Tyrnos needs no armies, no police, no enforcers, for it has its Soul-Singers. These carefully trained and strongly talented people travel the country, showing the truth of their souls to nobles and commons alike, often resulting in the removal or reform of those needing it. Yeleeve, newly sent forth from the School for Singers, encounters, early in her journey, disturbing indications that something is seriously wrong in Tyrnos. Finding along her way such allies as Lisaux of the Black Shield and the Winter Beast, she pursues clues that crop up inexorably, arriving at last at the conclusion that an intrusion by alien beings has corrupted not only the King, but his own Singer of Souls. Drawing on the power of her training and her gift, Yeleeve must risk everything in an attempt to remedy this situation.
Author
Ardath Frances Hurst Mayhar was an American writer and poet. She began writing science fiction in 1979 after returning with her family to Texas from Oregon. She was nominated for the Mark Twain Award, and won the Balrog Award for a horror narrative poem in Masques I. She had numerous other nominations for awards in almost every fiction genre, and won many awards for poetry. In 2008 she was honored by Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as an Author Emeritus. Mayhar wrote over 60 books ranging from science fiction to horror to young adult to historical to westerns; with some work under the pseudonyms Frank Cannon, Frances Hurst, John Killdeer, Ardath P. Mayhar. Joe R. Lansdale wrote simply: "Ardath Mayhar writes damn fine books!"
