Sherwood Smith's most popular young adult fantasy begins with Meliara and her brother vowing to free Remalna from an evil king. War is tougher than it seemed. When Meliara is caught by the enemy commander, the elegant Marquis of Shevraeth, it's escape or die. Afterward, Meliara faces a tougher challenge: the battlefield is no longer mud and steel, but palaces, the weapons manners and fans. Toughest of all is courtship, when the one who catches her heart is her personal enemy—the new king. This beloved romantic fantasy has been in continuous print for over twenty years. The definitive edition is corrected, with additional material in six much-requested inserts from the hero’s point of view.
The stirring sequel to Crown Duel finds young Meliara at the center of a deadly court intrigue.
Vidanric Renselaeus, Marquis of Shevraeth, is a courtly, well-mannered teen coached in the noble art of dueling. Growing up in a court that on the surface seems civilized under an increasingly despotic king, he is sent by his father to the infamous military academy in Marloven Hess. He expects to be reading theories about statecraft, but finds that he is going to learn about military command from the inside–and finally, what it really means to be king. In this prequel to CROWN DUEL, the reader learns what made the elegant Vidanric into the enigmatic Marquis of Shevraeth.
Together for the first time, two stories about Meliara and Vidanric's oldest children: "Beauty" in which Princess Elestra (the plain one) goes to look at a tree, and discovers a handsome villain, and "Court Ship" in which Prince Alaraec and his friend Nadav, heir to Savona, go to court a princess, but find themselves distracted. The princess does not intend to let them remain distracted for long.