Search Worlds Without End

A ring that seeks blood instantly transports young Tessa McCamfrey to a realm where pictures and patterns hold vast magics; where a sorcerous crown--the Barbed Coil--can reweave destiny; where a mad king is using the crown to conquer an ancient land. And somehow Tessa, aided by two men whose pasts entwine with her own, must master a pattern of ancient powers before the Barbed Coil ravages the fate of a world.

In Spire Vanis, an uncrowned ruler steals magic from tortured captives, while an innocent girl is haunted by nightmares of ice. On the frigid steppes, two brothers find their kinsmen slain by swords that draw no blood. At a remote homestead, a hardened warrior leaves his family to follow a raven's summons.

And in a deadly wilderness where nature and the gods have no mercy, two young fugitives will confront the unfolding of an apocalyptic prophecy.

Ash March knew Raif Sevrance was special from the moment he helped rescue her from the tyranny of her foster father in the city of Spire Vanis. Like her, Raif was an outcast. Though from different worlds, he from the clanholds, she from the fortress city, their lives were somehow entwined by fate and by the need of the cold, dark north of their world. It has been a thousand years since the dreaded Endlords have tried to breach the boundary between the living and the dead, but now the forces that hold back the damned souls of the dead have weakened; new heroes must emerge to combat this terrible threat.

Raif, wrongly accused and cast out of his clan by the treachery of their new headsman. Ash, raised as a foundling, is a warrior sacred to the Sull, an ancient race who once ruled the north. But raised in isolation, she must learn and accept the power and responsibility of her heritage.

As Ash learns of the role she must fulfill, Raifs task looms dark and desperate: he must journey through the nightmare realm of the desolate Want, where even the Sull fear to tread. For deep within the Want is the Fortress of Grey Ice, and there he must heal the breach in the Blindwall that already threatens the world. Should he fail, not even Ash's powers can save them.

The Long Night has begun. The Endlords and their dark army of Unmade prepare to unleash untold destruction upon the world. Every Sull warrior must step forward and fight, or risk the North falling into eternal darkness.

Key to mankind's survival is the sacred warrior Ash March. But for Ash to realise her true potential as a Reach, and become the Sull's greatest weapon, she must keep herself safe as the perils that surround her multiply. Raif Sevrance has an equally perilous task. The exile must travel to the barren wastes of the Red Glaciers and recover the legendary sword named Loss. For Sull legend decrees that he who wields the Sword from Red Ice will bring terror to their enemies.

But fulfilment of these goals may yet come too late. In the remote reaches of the Bitter Hills, the Endlords' minions have made a cataclysmic discovery: a crack in the Blindwall, an ancient and unguarded passage leading directly into the realms of men.

In the frigid wasteland of the north, Raif Sevrance, Watcher of the Dead, has endured many trials to lay claim to the renowned sword known as Loss. But the price of wielding the legendary weapon is high, and Raif is unsure if he is willing to pay it. Ash Marsh, Daughter of the Sull, still struggles to come to terms with her heritage, and the knowledge that the Watcher, armed with Loss, could be the one who will save the Sull, or end them. Raina Blackhail, widow of a murdered ruler and wife of his brutal successor, has seen her clan disgraced and has, herself, taken up the mantle of chief. But there are enemies both beyond her gates and within. And in the murky swamps of the Stillwater, two children will learn the secrets of the Marsh clan. Secrets so old they threaten everything.

At vast Castle Harvell, where King Lesketh lies dying, two fates collide. In her regal suite, young Melliandra, the daughter of an influential lord, rebels against her forced betrothal to the sinister Prince Kylock. In the kitchens, an apprentice named Jack is terrified by his sudden, uncontrolled power to work miracles. Together they flee the castle, stalked by a sorcerer who has connived for decades to control the crown, even committing supernatural murder to advance his schemes.

And a young knight begins a quest, leaving behind his home and family to seek out the treacherous Isle of Larn, where lies a clue to his desperate search for the truth.

At Castle Harvell demented Prince Kylock grabs the reins of power and hate by murdering his father. Harvell's two young refugees are torn apart by the storms of war. Headstrong young Melliandra is captured by brutal slavers and Jack, whose wild power works miracles, falls prey to a smuggler's lying charms and a woman's seductive schemes. Meanwhile, in the distant stronghold of Bren, Kylock's betrothed, beautiful, mad Catherine, dabbles with darkest sorceries. A knight's shattered destiny is about to lead from death-sport pits to the blood-strewn creation of an empire--and a wondrous epic of grandeur and magic continues.

From dungeon to cathedral, from brothel to hermit's hut, the gambits of the mighty face the power of seers and stars. In the fortress of Bren, mad King Kylock and the wizard Baralis spread their sadistic terror across the shattered kingdoms. Meanwhile, the fallen knight Tawl and Jack, the baker's boy, meet in a quest to save widowed Melliandra and her unborn child.

Soon sons will turn on fathers and dread secrets will be revealed, as Jack and Kylotk clash in a magical apocalypse that will rewrite the meaning of Destiny and unknit the very fabric of time... in the wondrous conclusion to the brilliant saga The Book of Words.