback)
pages =
isbn = ISBN 0-330-36411-1
preceded_by = The Ill-Made Mute
followed_by = The Battle of Evernight

"The Lady of the Sorrows" is the second book in The Bitterbynde Trilogy. It is preceded by "The Ill-Made Mute" and followed by the last book in the trilogy, "The Battle of Evernight", which closes the trilogy.

Plot Summary

Lady Rohain of the Isle of Sorrows manages for the first third of the book to make her way rapidly to the King's Court at the city of Caermelor, on a mission to the King-Emperor, while also searching for the handsome Dainnan ranger Thorn who captured her heart.

Rohain is soon plagued by nightmares of rats that keep on repeating and suspects that they might have been from her past as she frantically tries to remember her past while keeping up with Court intrigue and searching for Thorn.

Meanwhile, she has to deal with a web of petty court politics, and the cruel Dianella who continues to get closer to the truth about Imrhien/Rohain's not-so-noble history.

Around the middle of the book, Rohain is forced to bow to Dianella's blackmail, heading back to Isse Tower in an attempt to find her past. Here she finds Thorn at last, and they have a brief, joyful time together after an unseelie attack on the tower. She then learns that Thorn is, in fact, the King-Emperor himself, and that he had been searching for her as long as she had for him. Fearing for her life, Thorn sends Rohain to the secluded island of Tamhania, which has long been a safe haven of the D'Armancourt Dynasty, to remain in safety while he fights the Namarran army to the North. However during a storm unseelie wights manage to trick Rohain herself into lowering the Island's defenses. The three black birds of unseelie manage to awaken the sleeping volcano upon which the Island resides and the population, Rohain included, must flee.

Escaping narrowly with her life, she flees with Caitri (Daughter of the Keeper of the Keys at Isse Tower) and Viviana (her maidservant) and finds her bracelet of old in the last chapter of the book, and end up stranded in the woods miles from civilization. Finding this item of her past, the gates of her memory finally swing open. She also recalls the reason of her loss of memory, and of her original quest that she set out upon before losing her memory. With the recollection of the half fulfilled quest to reopen the fair realm of old, she sets out to finish what she began.