Tanith Lee
Many years ago, as a small child, I discovered a wonderful book in our village's local library. The book was 'East of Midnight' by Tanith Lee. It was a book for children/young adults, and was fantasy-adventure-romance fiction. The narrative concerned a sorcerer-king named Zaister, who was the Royal Consort to a sorcerer-queen in a world where women are the dominant gender. Women are the Daughters of Night, men are the sons of the Sun. Women wear all-black and dye their hair black unless naturally dark-haired, while men are only allowed to wear reds, yellows, and orange clothes. The Royal marriages are arranged, but the bloodline passes down through the women. The Queen will marry her first consort at sixteen, when he is also sixteen. After a period of five years, the Consort-King is murdered and sacrificed to their Gods, and new consort is chosen for the Queen. The Consort-King is always sixteen years old, while the Queen ages by five years with each husband she loses, ...