Growing up between her elder brother, the Mer Emperor, who hates her, and her tormented younger brother, who is known as the Bastard and the Accursed, Luned was never going to find life easy. Even the fact that she is beautiful and heir to the throne only makes things worse, as the lords and princes of the Empire quarrel, bully her to accept them and prepare to fight for her hand. Luned escapes into the wilderness to live with a tribesman...... but how long can it be before the lords and princes track her down? Can she escape her destiny, her duty, as her brother's heir, when both land and sea are threatened by encroaching evil? And can even her powers as a mermaid save her beloved husband, a mortal man?