Individual Title
M’bel der Fleur, heiress to the Hay Reaches and the Knotted Corrals, and chosen daughter of the Lords of the Land has been offered in marriage to Nichel der Lautenay, son of the King and Queen of the Pale Town Princes. It is a meeting of two great houses who must ally to preserve their country against invading Scourgers.
At first, M’bel’s husband is courteous and attentive, but the friction between him and the King, his father, who rules so impetuously, drives Nichel to seek dark reliefs. When the Scourgers invade, the Kingdom of Straalis is fractured and M’bel fights to be reunited with her husband.
She brokers a trade agreement with the enemy for his return and for a short time peace is returned. Nichel, emasculated by being saved by his wife, sinks into debauchery. He slowly and calculatingly draws her into his murky, dangerous world. M’bel loses herself to the seductive and controlling pull of her husband, where only the friendship of her handmaiden Lally, and the stonemason, Pratten, makes any sense.
Set in a land where resources are scant and any imbalance in the eco-system will trigger natural genocide, The Water Dragon Queen is a story of resilience and personal limits as the Princess M’bel’s fight to reclaim her selfhood becomes inextricably linked with the survival of her country.
