A blind mage teams up with an unlikely ally to save a friend and the world in this quasi-Renaissance epic fantasy adventure by the author of The Soul Mirror.   Indicted for crimes against the living and the dead, Dante the necromancer has become the most hated man in Sabria. Becoming blind by his enemy’s cruel vengeance only exacerbates his situation. These days, his only comfort is time spent with his student, Anne de Vernase, passing his knowledge on to her. But when her family greatly needs her, she must leave Dante.   Then a retired soldier, haunted by powerful dreams, seeks out Dante’s help. Seeing a magical puzzle to solve and a chance to redeem himself, Dante offers his services—even though he senses the man’s plea hides something far more sinister. Soon the blind mage embarks on a mad journey with an unlikely ally beside him. Together they must rescue a former companion from a hellish demise that...

In Avonar, Gerick investigates the ancient king D'Arnath's own daughter, held captive by the Lords of Zhev'Na for a thousand years-or so she claims. Entangled in bonds of love, family, and secrecy, Gerick unravels the mysteries of ancient kings, ancient evil-and the dreadful truth of his own destiny.

In a land torn apart by civil war, pestilence, and shaky alliances, a man branded a traitor may be the world's only hope... The rebellious son of a long line of pureblood cartographers and diviners, Valen has spent most of his life trying to escape what society — and his family — ordained for him. His own mother has predicted that he will meet his doom in water and blood and ice. And her divination seems fulfilled when a comrade abandons Valen in a rainy wilderness half-dead, addicted to an enchantment that converts pain to pleasure, and possessing only a stolen book of maps. Offered sanctuary in a nearby monastery, Valen discovers that his book — rumored to lead men into the realm of angels — gains him entry into a world of secret societies, doomsayers, monks, princes, and madmen, all seeking to unlock the mystery of the coming dark age. Unfortunately, the key to Navronne's doom is buried in half-forgotten myth—and the secrets of his own past...

Everyone in Navronne seems to be after Valen. There is the fanatical Harrower priestess, Sila Diaglou, who wants to raze the kingdom. The Bastard Prince Osriel, who steals dead men's eyes. And the Pureblood Registry, determined to keep every pureblood sorcerer in thrall. Even beings out of myth, the Danae guardians, whose dancing nurtures the earth and whose attention could prove the most costly of all. As Navronne sinks deeper into civil war and perilous winter, Valen finds himself a bargaining chip in a deadly standoff. Doomed to madness by his addiction to the doulon, and bound by oaths he refuses to abandon, the young sorcerer risks body and soul to rescue one child, seek justice for another, and bring the ailing land its righteous king. Yet no one is who they seem, and Valen's search for healing grace leads him from Harrower dungeons to the very heart of the world. In the twilight of a legend, he at last discovers the hard truth of the coming dark age and the glorious, terrible price of the land's redemption...and his own.

In Dust and Light, national bestselling author Carol Berg returned to the world of the award-winning Flesh and Spirit. Now she continues the saga of a man whose past is veiled in shadows.... Ever since the Order of the Equites Cineré stole his memory, his name, and his heart, thinking about the past makes Greenshank's head ache. After two years of rigorous training, he is almost ready to embrace the mission of the Order—to use selfless magic to heal the troubles of Navronne. But on his first assignment alone, the past comes racing back, threatening to drown him in conspiracy, grief, and murder. He is Lucian de Remeni—a sorcerer whose magical bents for portraiture and history threaten the safety of the earth and the future of the war-riven kingdom of Navronne. He just can't remember how or why. Fighting to unravel the mysteries of his power, Lucian must trace threads of corruption that reach from the Pureblood...

The rebellious Valen has spent his life trying to escape his family legacy. But his fate is sealed when he winds up half-dead, addicted to an enchantment-which leads him into a world he could never possibly imagine...

SUMMARY:With no magic talent of her own, Anne de Vernase must take on her sister's magical legacy to unravel the secrets behind the dark sorcery besieging the royal city of Merona-and to uncover the truth behind her sister's death.

National bestselling author Carol Berg returns to the world of her award-winning Flesh and Spirit and Breath and Bone with an all-new tale of magic, mystery, and corruption.... How much must one pay for an hour of youthful folly? The Pureblood Registry accused Lucian de Remeni-Masson of "unseemly involvement with ordinaries," which meant only that he spoke with a young woman not of his own kind, allowed her to see his face unmasked, worked a bit of magic for her....After that one mistake, Lucian's grandsire excised half his magic and savage Harrowers massacred his family. Now the Registry has contracted his art to a common coroner. His extraordinary gift for portraiture is restricted to dead ordinaries—beggars or starvelings hauled from the streets. But sketching the truth of dead men's souls brings unforeseen consequences. Sensations not his own. Truths he cannot possibly know and dares not believe. The coroner calls him a cheat...

The winner of the Colorado Book Award is "a fantasy I didn't want to put down" (SF Revu) Brutal imprisonment has broken Aidan McAllister. His music is destroyed, and with it the visions he once gave a kingdom ravaged by dragon war. Now, he risks his hard-bought freedom to uncover the truth behind his incarceration-and to meet his enemy face-to-face...

EDITORIAL REVIEW: In a kingdom on the verge of a grand renaissance, where natural science has supplanted failing sorcery, someone aims to revive a savage rivalry... For Portier de Savin-Duplais, failed student of magic, sorcery's decline into ambiguity and cheap illusion is but a culmination of life's bitter disappointments. Reduced to tending the library at Sabria's last collegia magica, he fights off despair with scholarship. But when the king of Sabria charges him to investigate an attempted murder that has disturbing magical resonances, Portier believes his dreams of a greater destiny might at last be fulfilled. As the king's new *agente confide*, Portier - much to his dismay - is partnered with the popinjay Ilario de Sylvae, the laughingstock of Sabria's court. Then the need to infiltrate a magical cabal leads Portier to Dante, a brooding, brilliant young sorcerer whose heretical ideas and penchant for violence threaten to expose the investigation before it's begun. But in an ever-shifting landscape of murders, betrayals, old secrets, and unholy sorcery, the three *agentes* will be forced to test the boundaries of magic, nature, and the divine...

The mesmerizing conclusion to the fantasy epicAddicted to an enchantment that turns pain into pleasure?and bound by oaths he refuses to abandon?Valen risks body and soul to rescue one child, seek justice for another, and bring the dying land of Navronne its rightful king.

Magic is forbidden throughout the Four Realms. For decades, sorcerers and those associating with them were hunted to near extinction. But Seri, a Leiran noblewoman living in exile, is no stranger to defying the unjust laws of her land. She is sheltering a wanted fugitive who possesses unusual abilities-a fugitive with the fate of the realms in his hands...