Title: Die Highlanderin (#1 in Die Highlanderin series)

Author: Eva Fellner

Pages: 505

Hi all,

It pleases me that I have found another interesting book series to write about. Unfortunately I could only find it to be in German. Therefore, I am glad to acquaint you with the story with this review.

Just to forewarn, it is a different kind of historic fiction than what I have written about before. In the other historic fictions the fictional characters lived in the same time as the historical figures. In this book, the author uses a few historical characters that lived 30/50/more years before or after the timeline during which the fictional characters lived. This was done to explain why the characters moved from one location to the next at specific points in time to meet with other historic figures.

The book consists of the following chapters:

• Chapter 1 – Scotland May 1307 (pg. 7)
  • King Edward I has called for the princes of his allied kings to marry with the daughters of the Scottish lairds and their princesses to marry with the sons of Scottish lairds so that the two different regions, England and Scotland, would unite their bonds after many decades of fighting.
  • At one such wedding, Enja, laird of Caerlaverock, has taken the place of Clan Laird Alexander Malcom Armstrong’s daughter, who was supposed to marry with the English Baron Henry de Keighley. The ceremony is held and when the vows have been exchanged and the kiss is about to seal the marriage, a knife emerges from under the wedding gowns and stabs the husband.
  • In a swift move, she is out of the dress and only in her suit, that she wore below it and has rushed away through the panicked crowed.
• Chapter 2 – Iceland 1289 (pg. 25)
  • There is a ceremonial good bye for Enja. She doesn’t quite understand what it is about, but she knows that she will likely never see her country again. They head for the sea and travel for many days on end without setting sight of any nearby lands. One day, they are surprised by a sudden large wave in the distance. Even the experienced sailors are open-mouthed by its size. They are unable to escape it and soon their ship is shattered to pieces by its impact. Enja and her mother have managed to keep hold on to each other and finally find a piece of wood from the ship that will help to stay afloat. It however, only holds one and therefore her mother pushes her on. Knowing she cannot survive in the cold water for much longer she wishes her daughter well and to keep fighting and then pushes herself away from the raft.
• Chapter 3 – Sea 1289 (pg. 43)
  • She is found by a ship passing by, full of people that looked so differently from the people of her own home. They were light-brown complexion and dark hair. The thing that has drawn their interest is the colour of her hair and eyes, a very light white with light-blue eyes. They also spoke a language that she couldn’t understand but they managed to exchange a few pieces of information with gestures and hand signals that appear to mean the same thing in both tribes.
  • She could not tell them from where she came, nor that she was from a rich household, as they had tried to ascertain. After understanding that their passenger would not be able to be returned to her homeland for a return fee, they took her downstairs to mark her. Held down by a few crew members, one crew member applied a tattoo mark on her forehead, which she later learned was a upside-down cross, with the arms broken, which meant she was a Christian slave. She would be sold as a slave and was transported by her middle-eastern captors to the port of Muza to be sold.
  • Since she had unique features, she was not mistreated but kept well-fed in the hopes of getting a good price.
  • Once they arrived it was not long until she was sold to someone called Master Abdallah.
• Chapter 4 – Muza 1293 (pg. 69)
  • The slave girls that Master Abdallah purchases are taken to his residence outside of Muza to be educated and subsequently resold to wealthier members of society to become members of their harems. Not necessarily as another member of the harem, but to have a high ranking role to manage the harem internally.
• Chapter 5 Muza 1293 (pg. 77)
  • A few years have passed since her arrival to Master Abdallah’s place and it is finally time for one girl, Zarah, to be sent off and serve her new master. During this day Enja tries to escape, but does not succeed and her time and education continues.
• Chapter 6 Muza 1294 (pg. 85)
  • News has reached Master Abdallah that the sultan was coming to town to help his son to build his own harem. The son fancies girls with lighter hair, which is in Master Abdallah’s favour since many slaves that he acquires are from the European continent. They would be making their way to Sultan Fahrudin’s palace in Bagdad and therefore the preparations are on the way for the trip.
  • This would be Enja’s chance to try and escape once again, since it was very busy in the streets of Bagdad and she would therefore be able to flee unobserved and vanish into the crowd. Her friend Jasmine gives her a jambiya (a knife as they are made here) and bids her farewell as she slips away in the city.
• Chapter 7 – Scotland 1304 (pg. 97)
  • In the lands between Scotland and England the English troops were regularly roaming the lands and confiscating any resources that the armies needed for its continued march and struggle against the Scottish resistance. Two girls are sitting in the field, watching over the herd of horses for their laird. At the edge of the forest they notice a group of five soldiers on horseback coming towards them. One of the girls sprints for the horse leader and then leads the horses to safety, whilst the other girl has drawn and aimed her bow with arrow at the soldiers. Two are struck by her aim before she is killed. Two more soldiers follow where the other girl has fled to and are killed by a mysterious black-clad rider.
