#Shadowed orb of torment free

Serina smiled at her reflection, and examined the smile with careful detachment. Her mother called her figure 'generous,' but that was an understatement, and said nothing about the slim waist, kept that way by years of dancing lessons, the hips that could distract even hardened gladiators from their practice, and the high, proud breasts that did more than distract them, to the point that her father had forbidden her the practice ground since she was thirteen. Her hair was a fiery red her eyes so dark a violet as to be nearly black, and seething with carefully controlled emotion. Serina went counter, wildly counter, to that standard. That meant pale gold hair worn loose, or garlanded with artificial flowers made of gemstones creamy rose-and-white complexions wide, childlike blue eyes sylph-slim figures. She was trying to be as elvenlike as possible, fashioning herself after the highbred maidens she'd seen being paraded before Lord Dyran in hopes of a marriage alliance. Serina knew very well what Rowenie was using as a model, even if the other girls hadn't figured it out yet. The current standard of beauty in Lord Dyran's harem.as set by the style of his favorite.was for an ethereal, innocent, fresh look. She was in competition with the best, and that left no room for anything other than perfection. She nodded a little, and turned her attention to her makeup. Serina pinned an errant strand of russet hair back in place, and surveyed her image in her silver-rimmed mirror critically. No, never, not after what she had been, all she had fought to achieve.Īll she had fought to achieve. To be given to some underling, or to the fighters as a breeder.or worst of all, given to Leyda as a servant. And even if Dyran didn't kill her, he'd have cast her off. To be pregnant with an elf-lord's child, a halfblood, was a death sentence unless the lord was very lenient. Lord Dyran had left before Serina realized she was pregnant.Īs soon as she knew, she had been in a panic.

#Shadowed orb of torment free

Would that it had lasted longer! I would have been free of this burden, and none the wiser! That had been several months ago, just before Lord Dyran went off to Council. She must have substituted all of Serina's food for a month with that intended for the elves. When Leyda failed to oust Serina as favorite, and realized that Lord Dyran had no intention of replacing Serina, she had not given' up. Lord Dyran had found their rivalry amusing, and encouraged it, by promising Leyda any number of things, but keeping Serina in the number-one position. I will live, I will return, and I will find a way to make her suffer. It was just a matter of making common cause until Leyda was ousted.īut Dyran returned from Council unexpectedly, and Leyda was waiting. Leyda had enemies all the women of the harem had enemies. She couldn't have told Lord Dyran what Leyda had done to her, but she could have found some way to bring her down. She had planned to get rid of it, then return to the harem to give that bitch Leyda Shaybrel exactly what she deserved. A few days ago she had hopes of hiding her pregnancy until the damned brat was delivered. Her throat and mouth were so dry there was nothing left from the dew she'd drunk this morning, lapping it off the rocks like an animal.Ī few months ago she had been Lord Dyran's favorite. She couldn't see her feet under the swollen ball of her belly.she felt them, though, every step an agony. It was hard to think, hard to remember that she must keep moving. The sun.it was high overhead now, beating down upon her, trying to evaporate her. Serina clung to her name as the only thing she was still certain of, the only thing the sun could not burn away from her. Her destiny is the enthralling adventure of a lifetime. From birth, Shana was the embodiment of the Prophecy that the all-powerful Elvenlords feared. Her exiled mother dead, she was rescued and raised by dragons, a proud, ancient race who existed unbeknownst to elven or humankind.

This is the story of Shana, a halfbreed born of the forbidden union of an Elvenlord father and a human mother. Series: Halfblood Chronicles Elvenbane Mercedes Lackey