Mother Ocean, Daughter Sea
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
"Mother Ocean
Daughter Sea
Strength Unchanging
Strengthen Me"
The Shari'a are an ancient race. They are un-warlike and they are ruled by their shamanic witches. The Allemanii are more recently arrived in their locale and are both awed and made fearful by the magical powers of the witches. After generations of peaceful coexistence, a cataclysm occurred out of nowhere and the Allemanii turned on their neighbors and hosts, slaughtered most of them and scattered the survivors. Suddenly, to be a Shari'a is proscribed and to be caught practicing their magic is to be hunted to the death.
In MOTHER OCEAN, DAUGHTER SEA, Brierly, thinking herself to be the last of her long-lost kind, practices the forbidden ancient healing art at constant risk of her life. Execution is the penalty if she is caught but her need to help those who are themselves in need is stronger than any fear for her own safety. "If I am the last, I will be a flame to the end." But her attempt to save the wife of a nobleman sworn to wipe out her kind plunges her into a conspiracy of deceit and a hidden power struggle more deadly than anything she has ever known. Her fight for survival may lead her to a love for the ages and, perhaps, to discover the surviving remnants of her people--if she lives.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In fantasy, witches often suffer the same fate as most vampires trite, formulaic death by clich . Happily, Marcellas's lyrical, spellbinding debut, with its full-blooded characterizations, sidesteps the common pitfalls of "witch" fiction. Brierley Mefell, a young shari'a witch, lives on Yarvannet, a world of two suns, believing she's the last of her ancient race. The Yarvannet earls have not burned a shari'a witch in nearly 200 years, but Brierley takes care not to broadcast her powers. She leaves the coastal cave where she leads her lonely existence only when she receives a "calling" to perform a healing among the seafaring Allemanii, who long ago slaughtered the shari'a and destroyed Witchmere, their underground capital. Protecting the bewitching Brierley's refuge is an Everlight, an object that suggests the extraordinarily gifted shari'a originally came from another world. After Brierley heals the wife of Melfallan, a handsome nobleman, she can no longer hide her powers and must plan to escape. However, the discovery of young Megan, another shari'a, makes her search for survival and the keys to shari'a history even more important. Despite the use of certain romantic stereotypes (caves, ancient books, forbidden love, dragons, magical forests, etc.), this first of a three-book series provides ample enchantment.
