Rulers of Hylor

When her royal parents are killed during a coup, Princess Aidris Am Firn of the Chameln flees for her life. Constantly on the run from unseen enemies of the crown, she poses as a commoner and joins a cadre of women warriors so she can fight those who assassinated her parents and continue to hunt her. While cultivating allies, Aidris learns that two pretenders have ascended to the dual thrones of Chameln. Having discovered their true queen is still alive, counselors from Chameln rally to her side and convince the queen that the time has come for her to reclaim her birthright. But before she can do this, she must discover who her enemy really is, lest the unknown assassins strike her down too.

Yorath, the son of a royal prince, was born with a deformity that marks him for death. The court physician saves him by convincing his family that he died shortly after birth and takes him to a distant forest where he thrives, unaware of his birthright and the dark prophecy that looms over him. But as he grows to manhood, Yorath can't avoid being drawn into the violent conflict that plagues the land. Becoming a soldier, he rises through the ranks until he becomes a reluctant combatant in the struggle for the throne.   Even as Yorath wields the power of a kingmaker, the ways of the court are as much anathema to him as the brutality of war. If he is ever to escape the violence and machinations he so despises, he has but one choice: He must confront his heritage or lose the land he has come to love and the peace he so cherishes.

Tradition demands that King Sharn Am Zor conduct himself with all the pomp and circumstance befitting a king of Chameln, but underneath the fine jewelry and the beautifully embroidered tunic he secretly hates, Sharn remains an impulsive, restless young man. After the suggestion of marriage provokes an angry outburst from Sharn during a formal ceremony, his beloved cousin and co-ruler, Queen Aidris Am Firn, promises to draw up a list of suitable maidens. To everyone's surprise, Sharn not only listens to her counsel; he proceeds to confidently select a princess from the land of the Eildon to be his wife. But courtship is far more complicated than Sharn had originally imagined, for in Eildon, neither the land nor the people are as they appear. While Sharn must compete against other suitors for the hand of the princess, the loyal companions who accompany him are faced with a series of magical attacks that begin as petty pranks but soon escalate into outright hostility with potentially fatal consequences. As Sharn nears the end of his quest, however, he learns that this predation may be the least of his problems.

Cherry Wilder's The Rulers of Hylor series established a detailed and intricate fantasy world. Katya Riemann completed and polished this last Hylor novel, a tale of warring kingdoms, treacherous advisers and generational conflicts, set in a world of rich physical beauty, vibrant life and a realism leavened with occasional and startling magic. Gael Maddoc, the child of struggling peasants, leaps at the chance when she is offered training as a kedran, a mounted soldier. She wins glory bringing her charges home safe across a huge desert, seeking aid from the Shee. But, the Shee, the dwindling Fair Folk, then recruit her for their own purposes. Her nascent magical talents and her resourcefulness show her to be the Wanderer, a legendary figure for whom they've been waiting.