MAGIC GONE ASTRAY - — It was Beltane Eve and student librarian Ruth Marlowe's thirtieth birthday when she stumbled over New York City's latest mugging victim. He was tall, with long silvery hair, catlike eyes, pointed ears, and he was garbed in the finest of hand-sewn medieval wear. His name - he told Ruth and her friends, Naomi, Michael, Jane, and Philip, when they gatherd to hear his tale - was Rohannan Melior of the House of Silver Silences in Elphame. How he had come to the mortal World of Iron, Melior himself was not certain. But he was positive that he must reclaim the priceless magical item the muggers had stolen from him - the Sword of Maiden's Tears. For the Sword, one of the Twelve Treasures of Elphame, had been given into his care, and if he could not produce it at the High King's crowning, his entire line would face permanent exile. And humans, too, would suffer for the Sword's loss. For the curse on this magic blade was that any moratl who wielded it would be transformed into a grendel, and almost indestructible monster which preyed only upon humans. But in a city with as many hiding places and pitfalls as New York, what hope did one elf lord and five mere mortals have of finding and slaying the unstoppable force of evil that had stolen Melior's treasure?

When Ruth Marlowe finds a job as a librarian in Ippisiqua, New York, she hopes she will be able to put her much too exciting past behind her and settle down to an uneventful, if somewhat lonely, life in a quiet riverside town. But once touched by magic and blessed—or cursed—with the love of an elfin lord, one cannot so easily escape the spell of Elphame. And, discovering a Wild Gate to Elphame in the library's basement, Ruth is certain this is her one and only chance to be reunited with her lost love, Rohannan Melior, High Lord of the House of the Silver Silences. Once through the Gate, however, Ruth realizes she's been followed by the library director, Nic Brightlaw. With the Gate closed behind them—and a unicorn seemingly waiting to guide them—the two humans have no choice but to search the Morning Lands for Melior. But their journey will not prove an easy one, for they have entered a realm beset by trouble as all attempts fail to consecrate the Cup of Morning Shadows, one of the Twelve Treasures necessary for the Elphen king's coronation. And then Ruth learns just who is behind the turmoil in Elphame, and she knows that, for her, there is no turning back—for in a land betrayed by humans, only another human has any hope of restoring the rightful balance of the kingdom...

THE ULTIMATE TREASURE HUNT In the World of Iron, known to mere mortals as Earth, Holly Kendall, EMT, psychiatric nurse, and SCA warrior, has just arrived at Helicon, ready for a weekend away from the mundane world. But no one has warned Holly just how far away from everyday life she's about to venture. For the first person she encounters on her way to registration is an honest-to-goodness elf, newly escaped from a mental hospital. As he seems to have selective amnesia, including an inability to remember his own name, Holly gives him the moniker of Mac. And although Mac has an incredible tale to spin—a story of torture by unknown enemies, of spectacles, and of the fabled Book of Airts which tells everything there is to know about The Twelve Treasures of Chandrakar—Holly quickly realizes he's telling the truth. For Mac is not the first elf she's met, and one of the men pursuing him was far too interested in that other elf as well. As Holly sees it she has no choice but to help Mac in his search for the Book of Airts and one of the missing Treasures, the Cloak of Night and Daggers. And if they survive the hunt, she'll have to get Mac and his treasures back to Elphame—where an even more dangerous task awaits them, the rescue of Rohannan Melior and Ruth Marlowe....