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The king's heir of Ianon is long lost, vanished into the south. Her father refuses to name his son heir in her place, though that son is a mighty warrior. Then one day a young wanderer arrives with news that both breaks and heals the king's heart: his heir is dead, but before she died, she gave birth to a son. That child, now grown, has come to take her place. But the king's son will not surrender his hope of kingship to a boy without a father, though he claims to be the son of a god.

Elian of Han-Gilen is the pride and scandal of her father's princedom. She has out-ridden, out-hunted, and out-shot every suitor. Now comes one whom she could bring herself to love: No lesser man than the throne prince of the Golden Empire. But Elian swore an oath as a child to a foster brother who is now a warrior king. Consort to an imperial heir or squire at arms to a conqueror: Elian must choose, and in choosing, decide the fate of two empires.

Kidnapped, tortured, betrayed by his brothers whom he loved, the heir of the Golden Empire has lost everything but his life. His only hope is a chance encounter, a wandering priest from the Empire of the Sun. But the priest is more than he seems, and the prince is stronger than he knew; and war is coming. Two empires hang in the balance. Two emperors will fall, unless the prince and his unwelcome ally find a way to make peace. But peace comes at a price; and that price may be too high for either to pay.

The war between the Golden Empire and the Empire of the Sun is over, the empires merged into one, and one emperor over them all: Estarion, heir to both royal houses. But Estarion will not accept half of his heritage, nor will the Golden Empire willingly accept him. The same forces that assassinated his father are arrayed against him, led by the last scion of an ancient imperial line--and he must stand against them and truly unite the empires, or see all the great work of his ancestors reduced to rubble.

Worldgates are a great magic and a great convenience: opening the way from one world to the next, and from one side of a world to the other. Now the mages of the Gates are exploring a new continent and forging new alliances, led by the Master of the Mageguild and the heir to the throne of Sun and Lion. Suddenly, the Gates begin to fall--and the Master and the royal heir are trapped in a hidden kingdom on the far side of the world, with no way out but through the broken Gates.

Prince Daros of Han-Gilen is an infamous rake and wastrel-and a hidden and completely untrained mage of enormous power. Caught breaking the strictest laws of the Mageguild and their magical Worldgates, he is sentenced to serve an aged emperor far away from either taverns or temptations.

But a tide of darkness is rising to swallow the worlds of the Gates. Mages are dying and worse; but Daros's very lack of training shows him the way to stand against the tide: to enter the darkness, and pay its price, and engage it on its own ground.

The classic series now in one volume for the first time!

He appeared out of the northern mountain fastness, wielding powerful magics and claiming to be the Sun God's own child. His burning desire was to rule the entire world, and he inspired the loyalty of men who would fight for it with him. But conquering an empire, and ruling it, are two very different things. Even for the children of a demi-God.

Contains:

• The Hall of the Mountain King
• The Lady of Han-Gilen
• A Fall of Princes

Here in a single volume is the second trilogy of Judith Tarr's novels about the world of Avaryan, and the Sun God's children who rule it.

The Sunborn's heirs have ruled the two empires for four generations, but the newest Emperor of Endros and Asanion does not sit easily. The Golden Palace is full of plot and intrigue, and conspirators who plan to kill Estarion, as they killed his father, and take the throne for their own.

The Emperor Estarion's willful granddaughter, and heir to the throne, has wheedled permission to travel with the Master of the Mage Guild to a high mountain kingdom at the end of the chain of World Gates. But once inside the Kingdom of Heaven, mere magery will meet its match. The power of the Sun Lords will be needed counter the Breaker of Gates.

A chill wave of dark sorcery sweeps across a thousand worlds, turning souls without number into mute, blind slaves. In a desperate attempt to halt the shadow's relentless spread, the Sunborn's heir must join her formidable powers with those of a wild and untrained young mage who has stolen her heart.

Contains:

• Arrows of the Sun
• Spear of Heaven
• Tides of Darkness