The Lady of the Lake (Sapkowski novel)

The Lady of the Lake (Polish original title: "Pani Jeziora") is the fifth and final novel in the Witcher Saga written by Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski, first published in Poland in 1999. It is a sequel to the fourth "Witcher "novel, "The Tower of Swallows" ("Wieża Jaskółki").
Plot.
Frame story (I).
Sir Galahad, King Arthur's knight, stumbles upon Ciri bathing, mistaking her for The Lady of the Lake. After correcting him, Ciri recounts her story, but warns him it does not have a happy ending. By way of example, she confesses to Galahad that the blood staining her clothes came from friends who died in her arms after she failed to save them.
Frame story (II).
Years after the events of the main story, a young sorceress, Condwiramurs, is apprenticed to Nimue, the (true) Lady of the Lake, to study the legend of Geralt and Ciri. Condwiramurs's magical talent is clairvoyant dreams, which are stimulated by studying the paintings and other images of the semi-mythic story.
Yennefer.
Stefan Skellen, the coroner of Nilfgaard, is working with the sorcerer Vilgefortz, who has imprisoned the sorceress Yennefer (Geralt's lover and Ciri's foster mother) in some unknown castle.
Geralt.
Geralt and his company - Dandelion, Regis, Milva, Angoulême, and Cahir - have been relaxing in the small duchy of Toussaint, while Geralt is distracted by monster-hunting contracts and by a passionate affair with the Duchess's court sorceress, Fringilla Vigo. Fringilla is secretly a member of the newly-formed Lodge of Sorceresses, which wishes both to take its own revenge on Vilgefortz and capture Ciri for their own political ends, and thus have ordered Fringilla to prevent Geralt from seeking either of them out. Geralt is spurred into action when his latest contract takes him into a cave being used for a secret meeting between Skellen and several rebellious Nilfgaardian nobles, plotting the Emperor's overthrow. Overhearing Vilgefortz's location from Skellen, Geralt rushes back to his party and orders them to prepare to leave immediately. Unable to prevent him leaving, Fringilla seduces Geralt one last time to learn the location, which she passes on triumphantly to the Lodge. The Sorceresses teleport their own strike force to the location, only to find an abandoned castle. Fringilla's superiors acidly inform her that her powers of seduction were not so great as to make Geralt tell her the true location, since he is determined to reach Vilgefortz and Ciri first.
Dandelion, enjoying the company of his lover, the Duchess Anna Henrietta, decided to stay in Toussaint and not join the rest of the group in their rescue mission.
Ciri.
After escaping from Skellen and the bounty hunter Leo Bonhart (in the previous novel), Ciri was teleported to a foreign world, Aen Elle, which appears to be ruled by elves, who live in peace except for occasional fights with the unicorns. A magical barrier prevents her from leaving, and she complains about being kept prisoner, but she is told by the sage Avallac'h that in order to leave she must first bear the child of their king, Auberon. Avallac'h also explains that Ciri not only has elven blood, but she possesses a rare gene specifically engineered by the elves that will ensure her child is the most potent magic-user in history, a power that will be necessary to save the world - including Ciri's home and the people she cares about - from an impending cataclysm. Despite her reluctance, Ciri agrees, but Auberon is unexpectedly unable to perform, even after several nights.
Ciri confronts Avallac'h, demanding to be released if Auberon is unable or unwilling to fulfill his role in the agreement. Avallac'h urges her to be patient, reassuring her that time passes differently in Aen Aelle, and no matter how long it takes for her to bear the child, once she has done so, she will be returned to her own time. By contrast, Eredin Breacc Glas, the commander of a cavalry unit that guards the kingdom from unicorns, tells Ciri that she will never be free of their world; if the king fails to impregnate her, then someone else will.
After the king's latest failure, Ciri rides her horse, Kelpie, as far as she can from the castle, but the barrier prevents her from escaping. But she is confronted by several unicorns, one of whom, Ihuarraquax, she saved from death (in "The Time of Contempt"). The unicorns then reveal how she can bypass the barrier, and she asks that Ihuarraquax come with her.
