When her daughter is attacked by sea raiders, Mariah goes hunting for vengeance only to discover a strange magic that threatens all she holds dear.
Even four hundred years after the Half-Elven Rebellion, turmoil is Mariah’s constant companion, but she must face her problems alone. Ashton, her ring-mate, has gone spying on their southern enemies. She fights with Linden, the ruler and Ashton’s brother, constantly. Tired of the bickering, she seeks a peaceful life as a healer.
When her daughter’s family is attacked by sea-going raiders, Mariah falls apart. Ashton feels her distress and uses his elf magic to return to the Marches. He urges her to go hunting for vengeance against the killers.
Excerpt
Once Upon a Spring Evening
When All Was Quiet
In the Marches of the Far Isles
1597
“Stop interfering, woman.”
The Lord High Commander's growling words boomed through the Healing Hall.
Mariah glared back at Linden. Though she no longer wore a sword or visited his ranger camp, Mariah still dressed in warrior's breeches and knee-high boots, much as he did. Only her honor belt, embossed with as many death stars as his, displayed healer's insignias on its interlocking buckles.
The slim, hesitant youth, who had shared her bed with his half-brother long years ag, had been swallowed by this stocky, graying, angry man. His large nose almost touched hers, bringing his sharp elven teeth close enough to bite. The heat of his anger brushed against her tan skin. Mariah tensed, ready to defend herself and the others in the room.
The air in the public area crackled.
The Half-Elven patients and their families cowered against the walls, increasing Mariah's anger at the stupid clod who dared to growl at her. Their audience rolled their eyes like nervous horses, fearing what the combatants might do. They pulled what energy they could from the air to strengthen their protective shields. Mariah's skin itched from the static raised by their efforts. But she focused her attention on the ruler who had once been one of her closest friends.
In a voice a third as loud as Linden's, Mariah said, “Calm down, you fool. You're disturbing the patients.”
“Blast your patients. I'm warning you.” Linden’s face turned red. “Get your nose out of my business.”
“I was just consoling the girl.”
“My affairs don't concern you.”
“Elysianna deserves better than being dropped cold by a coward.”
Linden's face grew redder. “By the Fates, I wish Ashton was still here to put a leash around your neck.”
“Well, he isn't here.” Mariah controlled her sigh, hiding her sorrow at her ring-mate's absence. “You sent him spying on our southern enemies.”
Mariah took a deep breath, ready to yell back at Linden's next comment.
The hall's head healer appeared in the doorway that lead to the consulting rooms, her hands folded in front of her. A scowl darkened her face. “Quiet, the two of you. Take your disagreement elsewhere.”
Thick silence spread over the room.
“She rules here. Go drill your troops or something.” Mariah whispered. “I came here to help not cause the patients discomfort.”
The force of Mariah's glare pushed Linden towards the door. He stomped away, looking as mulish as he had when his father forced him to clean the byre as a boy. Mariah shooed him on his way as if her hands were a broom.
Her face calm in spite of her thumping heart, Mariah turned. “Who's next?”
No one moved until a small boy touched her hand. He looked up at her sideways, ready to run. “My granny's tooths hurt.”
With a closed-lipped smile hiding her pointed front teeth, Mariah clasped his
hand. “Shall we stop them from hurting?”
“That'd be nice, Lady. Then she can chew ham again. She does enjoy a nice slice of ham.”
The Half-Elven in the hall shifted, many chuckling softly. Those who showed no amusement were too sick, ill from human complaints they lacked the elf skills to heal.
Mariah extended her hand to the grandmother. “Do you need help?”
The granny, a withered women dressed in peasant skirts with thin white braids wrapped around her head, looked up from her bench.
“I could use a hand in rising from the bench, Lady.”
Smiling her closed-lipped smile, Mariah bent to help her to the consulting rooms.
#
Mariah lifted her arms over her head, stretching to feel the full impact of the retreating gale. If only Ashton and I could sail away from our troubles with our daughter!
Tired from a day of mediating petty disputes for her holding and helping at the healer's hall, Mariah stood on a promontory over-looking the churning eastern sea. The wind whipped her loose chestnut hair around her head. The gusts tempted her to ride the buffeting air currents, not keeping her pointed ears politely tacked to her head out of sight under her hair. The illusion of freedom teased the weight of time and sorrow from her thoughts.
