Search Worlds Without End

Set after the Aurora Award-winning novel, A Play of Shadow, this novella explores the story of a young boy whose fanciful tales of dragons and dangers may prove to be more than just fiction.

Werfol returns to Vorkoun with his family to find their fortunes changed for the worse. His father is in disgrace and banished from court. Meanwhile, Vorkoun has been ceded to Asnor by the prince's treaty and no one knows what that will mean.

And to complicate matters further, Werfol is now a truthseer, able to discern if another is lying. His training has barely begun, but his mother refuses to send him back to his uncle in Marrowdell. Werfol, bored and heartsick, retreats to his imagination, secretly writing a story about a brave boy who befriends a young dragon. In their adventures, "Prince William" is always the hero but, in real life, Werfol grows angrier and more afraid every day.

It doesn't help that Werfol's brother Semyn, once his closest confidant, can't remember Marrowdell's magic. Then Semyn, worried about Werfol, finds his story and shows their parents. Their mother, plagued by dangerous dreams, fears her son may become a doorway to a threat far more dangerous than a treaty.

For Werfol wrote of a dragon the colour of a Sei, a being so potent its curiosity once tore apart worlds. Suddenly, no one, not even Werfol, can be sure where his imagination ends and the magical Verge begins.

Can a boy who sees the lies in others find the truth within himself?

The village of Marrowdell is an isolated pioneer community, but it is also the place where two worlds overlap, and at the turn of light--sunset--the world of magic known as the Verge can briefly be seen.

Jenn Nalynn belongs to both Verge and Marrowdell, but even she doesn't know how special she is--or that her invisible friend Wisp is actually a dragon sent to guard her... and keep her from leaving the valley. But Jenn longs to see the world, and thinking that a husband will help her reach this goal, she decides to create one using spells. Of course, everything goes awry, and suddenly her "invisible friend" has been transformed into a man. But he is not the only newcomer to Marrowdell, and far from the most dangerous of those who are suddenly finding their way to the valley.

What would you risk for family?

In the second installment of Night's Edge, Bannan Larmensu, the truthseer who won Jenn Nalynn's heart, learns his brother-in-law was sent as a peace envoy to Channen, capitol of the mysterious domain of Mellynne, and has disappeared. When Bannan's young nephews arrive in Marrowdell, he fears the worst, that his sister, the fiery Lila, has gone in search of her husband, leaving her sons in his care.

The law forbids Bannan from leaving Marrowdell and travelling to Mellynne to help his sister. In this world. As a turn-born, Jenn Nalynn has the power to cross into the magical realm of the Verge, and take Bannan with her. Once there, they could find a way into Mellynne.

If they survive. The Verge is wild and deadly, alive with strange magic. Dragons roar and kruar wait in ambush, and the powerful turn-born who care for their world do not care for Jenn Nalynn.

She's willing to try. Wisp and Scourge -- and the house toads -- offer their help.

But what none of them know is that magic is rife in Channen, magic that flows from the Verge itself. And not even a turn-born will be safe there.

Spring in Marrowdell is a time to celebrate. Life stirs, the air warms, and Jenn Nalynn and Bannan Larmensu couldn't be happier. But spring is also fraught with change, and nowhere is this truer than the edge, where the Verge, the magical realm of dragons and sei, touches that of snow and roads. The spring equinox marks the final turn before Marrowdell's sun starts to dominate the sky and Jenn, turn-born and sei, feels the pull to cross to the Verge.

Marrowdell's river floods, and Jenn knows she is needed at home, but deep within the Verge a perilous force is calling her away from all she loves. For the house toad's mighty queen has waited for the first equinox with the powers of a turn-born in the edge, and now she is ready to make her move against it.

Caught up in plots they cannot understand, Jenn and Bannan find themselves separated, and to reunite they will have to outsmart the queen herself. But even if they can foil her plan, will Marrowdell still be there when they return?