Darwath

A "tense and nerve-wracking" adventure in the epic fantasy trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Time of the Dark (Tor.com). Once upon a time, Gil and Rudy lived simple lives. Until they met Ingold, Gil was an ordinary PhD candidate and Rudy was a drifter, whiling away his life riding motorcycles under the California sun. But wizards have a way of complicating things. Ingold brought them across the Void, where an evil known as the Dark threatened to devour civilization whole. Civilization's hopes rested on an infant prince, and to protect him Gil and Rudy had to draw on newfound powers-she as a warrior, he as a wizard. With Ingold's help they escaped the Dark, and led a hardy band of survivors to a far-away keep, where humanity could be safe for a time. But now that time is past, they have been found, and there is nowhere to hide from the Dark.

The bestselling author's epic fantasy trilogy comes to a dramatic end. The "cold, tense, creeping dread lasts right up until the final confrontation" (Tor.com). Since the Dark Ones returned, the world has been laid to waste. The wizards have been slaughtered, cities destroyed, and people have scattered in terror. Few have witnessed more of the destruction than Rudy and Gil-two ordinary Californians who found their way across the Void, and took up arms in defense of a strange and magical world. She learned the ways of war, while he found within himself the powers of a great wizard. Both of them will need all their strength to survive this final challenge. Ingold, the master wizard, has devised a spell to hide the user from the deathly stare of the Dark, and he intends to use it to strike at their very heart. Finally, Rudy, Gil, and the rest of mankind's survivors will take the offensive, bringing an end to this terrible war, for better or for worse.

A whirlwind fantasy classic set in the richest world imaginable, with unforgettable characters and the highest stakes-The Time of the Dark is the first book in Barbara Hambly's epic Darwath Trilogy. Gil Patterson is a woman familiar with dark stories. As a student of medieval history, she knows the Crusades, the Black Death, and the horrors of life in the Middle Ages. But it is another kind of darkness has begun to stalk her dreams: when she falls asleep she sees forces of evil assaulting a beleaguered kingdom, whose kind people are on the brink of annihilation, and awakes each morning in a cold sweat. Gil dismisses the dreams until a wizard appears in her apartment. He has crossed into her dimension, passing through the fraying fabric of the universe, to ask her help. For mankind to survive he must protect an infant prince, whom he plans to hide in Gil's world. The student of history is about to get much closer to evil than she ever imagined.