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Imperator's Rule - kept a world enchained, a world so secret that only the piratical slavers of Bolodo Neyuregg LTD. knew its exact location. But now Bolodo Ltd. had made a crucial mistake. They had stolen the daughter of Adelaar aici Arash, head of the top-rated, interstellar Adelaris Security Systems. And Adelaar would use any means at her disposal to get her daughter back. So, with the aid of troubleshooter Swardheld Quale and his crew, Adelaar sets out to prowl the starways on a trail three years cold, a trail that will lead her to a plant of dread secrets and desperate rebellion - a land where death's shadow orbits endlessly overhead, awaiting only the Imperator's command to begin its rain of destruction.

Serroi - first a warrior woman, later a pawn of the most evil wizard her people had ever known, and finally a powerful worker of earth magic. For centuries self-imprisoned, Serroi has at last escaped her bonds to find herself in a changed land, a place of scattered city-states which have slowly been acquiring artifacts of technology. And with Serroi's return, magic, long-vanquished and vanished, seems at last to be reappearing.

Awakened from a centuries-long spell of sleep, Serroi finds the world she once knew is now haunted by a strange evil force. As this terrifying enemy scourges the land, Serroi is forced into a struggle against evil she barely understands.

Awakened from a centuries-long spell of sleep, a warrior woman finds she is now a healer with powerful earth-magic. But the land is now haunted by an evil force which has the strength to alter the very laws of life and death.

Three unlikely heroes fight to save their planet from a deadly plague in this thrilling space opera set in Jo Clayton's beloved Diadem universe.

No one on the barbarian planet Jaydugar knows where the hypnotically beautiful Ranga Eye gems came from, but everyone who encounters them pays a terrible price. These magic alien crystals, so smooth and pleasing to the touch, provide the holder with an extraordinary sense of peace and joy, causing them to see and experience wondrous, enchanting things. But the need for the visions the Ranga Eye provides quickly becomes an addiction that eats away at the soul and ultimately leads to a horrible, drawn-out death.

An exquisite embroiderer, Gleia has pined for independence and true purpose throughout her life of servitude. She finds both when she manages to buy her freedom and sets out to locate and obliterate the sparkling, druglike scourge that ripped a devastating hole in her personal world.

On a quest fraught with peril across a treacherous landscape of slavers, brigands, and mercenary aliens, Gleia's path will intertwine with those of the enigmatic, long-lived juggler Shounach--a perplexing, often infuriating rogue born off-world three centuries earlier to intergalactic adventurer Aleytys--and young Deel the Dancer, both of whom have suffered tragic, life-altering loss as a result of the terrible, beautiful jewels.

Now the fate of the entire planet depends upon three unlikely champions locating the source of the sparkling plague and destroying the gems forever. But in a world of uncertainty and ever-present danger will they even survive to reach their journey's end, and once there, can they resist the irresistible fatal seduction of the deadly Ranga Eyes?

Accomplished world-builder Jo Clayton returns to the galaxy she so brilliantly brought to life in her sensational Diadem Saga, once again seamlessly blending science fiction and high fantasy in an epic, thrill-packed quest adventure that confirms her position among C. J. Cherryh, Alan Dean Foster, Andre Norton, and other speculative fiction greats.

Table of Contents:

• A Bait of Dreams - (1979) - novelette
• Interlude Among the Shaborn - (1985) - short fiction
• A Thirst For Broken Water - (1979) - novella
• Southwind My Mother - (1980) - novella
• Companioning - (1980) - novella
• Currents - (1985) - novella
• Old Acquaintances and New - (1985) - novella

ALEYTYS THE FUGITIVE

Far out among the stars the masterminds of the spider people had placed their mightiest mysteries in the scientific device called the diadem. And when that coronet was stolen, they were prepared to pursue it throughout eternity.

The thief crashed among the nomads of Jaydugar, a semi-barbarian world... and the diadem found its way into the hands - and onto the skull - of the girl Aleytys.

She was herself a strange one - daughter of a sky wanderer, outcast among the people who had raised her out of fear and awe. And the diadem was to prove both her bane and her treasure. For she could not remove it once it had sunk its electronic web into her brain and her nervous system - and she did not know how to control the powers that were contained within it.

Yet every moment she wore it, she would be a target for the vengeance of the spider race and the avarice of a thousand worlds.

The diadem that crowned the head of Aleytys was in contact with her central nervous system - and invisible to outsiders. But even that star-born fugitive herself did not know what the diadem's powers were or what it could do to or for her.

Sold into slavery to an insectoid race, Aleytys had been chosen as proxy-mother to the old Queen's successor. In short, she would be both bearer and food. But Aleytys was the wearer of the Diadem, a creation of galactic science that linked her nervous system to powers of great potency.

