โ Scribed by C. E. Murphy
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
Fiercely intelligent, beautiful, and ready to claim her birthright, she navigates a dangerous world torn between war and witchpower.
Seduction and stealth are Belinda Primroseโs skillsโweapons befitting the queenโs bastard daughter, a pawn of espionage conceived by Lorraine, ruler of Aulun, and her lover and spymaster, Belindaโs father. Now an accomplished assassin, Belinda uncovers the true game her father never intended her to play. For Belinda has found her witchpower, a legacy born from something not of this earth. In a treacherous world where religion and rebellion rule, Lorraine is now in a position to sweep over the countries of Echon and to back her chosen successor to the throne: Belinda.
But Belinda is no longer anyoneโs pawn. Lured by the sensual dark magic of Dmitri, envoy to a neighboring throne, yet still drawn to the witchlord embrace of her former lover, Javier, Belinda knows that she has entered a realm where power and control go to those who can master and manipulate their fiercest desires. For the witchpower depends on the skill its wielder holds.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
In Murphy's crisply written sequel to 2008's alternate history The Queen's Bastard , aliens known as the Heseth, the people of the sun, have visited Earth in what would be our 16th century, but the supernatural elements are limited to the occasional use of magical abilities. The plot is more focused on the struggle for power in Echon (Europe), which features familiar rivalries between Aulun (England), Gallin (France) and the Prussian Confederation. As political tensions heat up, Belinda, the witchfire-wielding assassin and illegitimate daughter of Aulun's Queen Lorraine, faces relationship problems with Javier de Castille, prince of Essandia (Spain) and Gallin, and with her overbearing mother. Murphy tends toward long discussions of war, succession and various attempts by the Heseth to influence human development, mostly balanced by clever intrigue and raw, explicit sex scenes. (May)
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The much-anticipated sequel to The Queenโs Bastard (2008) wonโt disappoint patient readers willing to dedicate time and thought to the myriad political machinations in the weighty first nine-tenths of the book. Belinda Primrose, back in Aulun, is finally recognized after saving the navy from the Gallin Armada while being mistaken for the Madonna. Javier de Castilleโs witch-power is deemed a gift from God by the Pappas, allowing him latitude to use it as he wars against Aulun, attempting to bring it back into the ecumenical fold. Battles, marriages, assassinations, changes of allegiance, and political intrigue strip the protagonists down to their cores as they lose everything and gain something else. With secrets of Belindaโs and Javierโs true beginnings revealed, Belinda reevaluates her fealty to an alien queen lurking in space and her responsibilities to the world into which she was born. Readers will have to await future installments of the Inheritorsโ Cycle to know how it all finally comes out. --Herald Diana Tixier
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Fiercely intelligent, beautiful, and ready to claim her birthright, she navigates a dangerous world torn between war and witchpower. Seduction and stealth are Belinda Primrose's skills'weapons befitting the queen's bastard daughter, a pawn of espionage conceived by Lorraine, ruler of Aulun, and her
Fiercely intelligent, beautiful, and ready to claim her birthright, she navigates a dangerous world torn between war and witchpower. Seduction and stealth are Belinda Primrose's skills'weapons befitting the queen's bastard daughter, a pawn of espionage conceived by Lorraine, ruler of Aulun, and her
Fiercely intelligent, beautiful, and ready to claim her birthright, she navigates a dangerous world torn between war and witchpower. Seduction and stealth are Belinda Primrose's skills'weapons befitting the queen's bastard daughter, a pawn of espionage conceived by Lorraine, ruler of Aulun, and her
Fiercely intelligent, beautiful, and ready to claim her birthright, she navigates a dangerous world torn between war and witchpower. Seduction and stealth are Belinda Primroses skillsweapons befitting the queens bastard daughter, a pawn of espionage conceived by Lorraine, ruler of Aulun, and her lo
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