Search Worlds Without End

They come to Amberleaf Fair -- toymakers, storytellers, conjurers, and adventurers. They bring song and dance, gifts of love, and tales of far places. But in the midst of celebration, the high wizard Talmar is stricken with what appears to be the Choking Glory, his brother Torin the toymaker has been rejected by his lady love, and a fabulous necklace from across the sea has been stolen -- and Torin is the chief suspect! This year Amberleaf Fair promises to be more than a place of marvels, a crossroads for magic, mysteries, and fabulous wealth. This year the fair promises to be much more interesting... and dangerous!

In The Idylls of the Queen, Phyllis Ann Karr takes an incident (the murder of Sir Patrise) from Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and creates an intelligent, complex, and fascinating mystery novel perfect for fans of historical mysteries, of British legends, and of fantasy.

Queen Guenevere is giving a dinner to honor King Arthur's knights when one guest, Sir Patrise, falls dead of poison. The dead man's cousin accuses the Queen of murder, and she is taken away, to be held until her trial by combat. If her knight-champion wins, Guenevere will be declared innocent and freed; if he loses, she will be burned to death as a murderer. She is unlikely to survive the trial. Most of Britain's mightiest knights were at the dinner, and therefore cannot fight for the Queen. Her champion and secret lover, the invincible Lancelot, has vanished. And, as Sir Kay realizes, trial by combat determines only is who is the better fighter, not who is guilty. Kay knows the Queen is innocent and an unsuspected murderer is loose in feud-filled Camelot--a murderer who intended to kill a person or persons other than the obscure knight Patrise, and who is poised to kill again. With the trial only days away, Kay joins with the great knights Gawaine and Gareth and their half-brother, King Arthur's bastard son Mordred, in two quests: to find the missing Lancelot, and to uncover the true murderer.

She had been a God, lord of all forests and the creatures that dwell within, until a small and thoughtless act of cruelty brought heavenly justice upon her, sentencing her to the worst punishment of all: to become human.

The sorceress Frostflower could bring a babe from seed to term in the course of a winter's afternoon. The swordswoman Thorn could strew a field with corpses in a moment's battle rage. Outcasts, both of them. Hunted by the farmer-priests who ruled the wasteland that once had been a world. Then Thorn in her folly got pregnant. Flower, in her folly, wanted the child. And together, foolishly, they set out to survive...

The sorceress Frostflower has the power to guide the lightning through the air...and to leave her body to roam the Tanglelands. But her fellow traveller and fellow sorcerer Windbourne, blamed for the murder of a farmer-priest, carries a monstrous guilt that saps his powers and threatens their lives. Led by the valiant warrior Thorn, Frostflower and Windbourne begin the dangerous journey to Five Roads Crossing, where the mourning High Priestess lies in wait...