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| Category: Fiction:SciFi Fantasy Horror |
(requires Adobe Reader)
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| About the Book | |
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The medical officer for the 163rd Regiment, Helen is secretly in love with her commanding officer, Colonel Jackson Orlando, who returns her feelings but does not dare pursue her. Helen goes on a holiday visit to the Andros farm, where she encounters Lord Justin Atlas, a second cousin and a half-breed. A political crisis threatens when a state hostage becomes gravely ill. Lord James Mordecai, the Lord Protector, dispatches Orlando to fetch Helen to treat Prince Harnak. While she manages to save the hostage’s life, the Lord Protector reviews her service record and finds it disturbing. Seeing an image of Helen wearing the green stone, Lord James is shocked, and immediately suspects that she is his daughter. He gave that very same stone more than thirty years ago to his secret love: a Turanian woman named Miriam Andros. Agents of the Lord Chancellor, who for political considerations refused to provide the hostage with medical treatment, catch Helen unprotected inside Azgard's capital. A half-breed born in a foreign land, she is put on trial and sentenced to die. Lord James orders Orlando investigate Helen’s background, which yields a letter from Helen's presumed dead mother that names Lord James as her father. If he will acknowledge her publicly, he can save her life. Lord James; tough decision to acknowledge his daughter touches off a political firestorm between warring factions striving for control during the incapacity of the Exalted Lord, Kefren. It also leaves Lord James vulnerable to his political enemies. In a first strike, they make an unprecedented motion to remove Lord James from the Protectorship. The wily Consort, Lady Naomi, cajoles Prince Enoch, Lord Justin's father, into making public a proposed marriage between his son and Helen. The Consort suspects Prince Seti of poisoning Kefren, and wants Helen to examine and monitor Kefren in secret. Helen agrees to do it, although it will put her at risk of death again. Helen also sets out to devise a procedure to heal Lord Matthew Shinar, who was beaten severely after their friendship from their medical school days was exposed during her trial. Helen is not safe now that the powerful Temple knows about her. Nor is she happy. Not even wise counsel from Judith Altair, best friend of Helen's mother and an advisor to the powerful, can keep Helen and her father from clashing out of pain and fear instead of coming together in love and friendship. With help from Maguari the Mist-Weaver, Judith finally is able to call her long-dead friend to her in spirit. During a healing meditation, Judith learns about the vision of destruction and hope that impelled Miriam to bear a half-breed, and witnesses the green stone's power.
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| About the Author | |
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A native of Los Angeles, C. L. Talmadge is a professional writer and energy-healer who takes clients to meet their spirit guides. In 1999, under the byline Candace L. Talmadge, she co-authored nonfiction about emotional and spiritual healing based on the Sunan approach. She recently completed a self-help work that teaches a simple method of communicating with souls after death--and before birth. |