  • The knight is the last of the five and flees, meeting up with ten other soldiers further north. The black rider has followed them and taken another route so that the soldiers can be caught in an ambush at the close road ahead. She succeeds with her ambush and kills the ten soldiers and only the knight (William de Vallence) remains from before. They have a fight and he succeeds to injure her badly and then flees.
• Chapter 8 – Scotland 1304 (pg. 123)
  • The ambush had happened on a passage on the lands of the laird Douglas. The sons James- and Hugh Douglas, together with some of their men, returned from one of their own ventures when they came towards the passage on which lay all those deceased soldiers. They noted that all but one individual were dead. This individual was all clad in black and was a woman to their surprise.
  • They brought her back with them to their lairds castle and helped her that she may recover and hopefully tell them what had happened on the passage. It takes a few days before she is up on her feet again and she can tell them of the events on the passage. More days pass still and she recovers much better. She becomes better acquainted with the lairds elder son, James, but soon hears of the arrival of another stranger at the castle.
  • The man that has arrived is a clan member of the woman and soon after his arrival the two of them leave once again.
• Chapter 9 – Bagdad 1295 (pg. 171)
  • After fleeing from her Master Abdallah’s caravan, she now roams the streets of Bagdad, searching for anything that is edible. Eventually she ends up joining one of the street gangs, made up of other children that were abandoned and together they search for sufficient food for themselves.
  • One night, they steal from one wealthy man and flee to their hide-out. This night, one of the other street gangs has ambushed them in their hide-out and they give them their proceeds from the night. However, Khalil, Enja’s leader, ends up in a struggle with the other gang leader and they fall from the roof top. At the bottom, Enja and the two gang leaders are caught by the local soldiers who will now bring them to the local judge so they may receive their punishment for all the crimes they have committed.
  • The next morning it is proclaimed that their one hand needs to be chopped off. Khalil doesn’t survive the ordeal. When the executioner swings his axe down on Enja’s arm he doesn’t make his mark and only a portion is severed. The local medic, Isaak, proclaims that the punishment had been fulfilled, one blow, and takes her with him.
• Chapter 10 – Bagdad & Alamut 1295 (pg. 199)
  • After being rescued by Master Isaak he made her his assistant and together they traveled all over the country aiding people and treating their ailments. It went so far that Enja, now called Eran to disguise her identity, began doing the majority of the medicine preparations and also operations.
  • One day, on their way to the next location, they are met by riders from the sheikh of Alamut. Their master has an ailment that other doctors were yet unable to heal. They unwillingly accompany them and then help to diagnose the cause of the distresser. After healing, he offers them to become the official doctors for his castle. Isaak refuses, because there is bad blood between his and the sheikh’s people, whereupon he is killed on the spot. Eran is knocked out.
• Chapter 11 – Scotland 1305 (pg. 241)
  • After returning to her own castle the work continued as per usual. Her companion, Hal, who had accompanied her from Alamut, had found her at the Douglas castle a few weeks earlier. It has come to their attention that the Scottish claimant Robert The Bruce is in conflict with King Edward I and some Scottish clans supported his claim to the independent crown. As the conflict went on, some clans were defeated by King Edward, and their lairds dragged back to the prison under the Tower of London.
  • One such prisoner was Laird of Douglas castle. Though he had not yet been involved in any battles, his support for the traitorous king was enough to drag him to prison. His sons, though no crimes committed, could not be left free to join the rebellion king. Therefore, they were sent to a prison camp.
  • Enja and Hal headed to London so she may remain out of the conflict as much as possible and hopefully be permitted to officially be acknowledged as the laird of Caerlaverock castle. Even if she proclaimed to be a subject and pay taxes to King Edward, she wanted her claim recognized and stay out of the conflict. However, he would not recognize her, a woman, to be a laird. Only if she married would the man hold the title. Infuriated by this, she talks back at him, whereafter he proclaims her to be a traitor of the crown and in cahoots with Robert the Bruce, which is punishable by death. She is locked in the tower.
• Chapter 12 – Alamut 1297 (pg. 281)
  • Eran has become the official medic of the sheikh. Many years have passed and she has improved her work and even learnt many new things from the local warrior teachers (assassin teachers) so that she can help them make their work more efficient.
  • One day, a local sheikh from a neighboring tribe declares war on Alamut. They have always know that war can happen at any time and therefore have improved the fortifications of their castle so that they would have the best possible defence when they are confronted by it. The attacker has made two attempts on the castle and in both cases noted that the castle is too well fortified. Therefore, he decides to stage a siege instead. Weeks pass and the people become nervous since they know that they cannot hold a siege forever. Thus, the sheikh calls in his princes and other advisors, amongst them Eran. He calls for suggestions. All make different suggestions but the sheikh dismisses them all. Eran then suggests that they should assassinate the leader of the siege leader. She places her bet that they would all leave if they were leaderless. He accepts her suggestion.
  • Eran is then taught some important lessons an assassin should know since she volunteered for the mission. After successfully killing their enemy leader, the siegers turn back and Eran decides to become trained in the arts of assassination.
