A Tale of Two Worlds Series

Long ago in the legendary time, at the very dawn of civilized days, the Old Gods sang the Green Stone Towers into being as bridges between two worlds. By means of the Towers the workers of magic, descended of the gods, escaped the wrath of the rest of mankind. Into the world of Faerie the mages fled, the gods followed, and the doors of the Towers were sealed behind them. In the ages after, the makers of magic evolved into the immortal faerie-folk. Now once in a while a faerie will brave the Green Stone Towers and visit the world they left behind, sometimes out of curiosity, often for love’s sake, if a mortal takes their fancy. Johnny Silverbell’s merchant father wants to buy him a commission in the Royal Army and, eventually, a “Sir” before his name, but Johnny, secretly the son of a dalliance by his mother with a man of the faerie, and blessed with gifts of music and magic, has different ideas entirely. He would find the hidden door in the Green Stone Tower and leave this world for the land of the faerie. There he hopes to find his true father, and also the beautiful faerie-girl who awakened his magic. But as long as anything – love, fortune, even life itself – binds him to this world, he can’t even see the door in the Tower, let alone climb its hidden stair. He will only be able to do it when he has lost everything and flees from certain death. Meanwhile, in the land of the faerie-folk, Illowan, the faerie girl who won Johnny’s heart, herself lives under a dreadful doom: to become the unwilling bride of the dark god Malatant, Lord of Shadow, and bring him victory in his ages-long struggle with the gods of light. “You will bow to Malatant, until Malatant bows to you,” the god Drithur, Lord of Riddles, had told her in a mountain pass when she failed to answer his riddle. Feeling like a fly in a spider’s web, she lives in fear of the dark god’s call, at the same time as she is tempted by his offer of power and the status of a goddess. In The Green Stone Tower we follow Johnny’s struggle to find the hidden door, and the harder transformation that awaits him once he finds the world of the faerie-folk. We see Illowan strain against her doom, and learn the machinations of the gods and the secrets behind the prophecies.

The Kingdom of Grandlock heaves with revolution. The nobility have oppressed the people for generations, but new advances in technology are enabling them to drive more and more people into unemployed misery, at the same time as radical ideas spread among the populace: ideas like democracy and popular rule. Liberty is only a revolt away – but magic threatens to subvert it and fasten new and crueler chains on the people even as they cast off their old ones. An evil priestess of the Lord of Shadow has come from the world of faerie by way of the Green Stone Tower and built a secret cult dedicated to chaos and ruin. Her agents infiltrate the democracy movement and may replace the king with a tyrant who will enslave the people in the name of liberty, using sorcery to bind them to his power. And the only thing that can stand against him and his evil mistress is a young woman barely out of her teens: the daughter of a goddess and a powerful sorceress herself. Here are some of the characters that you will meet in Goddess-Born. Sonia – the goddess-born daughter of the Lady of Light and the Lord of Shadow, fostered with a merchant family, she is thrown into her country’s struggle for liberty by events beyond her control, and must confront the tyrant who would enslave it and the evil priestess who has betrayed her divine father. Malcolm – goddess-born like Sonia, Malcolm is the son of Johnny the Singer, the Lord of Art, and Shavana the Mother of Life. He was fostered with a noble family and is the heir of wealth, privilege, and power, but his first passion is art, his second is Sonia, and his third is the magic that burns in his blood. Gilusa – a priestess of Malatant Lord of Shadow, Gilusa was sent to this world to promote the dark god’s interests, but she lusts for power, chaos, and ruin in ways that her god does not favor. Burning with resentment for her childhood of slavery, she aims at revenge on the whole world. Anne – the former lover of Johnny the Singer, gifted by that god with eloquence and a powerful pen, she is a noblewoman who favors the liberty of the people. In secret, she publishes pamphlets and newspaper articles that stir the masses to revolt, but faces great danger when the tyrant Edwin sees her as a threat to his rule. Tranis – a former devotee of Malatant from the world of faerie, this great warrior is now a leader among the People of Light, sworn to the service of the goddess Illowan. His goddess sends him through the Green Stone Tower on a mission he barely understands, and into the web of Gilusa’s plots. Edwin – a working-class man with great magical talent, Edwin becomes a follower of Gilusa and her right hand in the world. He is the poison within the democratic movement and the tyrant who would enslave the people in the name of freedom. Luisa – the sixteen-year-old heir to the throne of Grandlock, she is caught up in the whirlwind of revolution and propelled to a fate she could never have imagined. General Nathaniel Broadleaf – tasked with defending the nation against attack by the vast forces of a foreign foe, this brilliant military man may soon face an even harder job: to save his country from the tyrant who enslaves it. Goddess-Born is the second of a projected four books in the Tale of Two Worlds series; however, it is an independent story and it and the first volume, The Green Stone Tower, can be read in either order. The same will be true of The People of the Sea and Light and Shadow, to be published in 2013.