Stunned by the news that his mother was still alive at the end of the last book, Leesil and Magiere and their friend Wynn and pet/Guide Chap have gone seeking the lands of the Elves where Leesil's mother was born. But their journey there is very rough. Having gone when the land is covered in snow, especially when you must climb a mountain to get there, is not a very bright decision, but Leesil will not hear of stopping or waiting. Having thought his mother is dead for years, he isn't about to let anything get in the way of him rescuing his mother, especially now that he knows that his mother is imprisoned at the hands of her clan.
To get to the Elven Lands requires a long journey through the mountains, which are covered in snow, and they are being tracked by Magiere's longtime foe Welstiel and Wynn's former friend and sage, now vampire Chane. But a sudden snowstorm forces them to take refuge in a cave in the mountainside, a cave that they find leads to a series of tunnels that connect them to the Elven lands on the other side of the mountain. And when they are starving, they find a bag full of berries dropped in their trail along with a single long gray feather. Most of their supplies, along with their horses, are lost in the snowstorm, but thanks to the berries, they are able to find their way out the other side of the mountain.
After a few days in the forest/jungle of the other side, it seems that only Magiere can see clearly enough to lead them. They are met, however, by a party of elves sent by their leader, the Most Aged Father, to guide Leesil and the others to their settlement, Crijheache. Along the way, they try to make friends with the elves who are escorting them, and only Wynn has the luck to do anything like succeeding, but the leader of the party, Sgäileache, cuts off any further attempts. But although he is somewhat stand-offish, he comes the closest to understanding what Leesil is, since one of his relatives is 3/4 elvish and only 1/4 human, yet is still stunned by how she is rejected by other elves. Of course, she also has the problem of resembling a human in coloring, but she is delighted to meet someone who is also part-human.
The treatment of this girl, Leanâlhâm, gives them pause. If someone so nearly fully elvish is badly treated, how will the elves treat Leesil? And why could they want him to enter their territory if part-elves are so despised? Though they suspected it from the beginning, it is quickly made obvious that the Most Aged Father must want something from Leesil. What it might be fills their conversations between themselves, and they resign themselves to waiting to find out.
Chap finds himself the object of attention from other Majay-hi, as his kind are called, especially one female with the coat the color of a Lily, who he and the others eventually call by that name, although the elves are somewhat stunned to find that Leesil and Magiere have named the Majay-hi that travels with them. But when they finally reach Crijheache, they are given comfortable quarters inside one of the massive Elven trees, which quickly becomes their prison when they discover they are not allowed to leave it.
Even worse is the fact that the Elf who lied to Leesil in the first place about his mother, Brot'ân'duivé, is in the city and apparently holds a high place in its hierarchy. But he has an agenda of his own, and appears to be working at cross-purposes to the Most Aged Father. When Leesil meets with the Most Aged Father, the ancient elf reveals his purpose for bringing Leesil here: he wants Leesil to discover his mother's confederates, the ones who led her to having a child with a human, as Most Aged Father is paranoid about the elves being betrayed, either from within or without.
Leesil will not agree without seeing his mother, which the Most Aged Father is willing to agree to, if Leesil will work for him. But instead of demanding an answer from Leesil right away, he returns him to his treehouse/prison to think it over, using the Most Aged Father's powers to listen to his conversation with Magiere through the wood of the actual tree. It seems that the Most Aged Father has been drawing on the power of the forest as a whole to prolong his life, and this gives him some powers over the area of the forest, allowing him to listen to what goes on inside it.
That night, Chap, who is the only one allowed to roam freely by the Elves, is summoned to meet his actual kin, along with the band of Majay-hi who followed him to Crijheache. Wynn, who has had flashes of Mantic Vision from an accident in an earlier book, hears him and manages to slip out of the city and follow him. Somehow, she is able to overhear his mental voice, and is privy to a conversation in which the beings who Chap was once a part of, bodiless entities who wish to manipulate the lesser races, sent Chap's spirit into a Majay-hi body to fulfill their wishes, but in the process of his birth, stripped away most of his knowledge and memories so that he couldn't reveal too much. Chap, finding this out, or remembering it, becomes disenchanted with his people, and will no longer work to help them, especially when they will not tell him why he should be manipulating Leesil, Wynn and Magiere, all of whom he has come to have feelings for.
On finding Wynn gone, the Elves go in search of her, and Leesil and Magiere go with them. They find Wynn, and Leesil's mother, Nein'a. But a fight in the forest reveals Magiere's Dhampir powers, which leads the Elves to reject her as a "dead thing". Most Aged Father wishes to have her killed, so he brings suit against her and her companions, taking away his promise of safe passage. Brot'ân'duivé agrees to defend them, and wishes to turn the case against the Most Aged Father, who he wishes to drive from his post because Brot'ân'duivé believes he has grown senile. But to defend himself, Leesil must undergo the Elven rite of passage and gain an adult name. And to do that, he must face the guardian of the grove where the rite is held, a massive poisonous snake that cannot be killed... as well as the Elven spirits who are buried in the grove, and surviving that is no easy task...
This was a great book that explored Leesil's background, in which we discover that he was birthed as a weapon, a weapon against the Undead, destined to lead the Elven nation against them in a war which is yet to come. Magiere also has a destiny in this war, to lead the forces of the dead. Can two beings who love each other so much, and who are destined to be on opposite sides in the coming conflict, ever have a future with one another? This was the main question of the book, and the answer being, that if Leesil and Magiere have anything to say about the matter, the answer will be "Yes."
And really, even if they do get riven apart in the coming books, I have a feeling that they might end up together anyway. Magiere is no great believer in destiny, and is one of the most stubborn characters I have ever read. Any Vampire who has tried to manipulate her has failed spectacularly, and most often been killed afterwards by this Dhampir Vampire-Hunter. And Leesil does truly love her, although when he proposed marriage to her in this book (and she accepted), it was based on making her feel better. However, he does love her, so even though his marriage proposal may have been ill-advised, it is based on real feeling.
I find this series to be very unusual, not like most vampire books at all, and definitely not like most fantasy supernatural horror books either, but that is more of a recommendation and a pro than a con. I highly recommend this series, as it is nothing like anything I have read before. These are not your father's vampires, elves and magic. And that's all to the good.
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