Dance of Sword and Heron

The Athanasian Kingdoms threaten to crumble under the depredations of rogue mercenaries and wandering bands of peasants driven mad by terror and starvation. Light veers perilously close to extinction. Should Darkness achieve the ultimate triumph, the Dance of Light and Dark will cease. All life will vanish.

But human souls, immaterial by nature, will face an eternity of nightmare.

In the hard-pressed Kingdom of Izarré, Princess Lirienne Valrayne practices forbidden dances taught her by an ancient crone. Originated by a heretical cult believed exterminated three centuries ago, the dances help her absorb into herself the qualities of animals whose lives she passed through during her previous turns on the Wheel of Life and Death. Should she penetrate deeply enough, she hopes to gain the ability to enter directly into into the Dance of Light and Dark, and perhaps alter the flow. But if discovered, she risks condemnation for witchcraft.

One night while dancing she hears the anguished voice of her brother Amaury, lying on the edge of death in a foreign castle. Lirienne discovers that the dances enable her to hold his soul, trapped in the Shadowlands, from sinking further into Darkness and a hellish eternity. But her efforts also threaten to trap her too in the Shadowlands. Lirienne must find a way to increase her power. Even while her beautiful but treacherous sister Marphisa plots to expose her heresy.

From the wild northern lands comes a ragged, half-mad fugitive fleeing the ghosts of his seven-year battle against the clan that murdered his family. His ordeal has brought him close to the Dance of Light and Dark that Lirienne pursues through her dance. Desperate to increase her power by adopting the sword to the dances of Heron, Cat, and Deer, Lirienne takes the barbarian for her tutor. Even knowing that should past memories suddenly overwhelm him, he will kill her in a moment.

The first in a five volume epic fantasy series, Dance of Sword and Heron sweeps through mystical realms full of battle and intrigue, magic and passion, love and betrayal. Experience this gripping saga where not simply human lives, but all human souls hang in the balance.