Meliara and her brother promised their dying father to free Renalna from a bad king’s oppressive rule and to preserve the vital Covenant with Renalna’s aloof, inhuman Hill People. Meliara, the stubborn barefoot countess, is determined to win or die fighting. But she not only has the evil king to contend with, there’s the elegant Marquis of Shevraeth, who alway seems to be one step ahead…Brought to court by a mysterious letter, young Countess Meliara finds herself the subject of courtly intrigue, both sinister and romantic, on the part of the deposed king’s sister, the enigmatic Marquis of Shevraeth, and a secret suitor. Meliara has to contend with the mysteries of politics and the mysteries of romance. Is risking your life less dangerous than risking your heart? This special edition has been completely re-edited, with the addition of inserted outtake scenes at the end.


Sherwood Smith was a teacher for twenty years, teaching history, literature, drama, and dance. Before that she worked in the film industry for several years. She writes science fiction and fantasy for adults and young readers; she has been working on the Sartorias-deles fantasy series all her life.

Readers ask where to start reading in the Sartorias-deles series? That seems a simple question, but it’s not simple to answer when a writer has been at it their entire life. Here are groupings according to possible entry points:

HISTORICAL ARC

“Lily and Crown”

Inda

The Fox

King’s Shield

Treason’s Shore

Time of Daughters (two volumes)

Banner of the Damned

To skip the past and start with the MODERN ERA, there are three starting points (two, if you begin with the children’s stories)

CHILDREN’S STORIES, (written when I was a kid) which introduce many of the characters central to later arcs.

CJ Notebooks

Senrid

Spy Princess

Sartor

All these come together in Fleeing Peace. If you don’t want to wade through all the kids’ stories, I suggest Spy Princess as a starting point, followed by Sartor, then Senrid, A Stranger to Command, then Fleeing Peace.

After that, the Rise of the Alliance begins.

A Stranger to Command is a prequel to Crown Duel, and occurs at the same time as A Sword Named Truth.

The second starting point skips the children’s stories, and shifts to a more adult POV in the RISE OF THE ALLIANCE arc.

A Sword Named Truth

The Blood Mage Texts

The Hunters and the Hunted

Nightside of the Sun

The third starting point would be the ROMANTIC STORIES, which mostly stand alone:

Crown Duel

The Trouble with Kings

Sasharia En Garde

THE NORSUNDER WAR

The Wicked Skill

Ship Without Sails

Marend of Marloven Hess (Oct. 2022)

Seek to Hold the Wind (Nov. 2022)

All Things Betray (Dec. 2022)

A Chain of Braided Silver (Jan. 2023)

The POSTWAR books and stories:

“Beauty” [published in Remalna Stores

“Court Ship” [published in Remalna Stores

Let the Torrent Dance Thee Down (May 2023)

Antiphony (September 2023)