War of the Rose Series by Kathleen Bryan

The beautiful Averil is heir to the Duchy of Quitaine, in the Kingdom of Lys.  She is a powerful mage, trained by the Ladies of the Isle, but when her father calls her home to take up her duties, she must leave that life behind.  In her city of Fontevrai, she meets Gereint, raised as a common villager but greatly gifted in magic, a novice of the magical order of the Knights of the Rose... moreThe beautiful Averil is heir to the Duchy of Quitaine, in the Kingdom of Lys.  She is a powerful mage, trained by the Ladies of the Isle, but when her father calls her home to take up her duties, she must leave that life behind.  In her city of Fontevrai, she meets Gereint, raised as a common villager but greatly gifted in magic, a novice of the magical order of the Knights of the Rose. The Knights and their sister order, the Ladies of the Isle, defend a great secret: the means and location of the Serpent's imprisonment a thousand years ago by the Young God in whose name their order was founded. Quitaine is under subtle attack by the King of Lys, who has secretly become an adept of the hidden order of the Serpent, and he will let nothing and no one stand in the way of his quest to discover how to free his God.  But the Knights of the Rose, and the Ladies of the Isle believe that if the Serpent is freed, the world will be enslaved to chaos:  humanity will destroy itself, and all that man has made will be corrupted.   The War of the Rose and Serpent has begun again, after a thousand years. less

Kathleen Bryan returns with the sequel to The Serpent and the Rose. Beautiful Averil is now the Duchess of Quitaine, but to keep her people safe, she made a vow to the traitor King of Lys. After a year, she would come to his Court in Lutece, and choose a husband from the men he offers her. Averil must produce an heir – not only to Quitaine, but also to all of Lys; for she is the only daughter of the King’s sister, and he has no wife or child of his own... moreKathleen Bryan returns with the sequel to The Serpent and the Rose. Beautiful Averil is now the Duchess of Quitaine, but to keep her people safe, she made a vow to the traitor King of Lys. After a year, she would come to his Court in Lutece, and choose a husband from the men he offers her. Averil must produce an heir – not only to Quitaine, but also to all of Lys; for she is the only daughter of the King’s sister, and he has no wife or child of his own. But Averil’s heart is in the keeping of a powerful young Knight of the Rose, Gerient, a man she can never marry. The two share a bond of magecraft as well as love, for between them lies the power to raise the Wild Magic of the world, the only force that can defeat the King’s quest to release the Serpent God of Chaos from his mystic prison. And when Averil learns that the King is building a fleet to attack the Ladies of the Isle, to destroy them as he destroyed the Orders of the Knights of the Rose in Lys, she rebels against her sworn duty, and flees to Gerient’s side. Together they will raise their powers to protect both the Isle and the remnants of the Rose. less

Averil, once hunted across the land and sea by her uncle the king, is now the Queen Lys. But if she cannot defy and defeat her late uncle’s sorcerous masters, she will never live to be crowned. Kathleen Bryan’s highly praised romantic fantasy trilogy concludes with The Last Paladin .