Refugees from the Downfall Wars, separated by centuries of spaceflight, clash on a far distant world. Caught between them are Tayree--native, Wind Walker, visionary, and a recent widow--and Arin, a foundling raised by the invading Colonists. Tayree's visions send her to find Arin, stolen from her tribe when he was an infant. She knows him from childhood dreams...and because his twin brother murdered her husband and infant sons in an attempt to possess her. Arin and Tayree could be part of prophecy to bring peace between the Ayanlak natives and the invading Colonists, but only if their hearts can heal. Tayree has a chance to fill her empty arms, but claiming her rights of recompense from her enemy's family could destroy the future for her tribe and Arin's love for her.
Of all the races that are part of the Central Allied Worlds (CAW), the augmented are the most feared, despised and threatened, considered no longer Human because of their abilities. But the time has finally come for the children of Norbra to act... After generations of cycling back and forth between abuse and praise, friendship and fear in the galaxy, Elin and Rorin and their descendants have a plan and the technology to save all Khybors. Utilizing the mind-machine bond with their Skip ships, they can create Wrinkles in the fabric of space. For the first time, fleeing beyond the reach of politicians, genetic purists and extremists like those led by the vicious Set'ri allows them the means to invisibly get to safety and provide evacuation for their allies. But an unprecedented discovery alters everything. They aren't simply Skipping beyond the reach of the sensors, they're Leaping to alternate universes, perhaps new dimensions...where the CAW can never find them. In alien space, the only certainty is that they need to protect themselves from other races that may prey upon them and their unique talents. Born of loss, pain and despair, the first law of the Leapers is set in stone: Harming one Leaper amounts to harming all. Attack and the gift of the Leap will be removed from cities, countries, worlds…the entire cosmos. An act of survival on the part of the children of Norbra ushers in an era of unimaginable change
Rescuing K'reeth from her kidnappers brought an epic storm down on their enemies, but common sense said the Dominators were far from defeated. Taron and K'reeth had dreamed of a world where Ayanlak and Na'huma colonists could live together in peace and acceptance. Now that she was pregnant, they needed to make that world a reality, and soon, or their child of two races might never be born. Admiral Dorwen had a dream of a peace village, where both groups of galactic refugees could learn from each other and learn to share their world, which the Ayanlak had named Storm Shelter and the Na'huma colonists had named Refuge. As fall turned to winter, volunteers gathered and shared ideas, and traveled to the T'bredi enclave, where they would be safe from their enemies, to prepare to start building in the spring. Touching while meeting together in the Dream Plain had always been forbidden, and the storm created when Taron rescued K'reeth illustrated exactly why. But that discovery sparked curiosity, and K'rin and other scholars delved into the archives to learn more about the Dream Plain, who had learned how to use it, and what else they could do in the realm of the mind. If people could travel wide distances through the Dream Plain--granted, with devastating consequences--what else could travel through it? The discovery of ancient treasures stored in the Dream Plain, unchanged by the centuries, opened doors of speculation and possibilities, and a chance to delve the secrets of the ancestors.
The legend of the Talon continues to grow. When Edrian Rensler regains contact with a hidden village that provides a plant vital to his family's protective elixir, he gains new allies in the battle to defend Rensler. In coming years, the colony world deals with invaders trying to change Rensler's society and soul for their own profit and power. He and the Nightskimmer, Aeza, grow even closer as adulthood brings new challenges. Edrian thinks about the future in new ways, when Aeza takes a mate and urges him to finalize his soul-bond with Aura. Then a series of crises and losses strike the planet, the colony, and the Rensler family, and Edrian risks death to protect and avenge those who hold his heart and soul.
Khyber is Istorica for the exiles, the one entrusted with remembering all their history, everything they've learned. Despite the support of her grandmother, Dayree, Khyber feels she's let down her family by not being able to step between worlds and take the exiles home. She has many gifts, but her talent for telling stories becomes the most important, when it offers the exiles a chance to reach out and find other exiles from Rehdonna. However, enemies have followed the exiles to Earth, and the only way to protect her family and village is to live separated from them under a false name. For the sake of the exiles, Khyber will do whatever it takes...and in the process find her way home.
