Product Description The tale of the lven's struggle against their kindred foes, the vampiric alben, continues... Eliani and Turisan, mindspeakers separated by duty the day after their handfasting, yearn to be reunited as they aid in the fight to hold onto Fireshore. The capital city of that realm has been captured by the alben leader, Shalr, and along with it, Fireshore's governor and Eliani's beloved cousin! Shalr now has her eye on Woodrun, the center of Fireshore's darkwood production. As Turisan races to bring an army to Woodrun's defense, Eliani must rescue the captives from Shalr's toils. Hiding from alben pursuers in the darkwood forest, she encounters a group of exiles, the Lost, who suffer the alben's curse of blood thirst but strive to follow the lven creed. Are the Lost enemies or friends? lven or alben? The distinctions blur as the lven approach a conflict that could destroy their hope of holding Fireshore. About the Author Pati Nagle has written nineteen novels and two collections of short fiction, besides all the stuff that hasn't seen print. Her stories have appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Cicada, Cricket, and in various anthologies. She is a Writers of the Future finalist and finalist for the New Mexico Press Women's Zia Award. Her short story "Coyote Ugly" received an honorable mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror and was honored as a finalist for the Theodore Sturgeon Award. She has also written a series of historical novels as P.G. Nagle and writes mysteries as Patrice Greenwood. She lives in the mountains of New Mexico. An avid student of music, history, and humans in general, she loves the outdoors but hides from the sun. Her latest novel is Kokopelli and the Virgin, a story of miracles and visions, set in the fertile, endangered Rio Grande Valley.