Meanwhile, the Lusetani have a few new tricks up their sleeves, and this is one of the main reasons that Toletum is under siege. Ekialde has been practicing blood magic, through his wife's uncle, Bailar, a magic man. Most recently, Bailar has been using the blood of their enemies or the weaker allies of Aven to summon evil spirits that can literally frighten the Aventan warriors to death, among other things. It will take every trick in the book for the warriors of Aven to stand a fighting chance.
Meanwhile, back in Aven, Latona Vitellia finds herself desperately missing Sempronius and pining for any word from him and her brother from the battlefields of Iberia. However, their letters are very proper, addressing each other as esteemed friends, while the Fire Mage secretly burns for him. She receives startling information from her youngest sister, Alhena, who is at their summer estate, that there have been strange sightings of spirits plaguing the local farmers and she seeks Latona's help, but also that of Sempronius's sister, Vibia, a gifted Fracture Mage. While there's no love lost between Latona and Vibia, the pair will find that they must work together to defeat that which plagues the area, especially since Alhena is having disturbing visions in which this evil is headed for Aven and wants nothing short of total destruction.
Naturally, Sempronius's political rivals seek to undermine him at every turn, back home in Aven and also on the battlefields in Iberia, especially Rabirus, who nearly costs Aven the entire war with his foolish choices. But Rabirus has other things on his mind, and finds himself aligning with a wicked force in his desperation to bring down Sempronius.
As with the previous book, I found myself more enthralled with the happenings surrounding Latona and not as much with Sempronius fighting the Lusetani, although the battles were interesting with the magical elements thrown in. When the perspective would switch to the Lusetani tribe, that was my least favorite aspect, but Ekialde and his wife, Neitin, do have a baby in this book, so the dangerous stakes in battle are much higher and Neitin will fight that much harder to get her husband out from the sway of Bailar and his blood magic.
If you enjoyed From Unseen Fire, you will enjoy Give Way to Night. It's a much darker story and I really liked it. I do have a college background in Latin, which makes reading this novel so much easier. If you don't, you may find it more difficult to get through, but the glossaries are there to help you. You just might find all of the declensions and names a bit difficult at first. It's worth the effort though.