Child of Blood or Child of Life, both born in a fierce winter storm. Mrillis was orphaned in a battle against the Nameless One, the most evil enchanter the World had ever known. Raised by the most powerful Rey?kill enchanter of their time, Mrillis and Ceera grew up as brother and sister, and discovered their destinies and magical talents? and knew they would always be together. When the Nameless One targeted Mrillis, to either destroy him or turn him into the Child of Blood, all the armies of the World joined together to defeat him. He left three children, Three Drops of Blood, according to prophecy. The oldest, a boy, became Mrillis? friend. Endor, Mrillis and Ceera grew up together, exploring their talent, learning their destinies, and fighting to find a cure from the ravages of star-metal that poisoned their world. Almost by accident, Ceera attempted to use star-metal as metal, and tame it. And from her hammer, the Zygradon was born, to harness all the magic of star-metal in the world.
Starblue Ash, daughter of Rhianni Day and Petroc Ash, is well aware of the burden of her heritage. She has sworn never to join the Rovers or leave Mallachrom. Blue learns the hard way that swearing never to do something just challenges the universe to work against her. Her two closest friends are the twins, Neona and Keegan Creed, children of Nureen Keala and Tedrin Creed. The three have shared a psionic bond since childhood. The twins are Rover pilots. Commander General Day of the Rovers is determined to make Blue a Rover, because she is the last of their family line. If he has to use her friends against her, he will. Fate intervenes when a team of Rovers discovers a world inhabited by creatures uncannily similar to the Shadows of Mallachrom. The Creed twins' duty takes them to this world, to investigate. Neona is entranced by the creatures, called Shades. When the Shades make mental captives of Neona and other Rovers, the bond between the twins is stretched to the point of breaking. Blue's bond with the twins might be the only hope they have of freeing the prisoners.
Twenty years ago, Toni's sister, Angel, was killed by her secret boyfriend. Now, the White Rose Killer is stalking and killing young women, searching for his true love. Toni is sure this is the same boy who killed Angel, grown to be a dangerous man. Curt, assistant editor at the Tabor Picayune, has the same theory. They team up in a race against time to dig through the past to identify Angel's killer, before he chooses, terrorizes, and kills another victim. To protect Toni from being chosen as the White Rose's next 'true love,' Curt and Toni pretend to be involved. Reluctant partnership turns to friendship and then to something more, but will it last beyond the unmasking of the killer?
Isaac Asimov and other speculative fiction writers have postulated that what seems to be mere technology to modern eyes could be viewed as magic to people of other cultures and times ... and perhaps worlds? In this series of novellas, classic and not-so-familiar faerie tales are placed in futuristic settings. The costumes and props might change, but the Human spirit and the quest for true love will never change. Maia has grown up in the Downbelow, a Borer, born to a life of labor so the arrogant Stocrats can live in luxury in the Above. She's made friends with a Metalman who taught her things the people in the World have forgotten. But even those marvels pale in comparison to what she discovers when she enters the Virtual world and learns the danger that threatens them all.
It's a time of turmoil in the Central Allied Worlds when the governor of Rensler, his wife and eldest son are forced to attend a "conference" of colonial governors. They leave the youngest son, Edrian, and the colony in the care of his grandfather, the former governor. The two begin a secret project by befriending the sentient, nocturnal Nightskimmers. As Edrian grows up, and unrest intensifies, he learns real heroes sometimes operate in secret. His position as youngest brother of the next governor requires him to present a false face to the world against the day when he must strike out on behalf of the colonists if they're to keep their freedom. When the expected revolution does erupt, Edrian's father and grandfather are taken away, accused of treachery. His older brother flees to the wilderness to lead the rebels, and Edrian and his mother become hostages. Edrian hides behind his false reputation of being sickly and studious, allowing him to move freely at night, freeing prisoners and striking in defense of the colony. Only a boy on the verge of manhood, yet the Talon's reputation has already taken root...
