Elvenborn – Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

This third book of the Halfblood Chronicles actually takes a bit of a turn, and is mostly the story of Kyrtian, a full Elven Lord from a most unusual family. He’s considered a bit mad by the other Elven Lords, mostly because of his father, how was lost on an expedition to refind the Great Portal that brought the Elves to Earth from their homeland of Evelon.

The other thing that makes Kyrtian and his family unique is that they don’t consider the humans on their estate to be slaves – they’re free citizens that his family has done their best to protect throughout the years. Kyrtian has been studying warfare, and has come up with an inventive way to train his men to fight without causing any injury. When the other Elven Lords get wind of this, they’re excited, though in their case, it’s by the opportunity to not be killing off good breeding stock over petty arguments. And so Kyrtian is enlisted by the High Council to head up their army.

He quickly realizes that he’ll be playing a delicate game to keep the Elven Lords happy, but also not expose the secret of his human servants. This maneuvering brings him to the attention of the half blood rebels, who must decide if it’s worth approaching him to bring him to their side.

This is a nice little continuation of the series, and leaves off on a bit of a cliffhanger. So far as I know, another book was never published, so here’s hoping Lackey has it somewhere on her list of series to finish, and gets to it some day.