The Silver Wolf

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The Silver Wolf

Author	Alice Borchardt
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Silver Wolf (series)
Genre(s)	Fantasy novel
Publisher	Ballantine Books
Publication date	1993
ISBN	ISBN 0345423607
Followed by	Night of the Wolf then by The Wolf King

'The Silver Wolf is a novel by Alice Borchardt and published by Ballantine Books in 1993. It is the first in the Silver Wolf Trilogy.

[edit] Plot summary

"I was born of darkness. My father's eyes closed before mine opened. I am not of this world or the other, and I have the right to be what I am..."

Regeane is a half-Saxon and half-Frankish woman whose father, Wolfstan, died because of her mother, Gisela. Wolfstan was a werewolf, a man who could change from human to a very large wolf while her mother, Gisela, was just a normal woman who was frightened at the abnormality that her husband displayed. Due to Gundabald's urgings and pressure, Gisela grew to believe that Wolfstan was an offspring of the Devil Himself and eventually lured him to his death. When Gisela birthed Regeane, she was relieved to find no abnormalities...leastwise, not yet.

When Regeane becomes a woman with her first blood flow, she changes into this beautiful silver wolf. Gisela panics and forces poor Regeane to drink filthy concoctions, to pray for hours, to go to church, to promise never again to change as long as she lived...etc. In return for that promise, Gundabald would take care of Regeane for a long time.

But when Gisela dies, the whole family falls into poverty and corruption, ending up with tattered cloths, temporary lodging in Rome and Regeane chained by the neck to the wall in her cell. Gundabald treats her worse and worse while Hugo, his son, is a more drunken wastrel than ever. Together, the expert wastrel (Gundabald) and the apprentice wastrel (Hugo) use up the money while Regeane is chained by the neck in her damp, cold cell.

But Regeane fights back and she finally escapes from the imprisonment when Gundabald's mood turns when he finds her a wealthy mountain lord by the name of Maeniel to marry her. Regeane escapes to Lucilla's villa, where Lucilla, Hadrian (the Pope), Antonius and many others befriend her and her smaller friend Elfgifa.

Antonius, who is a leper, is Regeane's friend and she ventures forth into the World of the Dead to find a cure for him before it is too late. On one of those many trips, she meets three wolves - one black, one gray and one red. Unknown to her, the gray wolf whom she desires is Maeniel, her future husband and lord.

On first sight, they both fall in love.

A few days later, Maeniel pays an unannounced visit to Lucilla's villa, where he drowns his future bride with more than a king's ransom of wealth.

After the wedding feast, a dispute is begun when an assassin, whom Regeane stopped by breaking his wristbone with one hand over Maeniel's shoulder, tries to assassinate Maeniel while he is occupied with his newly-made wife. By the broken wrist and the excessive bruising the a normal woman could not have caused, he finds out that Regeane is, in fact, the silver wolf whom he desires.

What follows next is a desperate battle between Maeniel and Scapthar as the champions of whether or not Regeane is to burn at the stake. Maeniel wins and Scapthar is left for dead.

Finally, Gundabald is the last to be killed and Regeane finally learns that Maeniel, her love, is the gray wolf.