Norton and Lackey add to their swelling, long-gestated epic fantasy begun with The Elvenbane (1991). A friendly dragon rescues the red-haired half-blood child Shana, abandoned daughter of Elf-Lord Dyran and his star-crossed concubine Serina Daeth, and raises her among her own brood. Later, Shana is cast out as being too powerful a sorcerer and is captured by the Iron People but, assisted by the fleeing brother and sister Lorryn and Rena, she overthrows Jamal, War Chief of the Iron People, and even breaks the power of the Elvenlords, cruel oppressors of dragons and human-elven half-bloods. Now dissension visits the Elvenlords. When V’kel Lyon Lord Kyndreth complains to his Elvenlords council that the Young Lords’ Rebellion is bleeding the kingdom, he worries as well that the “errant children” may decide to ally with the Elvenbane and her wizards and dragons. Meanwhile, V’kel Aelmarkiner-Lord Tornal allies himself with the disgraced but vicious and acidulous Triana, Lord of the Falcion holdings, to unseat his cousin, Lord Kyndreth. All may be politics among the Elvenlords, but Kyrtian V’dyll Lord Prastaran cares nothing for politics. His power is economic, for his farms feed and clothe the Lords of the Council. Even so, he finds himself caught in a feud between Great Lords.
Better than 1995’s Elvenblood but far from over.
