New York Times bestselling author Lynn Kurland�s enthralling Nine Kingdoms saga brings together a weaver�s apprentice and the son of a mage, both fighting to save the Nine Kingdoms from peril. Aisling of Bruadair has lived a provincial life, heedless of the evil creeping over her land. That ordinary existence changes forever, though, when she is sent to the opposite end of the world to find a master swordsman. If she fails, her life--and her country's safety--will be forfeit. She just never expected that swordsman to be a wounded elven prince masquerading as a simple soldier. Powerless and scarred from a long-ago conflict, R�nach of Ceangail has spent years in obscurity, ignoing battles he can no longer fight. And although he has been drawn back into the world, he fully intends to live an unremarkable life far away from events he knows he cannot change... Until R�nach meets Aisling and realizes that she is far more than what she seems, that their alliance has attracted unwelcome notice, and that some battles must be fought.