For a moment she thought of removing her shirt to feel the wind against her unbound breasts but changed her mind. Flight held no allure without Ashton next to her. When alone, they often sailed the air currents, making love, their souls merging until their bodies glowed and sparked with their commingled power.
Her mind reached out to caress the tether of woven energy between them. Ashton was angry. Her lips tightened, but she couldn’t help him. They had agreed to live apart to ease Linden's complaints that they picked at him, two against one.
:Mother, where are you?
Her daughter’s silent cry riveted Mariah’s attention. Norerah and her family should be far at sea by now. Unexpected pain invaded her mind as she sought out her daughter, only to catch a dim glimpse of her own hall far to the west.
:Ambush.
The thought was a bare whisper before the connection between them went dark. Mariah transferred home across the leagues without thinking and found her daughter bleeding on the floor of her own hall. A harpoon pierced the babe in her carrypack and opened a gaping wound across Norerah’s back until it embedded in her shoulder. Her daughter's reddish-brown warrior’s braid fell across the blood-soaked rag rug the two had stitched together during the long winter nights.
Kneeling by the expanding stain, Mariah struggled to remain calm. She took a deep breath as her fingers traced the path of the harpoon barb under the skin. Using the magic that made her a skilled healer, she mentally probed the broken ribs and lacerated flesh as she sought the source of pulsing blood. She needed to stop the flow; Norie had already lost too much.
Mariah took deep breaths to stay calm. The aftermath of battles always crippled her thinking. She forced the mocking memory of her elder son, sprawled on a battlefield pierced by arrows, from her mind. The healer had no time to soothe that wound to her heart. Only a thread tied her daughter’s life to this world.
Twisting her hair into a knot with bloody hands, Mariah bit her lip. I refuse to give her up to the Fates! The Summerlands can’t have her. One child is enough to give up too early.
Professional Reviews
A Tale That Is Timeless
This is a story that is familiar to all. In the land of the Far Isles we find the peace loving Half-Elfin people. This is a tale of bigotry and hatred. Of violence perpetrated on women and children to satisfy their own sense of supremacy.
This is the type of story that will have you on the edge of your seat. It is not hard to empathize with Mariah as she seeks vengeance for the death of her child. The invaders that she is after possess a strange magic that is difficult to overcome. This forces, our heroine to have to ask for help from one of the very men that she once shunned.
When you start on this journey. Your mind will be filled with a beery it of questions. It will be quite difficult to stop yourself from paging through to the and to find out what happens, but you mustn't. Take each page , and as if it was a succulent dessert favorite because when the story finally and you will be wishing to know more about these brave and courageous people. This one left me waiting with bated breath for another installment and you will too.
Enjoyable read
M. K. Theodoratus is an novelist I will add to my list of authors who can truly conjure up an imaginative world that seems near real. In this world of half elves, magic and illusions, many things can happen, but it's the characters themselves that win the story for me. Mariah stands out for me as being someone who just fascinates.
So with good dialog and interesting characters, this is a fantasy adventure novel I enjoyed, and I suspect many others will enjoy too.
Half elves - full baked story
Fantasy novels enchant me, no doubt. But boy was this book special! Not only did I enjoy reading the story but the great characters that it presents are definitely some of the best I have read.
The story focuses on Mariah. She is a half-elf and is a sort of hero among her people. Despite her appeal among her people, she shuns violence and instead wants to be a nice individual who can help her people. But fate holds something else in store for her. Her own family is attacked by privateers and her calm self gives way to rage and she is looking to destroy those that tried to hurt her family and her people.
But what she and her people do not know is about a secret magic that the invaders possess. It then becomes extremely difficult to fight the invaders and so she approaches Linden for help. It was the same Linden that she once went away from.
Will the half elven people stand united against the invaders and will they be able to defeat them? The story answers all of this and more in an interesting way, which is not too lengthy but is extremely interesting at the same time. I wish I had more to read about them, but I guess I just can't get enough despite all that the books has to offer. This is, IMO, mainly due to the amazingly vivid pictures painted by the author through the words used and the way the story is put across to the reader. Kudos to the author and I have to say - I am really loving your stories!
