Captain Laren Mapstone recalls Rider history!

Spirit of the Wood (Green Rider #8) by Kristen Britain   

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A trainee rider, an undetected empath Tavin Bankside, is accompanying Lieutenan Laren to the North through the Green Forest via a town notorious for where bandits and worse gather. Mapstone is a target for the brigands, some of whom are what’s left of the Darrow Raiders, those vicious thugs who’d butchered her beloved Sam.

Unknown to the Green Rider’s administration, Trainee Tavin doesn’t know how to handle his particular gift. To him it is a curse.

As Tavin and Laren  journey they are surprised by a group of marauders and Mapstone is severely injured. Somehow Tavin manages to get her to the protected Waystation within the Forest.

Forester Abram Rust has noted a disturbance and after battling more bandits reaches them. He immediately sends Tavin off to find a mysterious hermit who lives in the Forest. The hermit terms himself a Wanderer, and might be able to heal Mapstone.

The Hermit is a strange, otherworldly fellow who recognises Tavin’s gift and teaches him to shield and ground himself. (Mapstone has been leaking her inner memories strongly and Tavin has been unable to avoid them. It has been pure hell for Tavin as Laren’s terrors and traumas have overwhelmed him.) Eventually Tavin’s able to help Mapstone who’s been struggling in a cycle of grief and anger, so frozen by all she’s experienced and seen that she’s psychologically locked herself away. Tavin helps her go from the withdrawn Ice Lady to a Lieutenant who is able to acknowledge her memories, freeing her to have the more normal relationships of fellowship with the Green Riders, rather than avoiding them.

An interesting addition to the Green Rider’s history. Unique, unusual and enduring.

A DAW ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.