• Chapter 13 – London 1305 (pg. 309)
  • One the day of the execution of Enja, Hal had managed to gather many of their people from the castle to be amongst the gathering crowd. The charges are read and a disturbance is caused. This leads to Enja being freed by her people and disappearing. The locals are caught unaware of what had just happened since they had come to view the execution of a woman traitor and they had disappeared in a matter of a moment.
• Chapter 14 – Alamut 1299 (pg. 323)
  • Eran continues her trainning to become an effective assassin for her sheikh. Now and then new reruits come to their castle in the hopes of having a better life.
  • One day, three recruits are at their doors. One of them is a European named Hal, who bears the same tattoo on his forehead that Eran got when she was saved from the sea many years ago. He had also been enslaved after coming from a ship that had been taken over by pirates near the coasts of Gibraltar. He had ended up to serving the sheikh Saladin, who had been in conflict with the Christian Crusaders. She takes him under her wing.
• Chapter 15 – Leicester Castle 1305 (pg. 343)
  • James and Hugh Douglas had indeed ended up in a prison camp due to their father’s allegiance to the traitorous king. They, and their surviving clansmen were tasked to mine stones from the quarry which would then be used in the construction of the castle.
  • By chance Enja and Hal had heard of their location from a stone mason in the pub and hence decided to help free them. They gather their own people from their own clan and develop a plan to ambush the local soldiers and successfully, without suffering any casualties, free the Douglas clan peoples.
• Chapter 16 – Alamut 1299 (pg. 379)
  • Eran has successfully proven her worth and has been named a price of the sheikh. On the eve of the celebrations Hal walks to his room for an early night and walks past Eran’s room where he hears noises. He peeks inside and notices one of the sheikh’s harems women and another man, Nabil. They notice him and stop their actions. The girl flees and the man threatens him if he tells anyone of this night.
  • A few hours later, Nabil and the sheikh await the arrival of Eran. One of the harem girls has been found to have been together with another man the night before and Nabil was tasked to investigate. He claims to have found Eran’s crown from the ceremony in the location where the girl said her transgressions had happened. Right then, Hal enters the hall, hears these allegations and then calls on the sheikh to have the girl brought here to identify her man.
  • When she comes forth, Eran notices at once who it is, Jasmine. They recognize each other at once and the others also realize that Eran is in fact a female. Nabil is shocked by the revelation and tries to flee, but is killed on the spot.
• Chapter 17 – Dumfries 1306 (pg. 405)
  • James has since his freedom joined Robert The Bruce on his campaign to gain Scottish freedom from the British crown. After one unsuccessful campaign, he and his soldiers are on the run with one noble soldier to get help at Caerlaverock from their renowned healers.
  • They are welcomed as guests and recover well, but their ill guest takes longer to recover. James explains to Enja that they had been surprised by the British at night and therefore lost many good people and all had fled to the north. They had taken shelter somewhere, which is where their one man had taken ill. It turns out to have been poisoning, from amongst his own people.
  • One night, their guest has regained consciousness and they declare to hold a feast in his honour, which is where Hugh calls for the speedy recovery of their guest, Robert.
• Chapter 18 – Alamut 1299 (pg. 431)
  • The Mongoles had cause a lot of havoc in the Orient and expanded their empire. One son of Ghengis Khan, Huelegue Chan, ruled over the Turkish territories and expanded ever further south. One of the cities, the scientific capital of the world at that time, was Bagdad. He had conquered it and would likely also soon set his sights on other kingdoms in the surrounding areas.
  • Sheikh Hassan I-Shabbah did not wish his treasures to land in the hands of this invader and therefore tasked Enja to take half of it and travel to another region where they were bound to be safe. If this was also no longer safe then they should travel further. Many of the treasures he would give her also included papyrus scrolls with knowledge of all kinds. Knowledge which had also partially been stored in Bagdad, but now would have been turned to ashes.
  • Thus, she plans the items that would come along on the carvan and other rations that need to be taken along. Even though this was only planned to be a temporary solution, she had understood that this was very likely a permanent good bye.
• Chapter 19 – Caerlaverock 1306 (pg. 459)
  • After realizing who her guest is she berates James for not letting her know sooner. She had managed to stave off two battles with King Edward already and had remained out of the conflict that he had with Robert and now she was housing him. He had put her clan in much more danger now and therefore she planned with her clan to make more preparations for a possible conflict with King Edward I.
• Chapter 20 – Caerlaverock 1306 (pg. 495)
  • A few days later, troops are spotted to be coming onto her lands and the people are ordered to make the preparations they had been training for in case of conflict.
• Afterword (pg. 503)

Summary:

The story touches on many different topics that were going on at the time: European slaves to the middle east, theft is punished by loss of a limb, women are not permitted to have property but only their laird, the king being able to declare anyone a traitor by his mere word, etc. Yet Enja is resolute and never gives up, no matter what she is faced with. An adventure that spans across multiple different counties and draws influences and technologies used from different places at her present homestead.

It is definitely an adventure worth reading, which is why it will take a rating of 4/5.

Enjoy your reading!