Blood of Elves (),the first novel in The Witcher series, was written by the Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski. It was first published in Poland in 1994,and is a sequel to the Witcher short stories collected in the books, "The Last Wish",and "Sword of Destiny". It is followed by , "Time of Contempt". "Blood of Elves", won the Janusz A. Zajdel Award in 1994, and the David Gemmell Legend Award in 2009. An English translation was published in the United Kingdom in 2008 (Gollancz), and in the United States in 2009 (Orbit). Plot About a year before the beginning of the novel, the Empire of Nilfgaard attacks the Kingdom of Cintra. Queen Calanthe, mortally wounded, commits suicide and her granddaughter, Cirilla, nicknamed Ciri, flees from the burning capital city. Emhyr var Emreis, Emperor of Nilfgaard, sends his spies to find her, as, in addition to her royal lineage, Ciri has elven blood, giving her immense magical potential. The war ends with Nilfgaard's defeat by a coalition of the Northern Kingdoms, though the Empire retains much of its power. Almost two years after the armistice, the rulers of the Northern Kingdoms meet in secret to discuss the political situation. Peace with Nilfgaard is not what it was supposed to be - the Empire's financial clout is ruining the northern economy, Imperial emissaries agitate aristocrats and merchants against their monarchs, elves and dwarves have formed partisan groups called Scoia'tael and are conducting acts of terror against humans - and cultists are prophesying that the world will end, unless the Savior comes from the South. The kings decide to start a war, before the Empire weakens their countries further, and to regain Cintra. They are aware that the Emperor is looking for Ciri to marry her (morganatically) and thus legitimize his occupation of Cintra. To prevent this, the monarchs decide to find and kill Ciri. Ciri is being protected by the Witcher Geralt of Rivia, a magically and genetically mutated monster-slayer-for-hire, who takes her to the witchers' keep, Kaer Morhen, to be trained by the few remaining witchers. The oldest witcher, Vesemir, asks the sorceress Triss Merigold to help with strange behavior he had seen in Ciri. Triss eventually realizes that Ciri is a "Source". As she is unable to control Ciri's talent, she advises Geralt to seek help from his former lover Yennefer, a more experienced sorceress. At the same time, the