World Fantasy AwardWinner Newly available in print and book editions Rich and regal. The New York Times Young Sybel the heiress of powerful wizards needs the company of noone outside her gates. In her exquisite stone mansion she is attended by exotic magical beasts Riddlemaster Cyrin the boar the treasurestarved dragon Gyld Gules the Lyon tawny master of the Southern Deserts Ter the fiercely vengeful falcon Moriah feline Lady of the Night. Sybel only lacks the exquisite and mysterious Liralen which continues to elude her most powerful enchantments. But when a soldier bearing an infant arrives Sybel discovers that the world of man and magic is full of both love and deceit and the possibility of more power than she can possibly imagine. show more