Risa Aratyr

Original Cover Art and Back Cover Blurbs

WHEN THE WORLD WAS YOUNG, THIS OTHER IRELAND WAS ALREADY OLD.

Every ninth year a great snow elk appears on Éirinn's mountaintops. Unless it dies by sacred spear before sunrise of Bealtaine Day, when the wheel of the world turns over, the balance between Light and Dark, and thus all hope of magic, will be lost.

And once lost, gone forever.

Every ninth year must Éirinn choose a champion. This year it is the bard, Blackthorn, more at ease with a verse than a spear, who will stalk the dream-stag through lough and fen. And a dream-love awaits the bard as well: the beautiful and doomed Roisin Dubh, whose touch will sear his heart with strange new fire.

"Risa Aratyr is a born teller of tales. Her words sing like a harper's voice beneath the nighttime stars. Her Éirinn is a world suffused by magics both terrible and achingly splendid, and you will never regret the time you spend there." -- Tad Williams, author of Caliban's Hour and To Green Angel Tower

"This book should touch anyone thrilled by the interface of fantasy and folklore." -- Marion Zimmer Bradley, author of The Mists of Avalon

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