Before the Commonwealth existed, there was an expanding, multi-galaxy civilization, that disintegrated. This is the story of its downfall, where colony worlds learned to survive by their own strength...or were abandoned to die. Three novellas in one volume explore the birth of the Khybors, whose descendants will impact the Downfall, the rebirth of civilization, the return to the stars, and the Commonwealth far into the future. Khrystalis: Kerin was the youngest child of two powerful, intelligent, gifted research scientists. When the military interfered yet again in her father's research, the resulting lab explosion filled Kerin's body with experimental bio-crystal, long before it was ready for human testing. She was changed. Bio-crystal was meant to aid the body in repairing itself, when medical science was incapable. As it penetrated down to the genetic level, Kerin learned to change herself, and to sense the world in totally new ways. When her gift reached out beyond her own biology, she stood poised between being the bearer of a great gift for humanity, or a threat that would change the universe. Ambush: The twins, Casta and Pol, should never have been born, and there were many enemies who would still try to destroy them as they reached adulthood. Hidden away on a remote colony world with their uncle, they were allowed to explore all their potential, develop all the gifts they could imagine. That potential was put to good use when their home was attacked and their uncle was kidnapped by enemies intent on destroying first their world, then civilization. Their favorite game was called Ambush, and now the game had become reality. The enemy would never know what hit them. When the smoke had cleared, they had regained more than their uncle. Now what they were had a name: Khybors. Wing and Claw: Lor and Jae led the Khybors, training them to be the frontrunners of exploration teams clearing alien worlds for colonization. They had learned young not to trust the powers-that-be when they spoke of peace and cooperation between the emerging groups of augmented Humans and the rest of the Human race. All the signs were there, that the enemies who had been quiet, hiding in the shadows for generations now, were ready to emerge and attack once again. The time had come to reach for the stars, for Khybors to flee to the furthest limits of explored and colonized space, and find a world where they could live in peace and safety. First, they had to rescue the people who dared to stand up for them and speak on their behalf, before their voices were silenced permanently.
Khyber is Istorica for the exiles, the one entrusted with remembering all their history, everything they've learned. Despite the support of her grandmother, Dayree, Khyber feels she's let down her family by not being able to step between worlds and take the exiles home. She has many gifts, but her talent for telling stories becomes the most important, when it offers the exiles a chance to reach out and find other exiles from Rehdonna. However, enemies have followed the exiles to Earth, and the only way to protect her family and village is to live separated from them under a false name. For the sake of the exiles, Khyber will do whatever it takes...and in the process find her way home.
As civilization crumbles, Kiryn realizes the only way to protect her planet from pirates is to become one herself. She takes up the mantle of her father, a reformed pirate who saved his homeworld. As captain of the legendary pirate ship, Nova Vendetta, she makes her homeworld a haven for the downtrodden. The scholarly representative of a neglected colony comes as a peace envoy and makes her think of more than just surviving. When the two of them are shot down in the badlands of her planet, they become partners to survive, then friends...and finally maybe something more.
On a remote colony world, the daughter of the Talon, the defender of the people, takes over her father's mask and identity. At the same time, an investigator comes to the colony in search of the Set'ri, to stop them from hastening the disintegration of the galactic civilization. Can the two work together for the sake of the future, or will their necessary deceptions push them apart forever?
Legend says long ago Yomnian gave to each country its own Spirit Sword, entrusted to a Sword Bearer to lead in the defense of each country, and also to provide spiritual guidance. If necessary, the Sword Bearer could overrule the word and authority of the king, but those to whom the most power and authority have been entrusted have the highest standards and the most expected of them. As the centuries passed, Sword Bearers fell and the Spirit Sword for each country was lost. Now only the country of Reshor possesses a Spirit Sword. Its bearer, Rakleer, has vanished into mist and memory, waiting until need and danger awaken the sword to choose a new Bearer and lead in the defense of Reshor. When Andrixine falls ill and spends the winter recovering at Snowy Mount--a community of holy folk, scholars and healers--she never dreams it will be the first step of an adventure destined to change her life... When she seeks a weapon to rescue her kidnapped mother, she's chosen by the mystical Spirit Sword to lead in the defense of Reshor against its ancient enemy. First, she must rescue her mother and uproot treachery from within her own castle and family. The friends she gathers along the way become her closest allies and supporters. When friendship with a young warrior turns into something more, she's the most surprised.
