SOLVED. Fantasy Novel (not the first book in series) has magical twin sisters, demigods and children born from a hermaphrodite actor [s]

[Pushpaka]

Hi back in the 1990s or so (I could be misremembering), I found a fantasy book in the library. It had a pair of lightly-red haired twin sisters on a sailing vessel of some kind (it was a cropped shop and the sisters might have been blonde, I can't remember).

It's aimed at adults at the time (this was before dark fantasy had migrated heavily into YA) and featured a pair of twin sisters as the protagonists. They have powerful semi-divine sorcery from blessings by some goddess. Their patron goddess in turn is the daughter of a mother goddess/war goddess/queen of the pantheon (and nemesis of the sisters). This mother goddess ages ago had taken a mortal man as an earthly consort and when she gave birth, the place became the capital of an empire like that of Rome and the demigod child was the first emperor. This semi-divine line ruled the empire for generations and the uncle of the current empeor is a homosexual man. However the uncle's current and greatest love was a young actor at the theatre who is said to be the greatest in generations. This actor was born a hermaphrodite and wanted to cement the love between himself and the Imperial uncle, so the actor prayed to the mother goddess so that he can conceive children by that uncle. The actor died in childbirth and the children (a boy and a girl) were seen as a threat to the imperial lineage. So they were imprisoned (the girl ended up becoming a sex slave to the mercenaries hired to guard her). The heroic twin sisters set out to rescue this girl only to find out she's evil. One of the twin sisters was under mind control a few times in the book but was able to eventually fight if off with help from her stronger sister and they did something to destroy the girl's power (some binding or something, the girl was semi-divine but ended up a sex slave to her guards due to being somnabulent or de-powered somehow). Hmm if I remember correctly the heroic twin sisters are part of a Celtic-like people and opposes the empire which seeks to take their lands. The book I read was paperback and may have been third in a series.

[Allison]

This sounds a lot like Katya Reimann's Tielmaran Chronicles.

The third book is Prince of Fire and Ashes: Book 3 of the Tielmaran Chronicles. I remember the intersex character, but I can't remember if it's book two or three.

[Pushpaka]

Thanks and you are correct. It is the Tielmaran Chronicles and it's the second book Bitter Earth

[Kris]

A Tremor in the Bitter Earth by Katya Reimann for the link.