New edition available
from
Wildside Press:
Wildside Press
ISBN: 158715174X
September 2000
Excerpt from The Jewels of Elvish
In the autumn a fisherman brought to the Elvish court at Verdant Hall a tale to throw the folk into a frenzy of speculation and fear. Reports of violent raids on the hunting camps in the northern mountains had flown about the Elvish king's hall all summer. Reports deteriorated into rumor, and the people began to recount tales of magic foul enough to be named sorcery. Very soon Dekar began to hear a terrible name drifting through Verdant Hall: The Sorcerer....
The Jewels of Elvish: The Sorcerer's threat forces age-old enemies, Elves and Men, into an uneasy alliance. Thus, Nikia, daughter of the Elf-king, is wed to the human prince Garth. To the marriage Nikia brings her strange, magical ways and an ancient family heirloom, the Ruby of Guyaire. When the ruby is stolen, its true worth is discovered: Nothing but the jewel will save the Twin Kingdoms from the evil of the Sorcerer. Nikia must recover the Ruby -- no matter the cost.
Forthcoming from Wildside Press, Summer 2002
Excerpt from A Child of Elvish
They went to brown broken lands, the man and the babe in his arms. They went down from the mountain, down from the place named for caves. In Elflands they saw no bird or beast, only dying trees, withered grass. They went through stony glens which had not long ago been filled with tumbling water. Now the ground was cracked and dried, and no moisture relieved the land's pain. Honeysuckle did not cling to the bare black trunks of trees and the air was foul as a dying man's breath. Windborne dust stung tears from the bae's eyes. Memories, echoes from another time, wrung tears from the man. Not a month before he'd seen this place, and it had been alive then. The babe cried, sobbed for better places. But there were no better places, only worse.
A Child of Elvish: The Twin Kingdoms are dying of the evil Sorcerer's last curse, ravaged by plague and drought. Beneath the earth, in deep caverns, the ghost of a long-dead queen mourns the dying land. She sends two soldiers on a quest -- one a Man, one an Elf. They must steal a child made for magic: Nikia's daughter, who alone may save the kingdoms.
What the critics have written about the Elvish Novels:
- Rave Reviews: Berberick creates a sumptuously rich ambience for her compelling tale.
- The Charlotte Observer: Berberick makes a special effort to interest the reader in her character's emotional lives, taking the novel a step beyond an action narrative.