#Crown Duel

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

[bellaroles]

I'm also going to reminiscing about books I like via my old fan arts.

1. Chrestomaci series. I really like this series. And of course, my most reread is the Lives of Christopher Chant.

2. Deep Secret. I love this as much as Howl's moving castle. Also as I'm getting older, I found myself rereading this more and more.

3. The Chronicles of Prydain.

Read this in my teens. Still remembering it fondly. I first read it via audiobook. And it was excellent! Keeping me up all night wanting to know what happen next.

4. Crown Duel.

Favorite childhood read. I still try to keep up with the world of Sartorias-deles to this day. (Ah but this is still my most favorite after so many books in the same series)

5.Stormlight archive.

Also my most favorite is book I the Way of Kings. The story of Kaladin in this book is so inspiring for my younger self. Now I just wasn't that invested in the story after book 3. Still I will try to get into it again maybe after the series is finished. Maybe a long long time in the future lol.

6. Earthsea series.

My favorite series. Read them via audiobook the first time. Reread many times, especially The tombs of Atuan and the Other Wind. Couldn't believe how thin the books were when I first got them lol. Such an epic story told in such a few words. Every line is so impactful. I got a special edition just for keeps because my paperbacks are nearly falling apart.

7. The Old Kingdom.

I love the original triology. Also firstly read them via audiobook. Couldn't sleep all night because I'm so afraid lol. I also read the later additions but didn't like them as much.

8. The Riddlemaster triology.

To be honest I read it all at once. So confused I won't read it again lol. But it was very imaginative. Actually my favorite of Patricia A. McKillip's is the forgotten beast of Eld. But I didn't keep my fan art of that one.

9.the Sally Lockhart series.

Well I like this more than Philip Pullman's more famous series lol. But they're very different in genre. Victorian kickass female detective story. That's exactly my type. This has its ups and downs places but still it's very exciting!

10. Wildwood dancing.

This is what a perfect signatured Juliet Marillier's work looks like. Well I like many of her books but if I have to choose one as my favorite then this is it! Fairy tales cleverly retold in such a unique ways. Sweet childhood friends to lovers romance. Close Family members that supports each other. This has it all.

[daily-rayless]

Anyone else remember the Crown Duel series by Sherwood Smith? Here's our disgruntedly kidnapped heroine Meliara and her kidnapper Shevraeth, who's unrepentantly enjoying some tea as they ride.

[aelin9]

I read Crown Duel/Court Duel for the first time with my YA book club and I can see why so many baby romance readers imprinted on this. The Heyer-ian silver fork romance, the court intrigue, and sheer *pining*

[meimoons-arts]

Meliara and Vidanric from Crown Duel

[diaryoftruequotes]

Memory warps time, as it does the sights and sounds and smells of reality; for what shapes it is emotion, which can twist what seems clear, just as the surface of a pond seems to bend the stick thrust into the water.  Sherwood Smith, Crown Duel

[charlenasaxen]

Vidanric Quotes

Vidanric passed Savona, whispering, “Plan B. Notice I was gone?”

“I’m not drunk. Not a-tall. Why, I can prove it! I’ll get a bottle and down it right here!”

“Tell me again about Meliara. How very like her mother she sounds!”

“when Vidanric and Russav were nearly murdered while traveling”

“I will make certain she does not get killed. I promise, mother.”

“why, she’ll fling herself in your arms for joy.” He saluted Vidanric.

“Vidanric ran across the conservatory and down the hall. He didn’t want her to arrive alone, he wanted her to be comfortable”

He had asked Bran on the ride, “Do you think she would like this? Like that?”

“how cute she looks in that overlarge Renselaeus tunic—-stop that!”

out came yet another inanity: “Would you like to sit down?”

“send someone for Branaric, who (blast his lazy soul) ought to have been there”

“The only way he could have been more wrong would be if she’d taken bow in hands and shot everyone”

“did not add that he liked that—when he wasn’t dodging lightning”

“Vidanric’s next surprise was Meliara in a gown. She did indeed have a figure—he looked away.”

“weakened the backs of his knees”

“He took a long soak in the hot bath while reading”

“Few people achieve so precious a luxury as an honest friend. For kings it is an especial rarity.”

“If you do gain—let us say—her friendship, you will know that it would be for you yourself”

“I believe this is all I need.”

“Ah,” said the prince. “Ah.”

“he couldn’t help an inward laugh at the way his Rider captains all leaned in to hear him”

“Vidanric sighed, enjoying then letting go the image of himself being perceived as a mighty sorcerer-king”

“Vidanric fought back a sneeze (they made his ears hurt)”

“He knew it was Meliara. He seemed to have developed a lamentable knack that way, sensing her proximity”

“Meliara. How Russav would laugh”

“he could give her jewels, and safety. He could give her friends. He could even give her a mother, by sharing his own”

“But the truth was, he knew that Meliara wouldn’t take any gift, no matter how much she might want, simply because he was the giver”

“That is, until last year, when a small, determined countess crashed her way into his carefully constructed existence”

“whack! Down she’d smash it again”

“Now he had to go through with it. Ah, well, what’s another candlestick thrown at his head?”

