Ombria in Shadow by Patricia A. McKillip.
First sentence: While the ruler of the ancient city of Ombria lay dying, his mistress, frozen out of the room by the black stare of Domina Pearl, drifted like a bird on a wave until she bumped through Kyel Greve’s unguarded door to his bed, where he was playing with his puppets.”
I don’t quite feel that I can count Ombria in Shadow as part of my TBR list, since I bought it largely as a reward for myself for reading eleven titles since mid-September. It was a binge-read, conducted partly in the Half Price Books while I was waiting for my offer, and the rest largely on the couch in a three-hour gulp. Like The Bell at Sealey Head and Od Magic, this McKillip book is lusciously written, something straight out of a dream of a fairy tale.
The characters are many: Lydea, the dead prince’s mistress, Ducan, the dead prince’s bastard nephew, and Mag, a sorceress’s waxling creation, all of whom work together in various ways to fight Domina Pearl, the new regent, for the life of Kyel, the five-year-old heir. It’s more complicated than it sounds, but even more delightful than it is complex.
Mostly About Books 