Ombria in Shadows by Patricia McKillip
When Royce Greve, the Prince of Ombria dies, he leaves control of the kingdom-and his young son-in the hands of his great-aunt, Domina Pearl. Our heroines are Lydea, the late prince's mistress(A non-evil mistress! Yay!) and Mag a young woman of secrets, who was raised by a sorceress to believe she was made from wax. our hero(such as we have one) is Ducon, an aimless, drinking artist and the bastard son-father unknown-of Royce's sister. There's a sorceress who lives underground among the ghosts, another who rules everything from her castle(it's best if they never meet) a shadow city, an untold number of secrets, a conspiracy to put Ducon on the throne(he disapproves of that) a scholar out to uncover them, and a little boy losing everything he loves.
This book stuck with me better than The Book of Atrix Wolfe(which I liked and would make a great comfort read, but I didn't really retain it) I think largely because of the heroines. We're introduced to both Lydea and Mag as each is losing her established comfort zone and forced to make choices in her life. Lydea by being cast from the palace by Domina Pearl before Royce's body is even cold, and forced to fight her way through a city that sees her as fresh meat, and then forced to choose between a life as the whore people view her as, and the tavern made she once was. Mag as McKillip recounts when she began to realize that she wasn't the creation of wax her mistress, Faey, told her she was, but rather, a human, and Mag's journey to figuring out exactly what being a human actually means.
Throughout the book we see Lydea learn to be strong through her determination to help Royce's son, Kyel, and her learning to be more than a simple tavern maid, and more than a pampered princess, and we see Mag's loyalty to Faey at war with the humanity that makes her try to circumvent Faey's crimes, as she's forced to choose who is and who isn't worth saving. I admit, while Mag is the much more popular heroine type, and I liked her, I was more interested in Lydea. The fragile court flower learning to be strong and stand on her own and survive against a world she isn't equipped for is a character type I'm very fond of, but rarely get to see done well. Then, of course, there's Ducon, who's always been an afterthought and curiosity to the court, who now finds himself it's most valued commodity, as a rebellious faction seeks to displace Domina Pearl, not caring if they have to kill Kyel-the cousin Ducon is completely devoted to-in the process.
Then, of course, there's the dueling and complementary sorceresses, Faey and Domina Pearl, both seemingly as old as the city itself, the underground city of ghosts, the shadow city, the mystery of Ducon's parentage, and the foolish scholar who doesn't know when to leave well enough alone. My only complaint is that somehow it seems slimmed down a bit from the full story, especially the ending, and I wish more detail had been given to some explanations, such as the nature of the shadow city, Faey and Domina Pearl's origins, and Mag's parentage(I had to reread it to figure out if she was Ducon's sister, or just another person like him.)