“Stake?”

Candlestick, meet heart. “A kiss.”

“Vidanric recognized with a deep sense of gratitude—that she didn’t see Nee clap her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing”

“Bran lost control and whooped in helpless hilarity. Nee promptly began scolding him”

“Between bands of rain he read through the dispatches—he’d learned the art of reading on the fly”

“to get her to just see him?”

“bone-deep conviction: she would never have accepted that wager from Galdran”

“You’re smitten.”

“Russav—”  

“Smitten! Stars!”

“like you’re a midden pile waiting for a wand, and you almost walk into a door”

“Russav—”  

“Vidanric—” Savona mocked.

“Or what, smitten-boy?”

“you’re smitten with a scrap of a girl who has the fashion sense of a tree”

“He stopped to get in a good long gloat, and gloated even more loudly when he saw the telltale red along Danric’s fine cheekbones”

“that girl is just as smitten with you, but she doesn’t even know it.”

“Oh, ha ha, this is the funniest thing to happen to this sorry, sodden court for years”

“what I do, what I wear, she hates the ground where my shadow touches.”

“I have the edge on the female mind. That girl is smitten. She’s so smitten she doesn’t even see the rest of the boys”

“Russav glanced up—straight into the Renselaeus dead fish eye. He relented.”

“she was too busy sneaking peeks past my elbow in order to see where you were”

“I’ll eat my hat. I’ll eat your hat, which has more lace on it.”

“Russav had to turn his face away to hide his laughter when Meliara stuck out her hand”

“He smiled at her, trying to reassure her”

“her expressive face seemed to glow, that probably had first enchanted his sober cousin. Poor Danric”

“he not only knew it by heart, he could describe the swoop and swirl of the letters”

“He was dressed magnificently, his dark eyes wide with fury, lips white”

“imagining her small fingers brushing over the paper in the same place. Perhaps here she’d grinned”

“She saw only the words of an anonymous friend. A new beginning, an unexpected gift: let the courtship begin.”

“He dashed past her, knocking her and the cup out of the way”

“Guards,” Vidanric called as he lunged through to the front and swiped the wine.

“rode a short figure swathed in Vidanric’s old military cloak”

“he had never seen any sight more dear”

“betrayed how much she had been studying the shapes and shades of his own voice”

“You had it made. But now it’s mine.”

“he closed his arms around her, enfolding her rumpled, rain-dampened form”

“she flung her arms around his neck and yanked him down”

“The high windows glimmered with light filtered through a lacery of leaves”

“He reached her in three steps, and they clung together”

“leaving the two staring up at a goldenwood tree, silent and beautiful, in the shattered throne room”

[greatshell-rider]

your honor i ADORE her

[meimoons]

“All the warning I had was a metallic klingg! and then red-hot pain blazed from my ankle up to my skull and closed my consciousness behind a fiery red wall for an immeasurable time.

The first thought to penetrate was a desperate one: Don’t scream, don’t scream. My breath rasped in my throat as I struggled up. My nose stung, and I sneezed—I had landed facedown on a sprig of stingflower.

I ran my fingers lightly over the fanged steel closed around my ankle, whimpering, “Got to get it off, got to get it off…”

Why had I refused to touch them, to learn how to disable them?”

Meliara from Crown Duel (c) Sherwood Smith.

[dionysia-does-stories]

Embarrassed

Cringetober 2023, Day 12: Niche Interest

On AO3

Rating G - 861 words - Crown Duel - Vidanric/Meliara

Summary: A moment with Vidanric after the fight in the library at Talanth. Danric is miserable about the state of his (non)relationship with Mel but Oria gives him some insight that changes his perspective.

Story:

As Vidanric retreated from the library, he cursed himself. He’d gotten into another quarrel with Meliara. He’d spent what felt like hours planning how to approach her. He was casual but kept his distance. He had a goal; to finally have a real conversation with her and ease the conflict between them. Instead, they fought. They had reached the phase where they were now fighting about how much they fought.

He thought this trip to Talanth might change their relationship. Perhaps, not into the grand romance that plagued his dreams but at least into a casual amicability. His hopes were for nothing. She was miserable from the moment he walked into her home. She scuttled out of rooms he was in. She avoided making eye contact with him. She hated him.

At least her hatred of him hadn’t poisoned her from developing a sisterly bond with Nee. He’d known that Mel would love Bran’s betrothed. Nee was kind and earnest. She somehow convinced Mel to return to court with them, a blessing beyond measure.

