This fascinating book entitled the Invisible Ring by Anne Bishop takes place in the world she set up for her Black Jewels Trilogy (Daughter of the Blood, Heir to the Shadows, Queen of Darkness). You don't have to have read them to read this one. It is actually set in a time period before the trilogy and only two characters from the trilogy are in this novel. Dorothea, an evil witch, and Daemon (Sadi), a black-jeweled warlord.
In this novel, we the corruption manifesting that leads into the Black Jewels Trilogy. I am not sure how much time passes between this novel and the trilogy. In this world, the blood, as they are called, have magic. Everyone who can do magic on a larger scale wears a jewel–you wear one jewel when you are born and later preform what they call an offering to the darkness to receive a more powerful jewel. The darker the jewel, the more powerful the person black is the darkest. The society was once set up where a Queen (one born with the power and I guess temperament to rule) ruled and warlords (blood males born to be a warlord) protected them because they wanted to and because they cared about the Queen whom they served. Dorothea has corrupted the system she is not a Queen–she is a simple priestess who should not be ruling but she killed or broke (during a witches (all blood females) virgin night a male can break a witches mind causing her to lose her ability to use her power) her rivals. Now she rules by fear and putting rings of obedience (they transfer pain) on males (around an organ on a male where his pain tolerance is usually low). Her taint is now spreading throughout the kingdoms.
For the plot in this novel, Dorothea is trying to bring the kingdom that is ruled by the Gray Lady (Queen who wears a grey jewel) under control. In order to do so, she needs to kill the Gray Lady and replace her with one of her pets. The Gray Lady comes to the slave auction in Raej every year to buy slaves. Dorothea wants to make sure she doesn't make it home. Enter Jared, a red jeweled warlord. He was taken from his home and sold as a pleasure slave, he has been serving as such for nine years until he snapped and killed his last Queen--owner. He is expected to be sold as a laborer for the salt mines (no one lives long there). Instead for some reason the Gray Lady purchases him. The Blood can ride the winds to anywhere in the kingdom–making journeys quicker and others who do not have the power to do so themselves can ride on a carriage handled by someone with the power to do so. The Gray Lady purchases her ride home, but an ambush awaits her–she is warned by Sadi, (whose goal in life is to undermine Dorothea). So the Gray Lady buys a wagon and begins the journey home overland. Jared somehow becomes the dominant male among the slaves and becomes the "leader" of the little troupe. Can he remember how to serve honorably to a Queen, fight the urge to flee home, and get the Gray Lady home alive?
I love Anne Bishop's Jewel novels because our concepts of darkness and light are constantly turned upside down. She also deals wonderfully with the battle between the sexes. There are threads of honor and right and wrong running all through out this novel. Her characters are wonderfully developed. You can actually picture them and begin to feel for them. I actually felt like I knew Jared and I felt for him because of some of the decisions he had to make. Her novels are very detailed with her own new world for her plot to take place in–with all kinds of rules. It takes some time to figure everything out, but its not too confusing. Her novels always catch me and I can't put them down until I am finished. If you enjoyed her Black Jewels Trilogy–you'll love this one as well. If you haven't read her before, then I would recommend that you pick any of her novels up. You can read this one without having read the trilogy– but just go ahead and buy all four–you are going to want to read them anyway.