Aleytys, wanderer of the skies, seekr of the home planet of her mother's super-race, is on Maeve, a forest planet of tree dwellers and semi-humans. Her quest is to shake her pursuers and find her mother--and escape the pitfalls of Maeve alive.

This vibrant heroine and the powers of the Diadem. For on the world to which it conveyed her, she must confront not only the hordes of half-humans who are devastating the planet but meet head-on the mental force of a madman of her own ancestral race. It is an encounter on several levels - human, inhuman, and superhuman - and she must triumph on all or lose everything.

The Nowhere Hunt was a quest every Hunter refused. Only Aleytys, wearer-slave of the mysterious and powerful Diadem would dare try to slip unseen past starship battalions and land on a world encased in a cosmic shield which rendered all electronic equipment functionless. Avoiding poisonous flora, hostile natives, vicious predators and murderous ransomers, her job was to rescue and transport a massive, semi-intelligent insect queen off planet and save the queen's besieged race from extinction.... A seemingly impossible task, but one Aleytys could not refuse, for she had been offered in payment something she desperatley needed to continue her own personal quest...

A ghost was haunting Cazarit. A kidnapper who snatched the wealthy clientelle who vacationed there as if the intensive security didn't exist. Local security was getting desperate--after hundreds of hours and days trying to locate and identify their "ghost" they were no closer to an answer than when they began. They needed the help of a Hunter. And there was only one who would meet their demands. Aleytys, wearer/symbiote of the mysterious and powerful Diadem, had a reputation which preceded her across the galaxy. But little did they know that Aleytys already had a good idea who their ghost was, and didn't want to catch him!

Aleytys had searched for her mother across the worlds of the inhabited galaxy. Her mother was of a super-race; her homeworld's location a secret. But Aleytys had become an expert star hunter, alert to clues and wary of danger--and she knew that on Ibex her ancestral trail must reach its end. But Ibex was an unmapped world banned to outsiders--save for one encircled city. To venture beyond that enclave meant death, for the many alien native tribes were united only in their lust to slay all other-worlders. All the Snares of Ibex awaited Aleytys beyond the wall--but dare she must if her life was to have any future meaning.

Across the years and through endless star systems, Aleytys had searched for her mother Shareem and for her long-denied heritage - the chance to claim her rightful place as a member of the nearly immortal super-race, the Vrya. Now, at last, Aleytys was about to rendezvous with Shareem for a journey to the secret homeworld of her people.

But even at Aleytys' moment of triumph, she faced her deadliest challenge. For on Vrithian waited Kell, blood enemy, mastermind of treachery, who held an entire planet hostage in fear, and who would not rest until he'd destroyed Aleytys and any who dared ally with her...

She was Brann, the Drinker of Souls, from whom all but the very brave and the very foolish fled in fear. Bonded to twin demonic shape-shifters, she roved the land in search of a rich life source to feed her demons' need.

But Brann too had a need that couldn't be denied, a quest to free her family from the evil king who'd enslaved them - a quest that would lead Brann and her unearthly allies into magical realms ruled by witches and werewolves, lawless lords and murderous villains, and the ever-present ghosts of the restless dead....

Brann has become a demonic spirit, but she is still bound by a code of honor that requires her to come to the assistance as gods and sorcerers duel for control of an enslaved people. To ensure their freedom, she must find a way to release the power of the Chained God.

When magic calls - not even Brann, the Drinker of Souls, can resist. And now the Chained God has drawn upon every spell at his command in a life-and-death struggle to break free of the energy-draining trap which holds him before he is driven into total dissolution.

To win release from his invisible prison, the Chained God must obtain six talismans of power, and he will use Brann and the demon children, the sorcerer Maksim, and all their former allies - as well as deadly predators from another dimension - as pawns in a desperate campaign to breach the strongholds of gods, shamans, wizards, and priests, and steal the magical orbs that are the vital focal points for a magical spell more powerful than any Brann's world has ever experienced. And should Brann and the rest fail to obtain even one of the precious talismans in time, not only will the Chained God's doom be sealed but a new and all-consuming evil will be released on Brann's own world!

Serroi is unique in her world, and was nearly put to death in infancy as a result. A green-skinned "misborn," small in stature with an unnatural connection to the natural world, she was nonetheless chosen and exceptionally trained as a meie warrior. As such, she fears nothing, except the cold and inscrutable Nor and their dark magic.