Before leaving, she concedes that Auberon has been kind to her in spite of her situation, and returns to the castle to say goodbye to him. She finds him dying after drinking a phial of liquid given to him by Eredin as an aphrodisiac (it is left open to interpretation whether Eredin deliberately poisoned the king, or whether the king overdosed on the otherwise harmless substance). Ciri stays with Auberon until he dies, then steals a boat for herself and Kelpie, which is revealed to be the only way to pass the barrier. She is confronted by Eredin, enraged by her attempt to escape. A brief battle ensues, in which she injures Eredin and escapes to join Ihuarraquax and other unicorns waiting for her. Eredin and his riders chase her, and a battle between the Dearg Ruadhri (Eredin's Red Riders) and the unicorns ensues. Ciri, in the midst of chaos, teleports out of the world with the assistance of Ihuarraquax. After jumping between several worlds and times, she eventually appears before Nimue and Condwiramurs, who wish her luck on her journey and provide a portal to the right place and time.
Jarre.
The story then follows Jarre, Melitele's temple scribe who chooses to join the army which has formed due to the alliance between all of the Northern Kingdoms to repel the invading Nilfgaardian army. He meets up with several individuals, including characters seen earlier in the story, and joins a unit called the PFI, or "Poor F**king Infantry." The two armies collide in a valley near the village of Brenna. The battle lasts several hours, with neither side gaining a clear advantage, until Elven units, led by Yaevinn, attack the flanks of the Northern army, going so far as to slaughter the injured in medical tents. As the Northern army finally starts to rout, a contingent of Redanian Forces charge over a hill that was not scouted beforehand. This causes panic amongst the Nilfgaardian forces, which soon are slaughtered. The commander of the Nilfgaardians, Coehoorn, is killed in an attempted escape. The battle is afterwards referred to as the Miracle at Brenna. The Northern alliance pushes all Nilfgaardian forces south of the Yaruga river, which served as the border, and a ceasefire is declared in order to make peace.
Climax.
Ciri is revealed to have gone to Vilgefortz's castle in order to save Yennefer herself, knowing that Yennefer would die without help. Ciri asks that Yennefer be released in exchange for herself, but Vilgefortz imprisons her anyway. Then, Geralt arrives at the castle. He and his group storm the castle, killing many of Skellen's men before eventually Milva dies from an enemy arrow. Geralt and Regis find Yennefer instead of his daughter, whereas Cahir and Angoulême go to save Ciri once they learn she is there. Yennefer is eventually saved. Then Geralt continues searching for Ciri to save her. Bonhart ambushes Ciri, desiring to kill her in a fair fight, but she flees and encounters Cahir, who wants to fight Bonhart himself to save Ciri. Cahir is killed outright, and soon after Angoulême dies from her wounds. Ciri and Bonhart soon fight, with Ciri finally winning by using the environment to her advantage. Ciri takes the three witcher medallions that Bonhart claimed to have taken off the corpses of witchers previously; Bonhart, humiliated at having been beaten and having to beg Ciri for his life, tries to attack her from behind. Ciri evades Bonhart, slits his throat and watches him bleed to death, before running to find Geralt and Yennefer.
Meanwhile, Geralt, Regis, and Yennefer seek and fight Vilgefortz. Regis is obliterated in the fight by Vilgefortz, turning into a molten mass of dust. Geralt and Vilgefortz fight, with Geralt being victorious (using the help of a magical medallion his lover Fringilla Vigo gave him back in Toussaint). Ciri and Geralt eventually find each other, and choose to go outside along with Yennefer. On their way to the courtyard, Geralt and Ciri kill more of Skellen's men. As they reach the courtyard, they find the Emperor of Nilfgaard's men taking the castle and imprisoning everyone. The Emperor is revealed to be Ciri's father, who faked his death years ago. The emperor turns out to be a firm believer in a prophecy, and wants to impregnate his own daughter and make her empress to ensure the safety of the world in the generations to come, the prophecy hinging on Ciri's special abilities and blood. After a long conversation with Emhyr (the emperor), Geralt understands the latter will issue him and Yennefer a death sentence as they are witnesses and now know sensitive information. Emhyr grants Geralt and Yennefer the option to commit suicide in a bath instead on their own leisure as an act of goodwill, while Ciri is taken to the capital of Nilfgaard to be married to the Emperor. Geralt, without much of a choice, accepts, and Yennefer and Geralt take a bath together, preparing to die. When they ask the guards for the dagger to finally put an end to their lives, Ciri eventually enters the room, saying that the Emperor and his men left without a word. The three soon leave, with Ciri leading the way to all of the places during her adventures earlier in the story in order to take revenge or pay her respects to those who have helped or hurt her during her journey. Yennefer is soon contacted by the Lodge of Sorceresses and is summoned to Montecalvo castle along with Ciri. Yennefer, having no choice, accepts, and departs from Geralt, telling him she will have to summon Ciri as well in a few days as they have to solve this matter. Geralt and Ciri continue traveling. He takes her to Touissant, arriving just in time to watch Dandelion face his execution. Dandelion is saved by a last moment whim of Duchess Anna Henrietta, who decided not to execute him after all. It is later revealed that he was caught cheating on the Duchess, and that the execution ceremony Geralt and Ciri witnessed was not the first he was spared from, given the Duchess's flaky personality and frequent change of heart. The trio exits Touissant in a hurry, afraid the Duchess will change her mind, after which Ciri departs to Montecalvo while Geralt and Dandelion head to Rivia.
