Search Worlds Without End

For one to succeed, the other must fail...

Before the Decree of Bright Magic passed, hedgewitches, far-seers, and even goblins had been tolerated by the church. Now working magic carries a death sentence, and when Makenna's mother is drowned for her work as a hedgewitch, Makenna wreaks revenge on her village and flees into the wilderness. As she wanders north, Makenna rescues and befriends the goblins who are being burned out of their homes. She may be only a half-trained hedgewitch, but Makenna believes that with courage and cleverness they can create their own kingdom in the great northern woods, and repel any humans who seek to settle there.

Sir Tobin has spent the last three years fighting the barbarian armies that attack the realm's southern border each winter--every year their numbers are greater, and their magic grows stronger. So when a powerful priest tells Tobin that the realm's only hope of survival is to move everyone into the northern woodlands, Tobin sees why this impossible feat is necessary. However the relocation can't even start, because all the refugees who try to settle in the woods have been driven out by a powerful sorceress and her goblin army. Tobin has no magic himself, but he might be able to plant a charm in the sorceress' lair that would allow the priests to find and destroy her--and the realm's survival depends on his success.

And the battle for the Goblin Wood begins.

What price would you pay to save your brother? Particularly since it was Jeriah's fault that Tobin got involved with the sorceress, and followed her into a deadly Otherworld that will kill his brother within two months... unless Jeriah can get him out in time.

But getting someone out of an unexplored magical dimension proves to be a tall order--the gate spell's notes exist only in the books of Master Lazur, a priest who wants to leave the sorceress and her goblins stranded where they are. He has no intention of even allowing Jeriah into the palace--which is the seat of both government and the church--until there's no doubt Tobin is dead.

Once he's been assigned to work in the palace, Jeriah's difficulties are just beginning--there are rivals for his job, a way-too-smart girl who works for Master Lazur is keeping an eye on him, and worst of all, the priest has hidden his notes for the gate spell. Jeriah needs help... goblin help, which always comes at a price. But living as a spy in the heart of the church, where the Hierarch himself is enmeshed in a web of secrets and lies, Jeriah needs all the help he can beg, borrow or purchase. If he doesn't succeed, his brother will die.

Out of the frying pan...

Thrust out of the Otherworld to save his life, Tobin finds himself behind the lines of the cannibal army that has been attacking the Realm for years--and they do take prisoners. In fact, Tobin soon learns that healing magic that makes the barbarians so hard to kill comes from the combined sacrifice of a human and a nature spirit, forcibly fused into one body, killed, and then... well, cannibals. As a prisoner-slave, Tobin will find himself on the sacrificial block as soon as they can capture a nature spirit. He has to escape, to report what he's learned. But the Realm already knows that the barbarians can heal any wound, in a handful of seconds--that's why it's been impossible to defeat them. What's the use of reporting the source of their enemies' power, if Tobin can't figure out some way to negate it?

Back on the Realm side of the line, Jeriah is appalled to discover that the Goblin's leader, the sorceress Makenna, has lost his brother! And Jeriah still has to keep his vow to find some way to save the Realm from the barbarian army. With Makenna as his prisoner--she's still charged with several murders from the Goblin/human war--he might have some leverage.

Makenna cares nothing for any human except the missing Tobin, and her Goblin army is in more danger from the humans than the barbarians. Makenna sees this threat to the human Realm as her best chance to win the Goblins their freedom... but then the barbarians will become a danger to her people, as well as the humans.

If the three of them can't figure out some way to stop an unstoppable army, both the Realm and the Goblins will die.