Something in Serroi's childhood awakened her to a shocking and terrible truth about these malevolent wizards, one of whom both saved and cursed her in her earliest years. It is her deep-seated terror that causes her to betray and abandon her shieldmate, Tayyan, during a rooftop battle with a magic-wielder, a craven act that threatens to haunt Serroi to the end of her days.

However, it is not cowardice that makes her run, but rather her knowledge of a great evil in the offing. In that instant before flight, Serroi recognizes the coming of something monstrous, though she cannot yet put a name to it. Now it is up to the young warrior to somehow prevent the unthinkable: She must alter a grim destiny that is set to occur on the fateful and fearful night known as Moongather, when demons will be free to enter the world.

As a young child, Serroi was held in thrall to Ser Noris, the powerful and villainous mage who saved her from certain death only to exploit her as a tool in his unholy experiments in necromancy and demonic possession. After being cast aside, she became a chosen warrior of the meie, though nightmarish memories continue to haunt her. As for the dark sorcerer, his power and malevolence have since increased a thousandfold. Having achieved eternal life, no evil in this world can compare with his, and now Ser Noris, bored with a lack of worthy opponents, has challenged the Goddess herself, She who lives at the center of all things.

Only Serroi can truly recognize the terrible depth of the darkness that is overtaking her world. And as she sets forth on a desperate quest to locate the last remaining power capable of defeating Ser Noris's insidious plot--the enigmatic and wildly unpredictable hermit Coyote--a young girl in a faraway village, whose fate will soon be intertwined with Serroi's, is coming of age in a time of violence and fear.

But what chance do mere mortal heroes have when faced with malevolence so powerful and brazen that it dares to take on a goddess, and would obliterate an entire world on a whim?

As a magical contest between a sorcerer and a goddess races toward its terrible conclusion, a world is left hanging in the balance. But suddenly the rules change.

Once, the meie warrior Sorrei was a helpless pawn of Ser Noris, doing the dark wizard's bidding as he delved into unnatural worlds and demonic arts. No one feared the great sorcerer more than she, which is why Sorrei risked her life to bring Coyote, the Changer, into the game. However, now that the Nor mage has drawn the magical cards that give him the upper hand against the Indweller goddess, the world they have been playing for appears irrevocably his.

But hope lives on in another place and time. A world far removed from Sorrei's own--in an alternate realm shackled by the yoke of cruel political repression, yet where the ignited fires of rebellion burn hot and bright--is where the meie must now turn for help. Sorrei cannot falter, for the warrior has become a priestess in the service of the Changer and in her hands she holds the last hope for the continuation of all things.

Spacenapped when she stumbled on a kidnapping in progress, Shadith - captive for centuries in the alien artifact known as the Diadem, now once again living in a human form - finds herself the prisoner of Ginbiryol Seyirshi, a being who has instigated devastating wars on world after world purely to film and sell Limited Editions of the resulting violence, destruction, and death.

Along with two fellow humanoid prisoners, Shadith has been chosen to play a key role in Seyirshi's newest "production", serving as a demigod around whom the rebel forces will rally only to face a terrible doom. But prisoner though she it, Shadith has some unique resources of her own, and with these Diadem-mastered powers, she will do all she can to rewrite Seyirshi's script so that the people of this troubled planet as well as she and her fellow captives can win their freedom and put an end to Seyirshi's interstellar reign of terror...

The price of a world's death was extremely high, but Ginbiryol Seyirshi would give any buyer his money's worth. Creator of Limited Editions, "productions" in which entire populations became unwilling actors in planet-devastating wars, Seyirshi had once held Shadith captive. But now she and her comrades were free from Seyirshi's control, and they had sworn to track down the monster and put an end to his evil works.

But Seyirshi had made many enemies in his long career and had long ago learned how to protect himself from those in search of vengeance. To stop the world-wrecker, Shadith would first have to find him. And now she and her comrades had found the perfect bait, Wargun, one of Seyirshi's devoted "customers". But before they could carry out their real mission, they had to capture Wargun. And even with Shadith's unique talents, this first challenge would prove almost as impossible as catching Seyirshi himself...

Mindwiping or death would be the fate for Shadith if she could not find a way to escape the Institute ship and her captors. So she creates a controlled, temporary mindwipe, hiding her identity so thoroughly that even she herself no longer knew who she is.

Emerging from her centuries-long imprisonment inside an alien artifact, Shadith learns that she has developed an empathic musical skill, and is called upon to delegate a mission with a musically communicating alien race.

Freed from ages of imprisonment in the Diadem, an alien artifact, Shadith discovers that she has the power to transfer her consciousness into any living creature, a talent that she uses to try to destroy a syndicate that creates civil wars as a tourist attraction.

