| Date: 12 April 2011, 15:43
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Mistress of the Pearl (2004) is the third Fantasy novel in The Pearl series, following The Veil of a Thousand Tears. In the previous volume, Kurgan learned that Nith Batoxxx was possessed by the Archdaemon Pyphoros. Then he learned that a Gyrgon had tampered with Terrettt's brain and was certain that it was Nith Batoxxx. When Kurgan, Sornnn and Batoxxx/Pyphoros transitted to Za Hara-at, they found Riane waiting for them. In a battle where the daemon was attacked by everybody and everything, Nith Batoxxx was killed and the daemon was consigned to the Abyss. Then Riane entered Otherwhere with the Veil of a Thousand Tears and freed Giyan's avatar.
In this novel, Krystren, a Sarakkon Onnda, sails on the Oomaloo to the Northern continent in a mission for the Orieniad. She carries a message for her brother, Courion, captain of the Omaline. As they approach their destination, a sudden storm drives them away from land and into the Illuminated Sea. There they run into a reef and the Oomaloo rapidly breaks up. Two boats get away from the ship, but are attacked by a Black Chimaera. The first mate, an agent of the Sintire, attacks the captain and kills him, but then Krystren kills him. Krystren, the only survivor, paddles the figurehead of the Great Mother Yahe toward shore. She reaches the strand with a little help from the Black Chimera.
After a long nap, Krystren climbs the cliff up to a ledge, which leads to a manmade tunnel. At the end of the short tunnel is a wall, with a door in it. When she cannot open the door, Krystren falls asleep beside it. Later the opening door wakes her and she hides behind it. A black robed and hooded man comes through the door and climbs a stairway that she had previously overlooked. Then he comes down the stairs leading a young man with a glazed look in his eyes. Calling him Dar Sala-at, the cloaked man leads him to the door. Krystren has already snuck into the next room and watches the pair descend a long pole down into a large cavern. She climbs down part way and sees a green dragon in a cage.
Giyan has been training Riane, the true Dar Sala-at, in sorcery. Now she teaches her how to cache her magic books in the Other Side, the null space between realms. They use a mirror, which reminds the rappa Thigpen of necromancers and banestones. Despite Giyan's attempts to change the subject, Thigpen continues to provide Riane with basic information on the banestones.
Kurgan, the new Regent of the V'oorn, is attending a burial service for Courion on the Omaline. Unfortunately, the Sarakkon crew have no body to bury. While he knows that Curion's body is within Nith Batoxxx's laboratory in the goron-wave chamber, Kurgan doesn't tell the crew that Batoxxx had killed their captain. The crew substitutes Curion's favorite sea dirk for his body.
Kurgan returns to his kashiggen to smoke laaga and think about Eleana. He saw her with Riane in Za Hara-at and is still obsessed with her. Nith Nassam interrupts these thoughts and takes him to Nith Batoxxx's laboratory in the Temple of Mnemonics. Kurgan makes several attempts to win concessions from Nassam, but all are denied. Nassam insists that Kurgan will do only what Nassam tells him to do, no more and no less. Kurgan reacts in his typical manner: he determines to get the better of all Grygons.
As Riane is gazing in the mirror, she is overcome by a vision of her prior life. She is walking through a windswept landscape to a high wall. She fits an enormous key into an iron lock and opens the gates. Inside the walls is a courtyard laid with pink gravel. It is bisected by a black path. A pair of fountains flank the pathway, one labeled MEMORY and the other OBLIVION. She wakes from the vision with a gasp. Giyan explains the vision as a construct built by Riane. In it are stored all of Riane's memories. The ones marked OBLIVION are presently unavailable to her, but they may be restored.
Riane, Eleana and Thigpen venture into the Regent's palace once again to try the Storehouse Door. After a chase by Kurgan and his Haaar-kyut, they accidentally slide down the wrong path at the triple intersection. There they encounter the Hagoshrin, who ignores Riane's claims of being the Dar Sala-at; he is only interested in feasting on her bones. But Riane and Eleana escape from the Hagoshrin and find the Storehouse Door. This time the door opens when Riane puts her finger in the Ring of Five Dragons. She walks through, but the door closes in Eleana's face. Inside is the Hagoshrin, but now it is aware of her identity as the Dar Sala-at and cooperates.
Sornnn and Minnum, the reformed sauromician, have found a banestone in the ruins of Za Hara-at, but it disappears from their possessions. Riane learns from the Hagoshrin that the sauromicians have eight of the banestones, but that Kurgan has the ninth stone. Moreover, Kurgan now has Eleana. The Hagoshrin takes Riane and Thigpen to Kurgan's hiding place to retrieve Eleana and the ninth banestone.
In this story, Riane locates the Pearl, but finds that it is not exactly as the prophecies foretell. Kurgan achieves his highest desire. Marethyn finds another way of life in the Kundalan Resistance. Everything is changing, but this volume only shows the beginnings of that change. So many plot lines are left dangling. Does this mean that a sequel is forthcoming?
Be warned that the author does not hesitate to kill off the major characters. But don't expect these characters to remain dead; at least one is resurrected from the land of the dead and others cheat death one way or another. And one dead good guy comes back as a villain!
Recommended for Lustbader fans and for anyone else who enjoys tales of transformation, unexpected plot twists and powerful magic.
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