Niall Encardi is ready to graduate after long, intensive years of medical training and go home to the colony world of Sorendaal. His life-long dream has been to become a healer and help the people his uncle, the governor, leads. The revolutionaries who overthrow the current government of the Central Allied Worlds have other plans. When the homeworlds of Niall and his classmates don't immediately give support and approval to the revolutionaries, the medical students are labeled enemies of the state and transported to prison. Despite every effort to stay focused on his first calling, healing and medicine, Niall becomes a leader, first on a prison planet, then on the prison space station known as the Abyss. Every time the government changes hands, he and his friends and then his allies in the prison society are labeled conspirators and sympathizers and condemned to yet more imprisonment. By the time the Abyss is attacked, Niall and his people have become a force to be reckoned with in their goal of freedom...even if it means turning pirate, like the falsely imprisoned nobleman who once sailed the ancient seas, on a ship called the Vendetta.
Refugees from the Downfall Wars, separated by centuries of spaceflight, clash on a far distant world. Caught between them are Tayree--native, Wind Walker, visionary, and a recent widow--and Arin, a foundling raised by the invading Colonists. Tayree's visions send her to find Arin, stolen from her tribe when he was an infant. She knows him from childhood dreams...and because his twin brother murdered her husband and infant sons in an attempt to possess her. Arin and Tayree could be part of prophecy to bring peace between the Ayanlak natives and the invading Colonists, but only if their hearts can heal. Tayree has a chance to fill her empty arms, but claiming her rights of recompense from her enemy's family could destroy the future for her tribe and Arin's love for her.
Khybors flee to Norbra for a safe place to raise their children, far from enemies who want them declared non-Humans, or want to enslave or annihilate them entirely. Like the selfish, arrogant queen of legend for whom the planet is named, Norbra has a reputation for destroying all life. Elin and those who settle the planet believe no one else will want it. They hope their enemies will leave them in peace while they wait for Norbra to do the hard work of destroying their troublesome race. However, Khybors are made to survive. They make Norbra their home and use the dangers of the planet for their own defense. Then. as the generations go on, they make a long-range plan for survival, aware that their enemies won't give up. The only way for Khybors to survive as a race is to withdraw so far away that the Set'ri and other enemies will never find them, and in time, may even forget about them. Rorin Pace comes to Norbra to win Elin's heart, to follow his dream of piloting one of their ships, and to find a way to protect all Khybors. Kheeran, their daughter, reaches new dimensions as a pilot. Their son Banjer dives deeper within the computer world and discovers the vital element in the Khybors' long-range plans of escape to the far reaches of space. Zeph, a Wrinkleship pilot, allies with the Khybors in building their fleet and brings them a damaged ship called the Nova Vendetta, full of prisoners, pirates, and a growing artificial intelligence. Errien, Kheeran's daughter, leads the pilots who search for new gateways to other universes. Meanwhile, their enemies grow stronger and come closer, and the countdown begins to the destruction of the Central Allied Worlds.
Elin, a direct descendant of the first Khybor, holds the future of her race on her shoulders. When the Set'ri want to declare them non-Humans and have them exterminated, and other factions in civilization want them as slaves, Elin leads the way to a desert world called Norbra, where Khybors have a chance to live free and to raise their children in peace and safety. But their enemies have followed them...
Niall and his crew are just centimeters away from freedom, escaping in the stolen starship they've christened the Nova Vendetta. Then disaster strikes, paralyzing their ship. Retaken as prisoners, they find themselves traveling on the very ship that should have been their ticket to freedom. Just when they're beginning to despair, the unthinkable happens: Experimental technology and a risky gamble put the ship under their control. The escaped prisoners head for the furthest reaches of known space, determined to stay free at any cost. Labeled rebels and pirates and criminals, they hold to the principles that have let them survive and stay Human during their time in prison. To the outlying colonies slowly being abandoned by the disintegration of the Central Allied Worlds, the crew of the Nova Vendetta and its slowly growing fleet of allies are heroes in the truest sense of the word. The revolution reaches out to threaten Niall's homeworld. Niall knows it's time to go home. He has to protect Sorendaal, even if it means giving himself into the hands of the very people who want him dead.