In the meantime, the Lodge meets Ciri for the first time, revealing their plans to Ciri, as they meant to marry her off to Prince Tankred, the Kovirian heir. They make a point of telling her she's only meant to be his lover and bear his child, as they cannot guarantee marriage simply because she's no longer in possession of her birthright titles (notably the only heir of the Cintrian throne, as the emperor of Nilfgaard married a young girl upon whom this title had been falsely bestowed, thus making her the de facto ruler of Cintra and stripping the real Cirilla of any titles she had. Ciri, grown tired of all the plots to marry her off, impregnate her or just make plain use of her womb for a "greater cause", agrees to think about it and return to the Lodge after she discusses the matter with Geralt. She then asks to go with Yennefer and meet Geralt in Rivia, as planned. The Lodge votes (half against and half for), with Phillipa having the decisive vote in favor of letting Ciri go and see Geralt, arguing it's Ciri's destiny, thus tipping the scales.
During Geralt's time in Rivia, meeting with his old friends - Yarpen Zigren and Zoltan Chivay, a riot erupts, in which humans are killing non-humans indiscriminately. Geralt, in order to defend his dwarven friends, enters the fray and kills several individuals before being impaled on a pitchfork. Ciri, Yennefer, and Triss Merigold arrive in Rivia shortly after the rioting starts, and they eventually find Geralt on the verge of death. Before doing so, the two sorceresses manage to conjure up a spell that causes a brief storm, in which large hailstones drop from the sky, dispersing the rioting mob. Yennefer, in an attempt to heal Geralt, loses consciousness.
Ihuarraquax the unicorn, who seemingly had sacrificed himself to save Ciri previously, shortly appears running on the surface of the lake and channels his power through Ciri to apparently heal Geralt. Guided by the unicorn, Ciri then asks her friends to help her put the bodies of the two, Geralt and Yennefer, on a boat that appeared from nowhere out of fog. While Triss, Dandelion, and their dwarven friends say their goodbyes, Ciri takes off into the lake and the three disappear into the fog. Geralt and Yennefer awake in peace in an unknown location, (hinted to be the isle of Avalon due to the apples from the Arthurian Legends) comforting each other without knowing where they are.
Ciri ends recounting her tale to Galahad, who has been listening intently the entire time. When Galahad asks if that "is the end of the story"? Ciri says that she doesn't want the story to end like that, and says the tale ends with Yennefer and Geralt getting married, and that a celebration ensued between all the different dead and living characters of the saga and they live happily ever after. Ciri starts crying when finishing her story like a fairytale. Galahad eventually invites her to Camelot, which she accepts. They both are shown to be attracted to each other. The saga ends with Ciri and Galahad riding side by side, holding hands.
Translations.
It was published in Czech (Leonardo, 2000), Russian (AST, 2000), Spanish (Bibliopolis, 2006), Lithuanian (Eridanas, 2007), French (Bragelonne, 2011), German (DTV, 2011), Italian (Editrice_Nord, 2015), Finnish (WSOY, 2016) and Dutch (Luitingh-Sijthoff 2016). The English translation was released by Victor Gollancz on March 14, 2017 (Orbit/US) and March 16, 2017 (Orion/UK).