Also, there was the dresses. As part of Mel’s tutelage in court life and style, she’d accumulated a wardrobe fit to her station. Vidanric found himself devastated at every turn. She was beautiful. The more comfortable she got swishing around in her skirts, the worse it was for him.

He walked out into the howling freeze of the courtyard. He didn’t bother with a coat. His mother had sent him here with the explicit instructions to rest and recuperate his strength. After months of being on and off sick, his mother was worried for him. But who cared? He could have a cold forever. Meliara would never look at him with the smallest amount of affection.

He stared out at the mountains she loved. She was wild, free, honest. She didn’t want someone like him. Someone who wrapped their good intentions in subterfuge and plotting was not for Mel. He didn’t think she’d ever forgive him for the circumstances of how they met.

His father was right. Mel met Vidanric as a puppet in Galdran’s theatre of death and cruelty. She would always see him in much the way she saw Galdran, a cheat, a liar, a court bauble. Galdran had tried to take these mountains from her. And she’d fought him with everything she had to hold onto the place and people that she loved. Vidanric was a bit jealous of the mountains if he was honest with himself.

He heard the crunching of footsteps in the snow. Before he could turn around, a heavy blanket thunked down onto his shoulder. He startled and looked behind him to see the steward of the house, Oria. Vidanric had met her, but the woman had mostly kept herself in the background. She was always watching him in his interactions with the Talanth locals.

He assumed that she avoided him in part because she was Mel’s closest confidant, her truest friend. Since Mel hated him, it must follow that this woman hated him.

“You’ll catch your death,” she told him

“Thank you,” he said, pulling the blanket tight. “I was feeling sorry for myself and decided that I ought to suffer.”

“Because of Mel?” Her eyes were sharp.

“I mean no harm,” he clarified. “I wish Mel and I had met in different circumstances. That the history between us was better. That’s all.”

Oria gave him an assessing glance. “You’re a little bit in love with her, aren’t you.”

Vidanric froze. “What?”

“You’ve been so open and friendly with everyone in Talanth. And Bran, despite his thoughtlessness, is an excellent judge of character. So, I kept wondering what the sadness in your eyes was. The whole time that you’ve been here. You’ve had this shadow over you. And It’s her. It’s Mel.”

He thought about lying. Then, he thought about how much Mel hated lies.

“Yes. I do love her.” This part was hard. “More than just a bit.”

“What are you doing about it?”

Vidanric hadn’t expected such a practical question from her. “Nothing? She hates me.”

Oria scoffed. “She doesn’t hate you.”

“She can’t stand to be in the room with me.”

“She’s embarrassed,” Oria said with a sly smile. “She cares what you think of her and she doesn’t know why.”

“Embarrassed?” Vidanric couldn’t think of a single thing that Mel had to be embarrassed about. “If anyone should be embarrassed it’s me.”

Oria’s breathe whooshed out of her lungs in the kind of sigh that spends years building up. The kind of sigh that knows there are so many exhausting hurdles still to come. “I have never seen Mel once notice a man was a man. I have never once seen her care if one of you thought well of her or not.” Here Oria stepped away from him, regaining the distance he was used to. “If you can’t see how that makes you different, then maybe you’re right that you should suffer.”

Oria returned to the warmth of the indoors.

Vidanric’s gaze drifted back to the mountains. Of all the people, Oria would know Mel best. Did that mean Mel really didn’t hate him?

[familiarevil]

So last year my younger brother's ex-fiancée gained the "ex" and took my copy of Crown Duel by Sherwood Smith with her, because she was borrowing it at the time and no way am I contacting her to get it back.

And this week I finally got sad enough about not having it on my shelf to order a new copy, and it just got here, and it is so pretty, and apparently has 40+ pages of extras at the end that my old copy didn't have?

So I know what I'm (re)reading (for the nth time) and I'm taking this opportunity to recommend it, since it's one of my favorites and has been since I was a teenager.

If you're into both adventure and court intrigue, give it a shot.

[codazura]

“I hope any of my descendants reading this know exactly what the Covenant and the Code of War are, but there is always the chance that my story has been copied by the scribes and taken to another land that will consider Remalna distant and its customs strange.” - Crown Duel, Sherwood Smith

[bellaroles]

Finished reading the Regency Buck for the second time. Hmm...this couple dynamic really reminds me of the one in Crown duel.

[daily-rayless]

The YA fantasy duology Crown Duel used to be one of my favorite series, so here is a portrait of its heroine Mel that I labored over. I wanted to catch the defiant anger that motivates her for about 90% of the series. Given how dirty and ragged she is, this would be Mel from the first book, where she's fleeing her enemies through the wilds, carried by her anger, idealism, a good chunk of spunk, and a badly damaged leg.

[aelin9]

meanwhile there's Mel

[meimoons-arts]