Hired to return an innocent creature to people who only wish to destroy it, psychic detective Shadith cannot bring herself to fulfill her mission and is forced to betray her strongest supporter while outwitting a smuggler.

Skeen is a bandit and a rogue, a master thief wanted throughout myriad solar systems for plundering the rare antiquities of countless alien civilizations while always keeping one rocket ship-length ahead of the intergalactic law. A "rooner" with a dark past, she now finds herself penniless and abandoned on a miserable backwater planet, at the tail end of a string of very bad luck, with no option except to follow unreliable rumors to a supposed fortune in gems hidden among ancient ruins. What she finds instead is a gateway into another world--and a universe of trouble.

Now, trapped in a strange new reality with no way out, Skeen must find the key to reopening the portal, and that will entail making contact with the mysterious aliens who created the interdimensional passageway. But the enigmatic Ykx vanished eons ago, and finding representatives of a highly advanced and possibly extinct extraterrestrial race is not going to be easy for the silver-tongued lone wolf outlaw. It doesn't help that Skeen's entourage keeps expanding by leaps and bounds with unwanted hangers-on whose interference could end up damning her to an eternity in nowhere.

A fugitive "rooner" wanted by law enforcers throughout the known universe, Skeen has grit, cunning, and a closet full of more skeletons than a suburban cemetery. Now, the intergalactic outlaw is stuck in a dimension that is not her own, surrounded by a small mob of new friends and followers representing the eight different races that inadvertently stumbled into Mistommerk over the centuries. Each member of the motley entourage shares the same goal: to find a way out through the elusive Stranger's Gate.

Their road to a possible exit is twisted and dangerous, with all sorts of nastiness waiting around every turn, from hired killers to bizarre ravenous beasts to the terrible shape-shifting Sea Min. Skeen is proving to be a most wily, brave, and determined, if reluctant, leader. But with a confusing plethora of portals leading to numerous strange dimensions and worlds overlapping other worlds, she may be hard pressed to find the right way back--even if she does somehow manage to survive.

After stumbling through a one-way dimensional gate constructed eons earlier by the enigmatic and nearly extinct Ykx, Skeen has finally found her way off Mistommerk. Despite numerous trials and great turmoil, Skeen is at long last free, with a ship and crew that includes her new friends, shapeshifter Timka and Ykx keyholder Lipitero.

But freedom always has a price, and Skeen must pay for her deliverance. She'll have to make her way through a treacherous galaxy to locate the planet Rallen--which may or may not actually exist--gather up any remaining Ykx she happens to find there, and bring them back to Mistommerk before the gate closes permanently.

Their journey is about to take Skeen and her crewmates through some of the nastiest corners of a particularly nasty galaxy and towards an inevitable confrontation with the war vessels of a powerful and distinctly unfriendly Empire. But the biggest threat of all is the solar system itself: Its sun is about to go supernova, which could result in a very explosive finale indeed for Skeen and her space-going misadventures.

Daughter of Magic

Return to the universe of the Drinker of Souls trilogy in a magical novel that explores a whole new domain in an enchanted world where rival gods vie for mastery by manipulating both the forces of nature and their own deovted mortal worshipers.

Kidnapped by the mightiest of godesses, yound Fann finds herslef left in the care of guardiand in a city far from her former home, a city which in the not too distant future will become the focal point of a terrifying confrontation between goddess and god. As one fo the chosen of the goddess, Fann herself may be destined to play a key role in the defense of all she holds dear.

But before she can stand against the godesses' enemies, she must first learn to master herself and her unique talents. Yet even as she takes her fitst steps down the pathway to power, others are marshaling the god's followers for a devastating strike at the very heart of the city....

A host of magical creatures ranging from clairvoyants to gods, elemental beings to sorcerers, contend for power in a fabulous land. A young girl seeks her missing mother, unaware of the fact that her quest is just another gambit in a supernatural power game.

In the universe of Wild Magic, magical beings of all descriptions play intricate games of power and wizardry. Here dwells young Faan who, separated from her real family, embarks upon a long and difficult journey to find her true mother--a powerful sorceress who lies bespelled in a magic sleep.

Shifter Wars

Although Fann has at last achieved mastery of her magical talent, she has still not gained her heart's desire--to be reunited with the mother from whom she was stolen as a young child. But before she can hope to fulfill this quest, Fann and her companions in corcery are cuaght up in a war beyond their imagining, held hostage by a people to whom magic is death.

Forced to use their skills on behalf of their captors, Fann and her comrades are forced down pathways which will lead from univers to universe, to encounters with possible allies such as Brann, the Drinker of Souls, and to terrifying confrontation with the Chained God--a final battle in the Magic Wars which could see not just Fann's world but all of the interlinked universe destroyed!