Mystic and Rider
by Sharon Shinn

National bestselling and award-winning author Sharon Shinn has been hailed as "the most promising and original writer of fantasy to come along since Robin McKinley" by Peter S. Beagle, and her work praised as "taut, inventive, often mesmerizaing" (Kirkus Reviews). Now she weaves a new world wrought with magic and mayhem, in which the fate of a troubled land may rest in the hands of those few who would remain loyal to their kin—and each other...

Clouds of unrest are darkening the land of Gillengaria. In the southern region, ill feeling toward magic and those who use it has risen to a dangerous level, though King Baryn has ordered that such men and women are to be tolerated.

Whispers abound that he issued the decree because his new young wife is herself a mystic, who has used her powers to ensnare him. The king knows this—and he knows that he now sits uneasy on the throne. There are those barons of the Twelve Houses, who, out of their own ambition, might well use this growing dissent to overthrow him.

So he dispatches the mystic woman Senneth on a journey to see firsthand how dire the situation might be. Accompanying her are Justin, a young Rider who distrusts the magical arts; Kirra, a healer and shape-changer born of the Twelve Houses; her servant, the lowborn Donnal, also a shape-shifter; and Tayse, the first among the King's Riders. He, too, holds a hard view of mystics in general—and Senneth in particular.

As these unlikely allies venture further into the south, they enter a land under the sway of a fanatical cult that would purge Gillengaria of all magic users. They will face death—and worse. And they will come to realize that their only hope of survival lies in standing together, mystic and Rider, side by side.

Other Books by Sharon Shinn

Jeweled Fire
An Elemental Blessings Novel #3

The Turning Season
A Shifting Circle Novel #3

Royal Airs
An Elemental Blessings Novel #2

Still Life with Shape-Shifter
A Shifting Circle Novel #2

The Shape of Desire
A Shifting Circle Novel #1

Angels of Darkness

The Mammoth Book of Paranormal Romance 2

Troubled Waters

Never After

Quatrain

Fortune and Fate
A Novel of the Twelve Houses #5

Elemental Magic

Reader and Raelynx
A Novel of the Twelve Houses #4

Dark Moon Defender
A Novel of the Twelve Houses #3

The Thirteenth House
A Novel of the Twelve Houses #2

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Sharon Shinn's Bio

Sharon Shinn has published seven fantasy and science fiction novels, with her eighth one scheduled to appear next April. She lives in St. Louis, where she holds a job as co-editor on a new association-sponsored magazine. Her novels are: The Shape-Changer's Wife, Archangel, Jovah's Angel, The Alleluia Files, Wrapt in Crystal, Heart of Gold, and Summers at Castle Auburn. The new book, Jenna Starborn, will be a futuristic retelling of the Jane Eyre story.

Interview Nominated for PEARL AWARD 1999
WRAPT IN CRYSTAL - Finalist: Best Fantasy/Magical