K'reeth and her sister, K'rin, were named for the moonbirds--sister raptor birds who share parenting duties, one the nurturer, the other the hunter and defender. Orphaned by catastrophe and adopted by the High Mistrada of the T'bredi scholars, they're teachers entrusted with all the gathered wisdom of the Ayanlak. Their bond of sisterhood is tested when K'reeth falls in love with the Wind Walker Talon. The relationship is further strained when the new peace with the Colonist invaders includes a promise to send home all the children who have been rescued by and raised among the Ayanlak--and K'reeth is the first. Her forced journey to be reunited with a family she doesn't even remember eventually takes both sisters across the continent and into the nest of political intrigue and contention that may tear their world apart--on the very brink of peace and the fulfillment of ancient prophecy.
The legend of the Talon continues to grow. When Edrian Rensler regains contact with a hidden village that provides a plant vital to his family's protective elixir, he gains new allies in the battle to defend Rensler. In coming years, the colony world deals with invaders trying to change Rensler's society and soul for their own profit and power. He and the Nightskimmer, Aeza, grow even closer as adulthood brings new challenges. Edrian thinks about the future in new ways, when Aeza takes a mate and urges him to finalize his soul-bond with Aura. Then a series of crises and losses strike the planet, the colony, and the Rensler family, and Edrian risks death to protect and avenge those who hold his heart and soul.
Rover Pilot Nureen Keala, Rhianni Day's best friend, is on patrol on the other side of the galaxy from Mallachrom. She would rather be supporting Rhianni's mission, but the bureaucrats aren't cooperating. Responding to a distress call puts Nureen in the wrong place at the wrong time. She falls through a vortex into another universe that has never heard of the Rovers or the war against the Talroqi. On a space station belonging to the Trefarian Empire, Tedrin Creed has been waiting for the vortex to open again. Five years ago, Talroqi ships attacked his ship. After sending his crew away to safety, he defeated the Talroqi before the vortex sucked down his ship. He has been lying to the Empire's people ever since, waiting for the vortex to open, so he can go home. When a ship and a pilot claiming to be a Rover fall through, his chance has finally come. Problem: This ship is like no Rover ship he has ever seen, and the pilot doesn't like him, or believe he is who he says he is. Nureen has every reason to distrust this man who claims to be Tedrin Creed. She knows all about him. He was her grandfather's best friend, and died a hero fifty years ago. Time is the problem, in several ways. The vortex and the way home will only be open for a short period of time. Can they learn to trust each other and escape the dangers of the Empire before time runs out?
Rescuing K'reeth from her kidnappers brought an epic storm down on their enemies, but common sense said the Dominators were far from defeated. Taron and K'reeth had dreamed of a world where Ayanlak and Na'huma colonists could live together in peace and acceptance. Now that she was pregnant, they needed to make that world a reality, and soon, or their child of two races might never be born. Admiral Dorwen had a dream of a peace village, where both groups of galactic refugees could learn from each other and learn to share their world, which the Ayanlak had named Storm Shelter and the Na'huma colonists had named Refuge. As fall turned to winter, volunteers gathered and shared ideas, and traveled to the T'bredi enclave, where they would be safe from their enemies, to prepare to start building in the spring. Touching while meeting together in the Dream Plain had always been forbidden, and the storm created when Taron rescued K'reeth illustrated exactly why. But that discovery sparked curiosity, and K'rin and other scholars delved into the archives to learn more about the Dream Plain, who had learned how to use it, and what else they could do in the realm of the mind. If people could travel wide distances through the Dream Plain--granted, with devastating consequences--what else could travel through it? The discovery of ancient treasures stored in the Dream Plain, unchanged by the centuries, opened doors of speculation and possibilities, and a chance to delve the secrets of the ancestors.
Alex Harris has always known she was adopted but never really thought about the story behind Colonel Harris and his wife adopting her...until her real mother, Herin, made contact and revealed that Alex's background and talents were just as unusual as her two college roommates, Bree Kirstan and Jori Lawrence. Alex was born in another universe, daughter and heir to the captain of a Leap ship. Her genetics have the special "tweak" that allow her to link her mind with a ship and slide through the fabric of space, going from one universe to another. Herin was injured in the attack that resulted in their ship being stranded in orbit behind the moon, and she can no longer take her ship and crew home. An Air Force investigator who's been harassing the Colonel for years has actually been after Alex all along. Time is running out, and the enemy is getting closer to the truth and closer to capturing the "alien invaders" they've sought for years. What will Alex need to sacrifice, to help her birth-mother and protect her father's career?
