Part of Series
To call the kigh was the height of bard's magic. Only those born with the gift could learn to Sing these spirits of earth, air, fire and water into doing their bidding, and even someone as gifted as the Princess Annice must spend years studying at the Bardic Hall to truly master the Art. And for Annice, one of those rare talents able to Sing the elemental spirits from each of the four quarters, the call of magic was too strong to be denied, even if it meant renouncing her royal blood and privileges. But Annice might have made a different choice if she could have foreseen that ten years after she'd transferred her life and loyalties from the Royal Palace to the Bardic Hall, she'd find herself fleeing from the King's Guards. For Annice was twice guilty of treason, first for imperiling the order of succession by becoming pregnant, and second for aiding the father of her unborn child, the Duc of Ohrid, to escape the palace dungeons and the sentence of death hanging over his head. Now the fugitives' only hope lay in tracking down and bringing to justice the enemy who'd masterminded the Duc's downfall, a dangerous foe who had found a way to tie lies and truths together into a knot even the most powerful of Bardic spells could not unravel...
Author
"Born in Halifax, Nova Scotia: Although I haven't actually lived "down east" since just before my fourth birthday, I still consider myself a Maritimer. I think it's something to do with being born in sight of the ocean. Or possibly with the fact that almost no one admits to being from Ontario… Raised, for the most part, in Kingston, Ontario. It was the late sixties, early to mid seventies. Enough said for those of us who lived through it-and those who didn't seem to be getting another chance to fall off platform shoes. Spent three years in the Canadian Naval Reserve: I was a cook. They'd just opened it up to women and I figured it would be the first trade that would send women to sea. I was right. Unfortunately it happened a year after I left. No tattoos. Received a degree in RADIO AND TELEVISION ARTS (B.A.A.) from Ryerson Polytechnical Institute: The year I graduated was the year that the CBC laid off 750 employees in Toronto alone. We were competing for jobs with people who had up to five years experience. The cat threw up on my degree. Spent eight years working at Bakka, North America's oldest surviving science fiction book store: Change Of Hobbit in California was actually a very little bit older but unfortunately it was a casualty of the recession in '91. During those eight years, while working full-time, I wrote seven books (the first seven, except for the original draft of CHILD), and nine short stories. In 1992, after living in downtown Toronto, a city of nearly three million, for thirteen years, I moved with two large cats, one small psychotic cat, and my partner out to a rented house in the middle of nowhere. In the years since, we've purchased the house, buried two of the original cats, replaced them with three more felines and, unintentionally, acquired a Chihuahua. You're probably wondering how two reasonably intelligent adults can unintentionally acquire a Chihuahua. Please don't ask. I love living in the country, writing full-time, anything by Charles de Lint, Xena, Hercules, and email. I dislike telephones, electric blankets, and bathroom renovations. I always expect catastrophe; as a result, I'm usually pleasantly surprised." Huff lives with her wife, Fiona Patton.