Just when the guardians of Neighborlee believe they can relax and enjoy the results of their labors, a new enemy makes a strike, aiming at some newcomers who have come to town seeking shelter. Is this another, roundabout attempt to break down the defensive shield around the town, or a more sinister plot? Are the attacks aimed ultimately at Angela? Clues indicate this isn't a new enemy at all, but an old enemy making another attempt to get a foothold in Neighborlee and perhaps steal not just magic, but break open the gates that Divine's Emporium and Angela keep securely closed. What type of magic is this that seems to be active only at night, and disintegrates with the coming of dawn?
The explosion nearly killed her, but it also brought her back to life... The explosion that should have killed Dawn ignites a fiery trail of buried memories, all leading to the point where it all began. She remembers... She's not from Earth at all. She's the daughter of one of the ruling families of another world in another dimension, sent to Earth by her parents to protect her from a galactic despot who wants all the rulers' children as hostages. She's from the Hunt, branded as such by two thin white lines on her wrist, caused by the Hounds of Hamin--interdimensional guardian beasts that hold the children's wrists in their mouths as they pull them through the vortex from their world to Earth. But Dawn remembers something else. Someone else. Stayn, her best friend and her betrothed. Where is he? Can he rescue her from the 'safe' house where she's currently guarded by federal agents? And can they rekindle what time and distance has torn apart?
Jori goes to Willowood College because of a promise her father made years ago when he was a student there. She only has to put in one year and then she can go to whatever college she prefers. When she walks into Old Solar's Shoppe her first day in town, prophecies spoken in another world awaken and claim her. Lew has already lost one apprentice, and he isn't happy when the dreamstone marks Jori as his new apprentice, but he knows better than to disobey the will of Waetru. Lew and Jori become friends and he teaches her about the world called Unipuri. She believes Lew's stories are just a wonderful, complicated game. Then an ancient evil attempts to reach across multiple universes and force protective barriers wide open. Jori's game becomes more real than anything she has ever known, changing her life forever...
The colony world of Rensler remains under occupation by enemy forces. Erion Rensler, governor, and his father, Elbarto, the former governor, are still prisoners, their location unknown. All that stands between the invaders and success are the Rensler brothers, Eryk and Edrian. Eryk leads the resistance fighters in the forests of Rensler. Edrian stays under the watchful eye of the enemy, playing a dangerous game of deception. At night, he sheds his pretense of being a sickly book-head and becomes the Talon, defender of the colony, riding on a deadly Nightskimmer...
Bree has lived with the burden of knowing she's born to be a Taksearhe, the highest level of strength among all the Talents, with the ability to travel between worlds. Yet childhood trauma has blocked her gifts. She knows she travels to other worlds in her dreams yet can't remember where she went or how when she wakes up. The exiles from Rehdonna are depending on her, and she's willing to do whatever it takes to learn what's going on in her brain and dreams to awaken her gifts. When she joins a dream and sleep study program at Lyndvale University, she's relieved when Dr. Harland, the man her mother is dating, takes her under his wing to protect and guide her. With the help of her roommates and then contacts in other worlds, she learns to awaken and control her gift, but not before she attracts the attention of evil forces that want to use her to open the doorway to Earth. Bree's wishes come true, but the cost if she takes just one wrong step could deprive her of friends, her heritage, and the soulmate who's reached out to her from another world.
Dayree was born to a powerful family in the Taksearhe Clan. She was expected to have strong Talents, yet her gifts never emerged. Mocked by some, ignored by others, she took the opportunities offered to her and explored other gifts, becoming a craftsman and then a teacher. In the process, she found her soulmate, Jayx. Years later, when their village was threatened by rebels who wanted to control their world, Dayree's gift awakened, enabling her talented cousin to evacuate the entire village to safety--stepping through the vortex between worlds, to a planet called Earth.
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