Cecilia Dart-Thornton

In a thrilling debut that combines storytelling mastery with a treasure trove of folklore, Cecilia Dart-Thornton creates a lushly romantic epic adventure, set in a world brimming with wonders and terrors.

The Stormriders land their splendid winged stallions on the battlements of Isse Tower, while the scullions who dwell in the fortress's lower depths rarely even see the sun. Yet it is the least of the lowly--a mute, scarred foundling youth--who dares to climb the Tower, stow away aboard a Windship, and dive from the sky into a wilderness of endless danger. For goblins, peskies, knocks, and all the eldrich wights of the Unseelie haunt every tree, every pool, every turn in the road, tormenting or killing unwary travelers. And unknown to the nameless one, somewhere a dark force is summoning the malignant hordes, determined to destroy the young mute's identity, history...and destiny.

The Ill-Made Mute

Returning to the magical Bitterbynde world, the maiden Rohain is no longer deformed or mute. Yet her dreams of happiness are short-lived when the Unseelie hordes declare war on humankind--and Rohain is the real target of the Wild Hunt. Original.

The Bitterbynde

The Lady of the Sorrows

Having regained most of her memory, Tahquil sets out to end the battle on Erith in the hopes of reopening the way to the mystical land of Faeran and locating Thorn, who is missing in action. Reprint.

The Battle of Evernight

Jarred is a young boy who has grown up among his mother's peaceful desert people. While Jarred loves his mother, he longs to know the history of his father, a journeyman who left years earlier, promising to return for his wife and infant son. A broken promise but a token left behind--an amulet for Jarred that he has worn always. Some say it brings more than a bit of good luck his way, for no harm has ever befallen the boy. When Jarred comes to manhood, he decides to journey into the world to seek his fortune and perhaps along the way find news of his father. In his travels he will come to a place so unlike his own as to boggle his mind--a place of immense tracts of waterways and marshes, where the very air seems to teem with magic and a people surrounded by creatures fey and not, with enough strange customs and superstitions to make his head swirl. And to the beautiful Lilith, a woman who will haunt his dreams and ultimately steal his heart...who perhaps can provide a key to his heritage.

Book One of The Crowthistle Chronicles

The Iron Tree

Her world shattered by the untimely deaths of her parents, Jewel learns that she is the last surviving member of a family line containing a mystical power sought by the evil King Uabhar, a situation for which she takes refuge with a traveling band of kind magicians, one of whom sets out to win her love. Reprint.

Book Two of The Crowthistle Chronicles

The Well of Tears

Weapons glitter, men’s voices are raised in battle-song and bright banners crack and flap in a sharp breeze; armies of steel and bronze are marching to war as the ruthless king of the southern realm executes his plan to seize dominion over the Four Kingdoms. With Tir’s most powerful protectors slain by treachery and the defenders scattered, it appears nothing can stand in the tyrant’s way. Asrāthiel, summoner of storms, called 'Weatherwitch' by her wayward, eldritch companion, aids the defenders as best she can, but the invading armies are pushing further north and it seems that all is lost . . . Until a new peril unexpectedly looms; a far more dangerous and deadly menace that threatens not merely the balance of power, but the entire human race . . . ‘Dart-Thornton conjures up her world of Tir in the luminous yet hard-edged manner of Jack Vance and Mary Gentle’ Washington Post

Fallowblade

Grieving over the loss of her mother to an evil enchantment and her father, who embarked on a desperate quest to save his wife, Astarial confronts a difficult choice in her life--to stay within the safe and secure world in which she grew up, or to embark on her own quest to understand and take control of the power within her. Reprint.

Book Three of The Crowthistle Chronicles

Weatherwitch

“A beautifully spun fantasy” of love, war, rebirth, and magical destiny, based on the haunting folklore of England, Ireland, and Scotland (Andre Norton). In The Ill-Made Mute, a wretched, nameless mute awakens without a memory in a lofty tower upon whose battlements winged horses and flying ships make landfall. The amnesiac longs to escape and roam the wild landscape in search of a past, a name, and a destiny. But the tales the servants whisper by the hearth all turn out to be true: The legendary creatures that plague the world beyond the castle walls are real and innumerable. Travelers in this beautiful, eerie wilderness must beware. . . . The Lady of the Sorrows begins with a newly minted lady carrying important tidings to the King-Emperor of Caermelor. In her heart, she longs to encounter the king’s ranger Thorn, but upon reaching the royal court she learns that the ruler and his men have gone to war against the forces of wickedness that are threatening the realms of mortals. As the maiden awaits their return, a dreadful suspicion unfolds: The brutal Lord Huon and his monstrous Wild Hunt are attacking again and again—is she the target they seek? In The Battle of Evernight, the Lady of the Sorrows must save her loved ones from catastrophe by uncovering the secrets of her past. She journeys to the terrible fortress of the Raven Prince in Evernight, despite the Bitterbynde curse that is distorting her memories and the onset of a debilitating malady for which a cure may never be found. As a battle for the destiny of the world begins, the lady must make a fateful decision. If she reveals what she knows, she will liberate 2 worlds—or incite the downfall of everything she loves.

The Ill-Made Mute, The Lady of the Sorrows, and The Battle of Evernight

The Bitterbynde Trilogy

The Bitterbynde Trilogy, book IIThough Imrhien's memory is clouded by sorcery, she must take vital news to the King-Emperor of Caermelor. She hopes that there she may also find Thorn, the fearless ranger who has won her heart.Since no commoner may approach the royal court, Imrhien assumes a new identity as Rohain, a noble visitor from the distant Sorrow Isles. She soon discovers that the King and his rangers have departed to battle the Unseelie hordes which have suddenly declared war against mortals.Attacks by nightmare monsters of the Wild Hunt, led by the unseelie Lord Huon, grow ever more frequent and brutal. And when evil forces lay siege to the royal sanctuary on a hidden mystic island, Rohain is confronted with a horrifying discovery.To protect those she loves, the Lady of the Sorrows must undertake a desperate quest to discover who she is and why an unhuman evil would wreak such destruction. But the truth of Rohain's past will prove more incredible-and far more tragic-than any she could possibly have imagined.

The discovery of a human child abandoned outside the gates of Isse Tower precipitates a journey to discover her true origins and recover her memory. A first novel. 25,000 first printing.

The Ill-made Mute

La ragazza della torre. The Bitterbynde

romanzo

La ragazza della torre

Das Geheimnis der schönen Fremden

... Roman der Feenland-Chroniken

Weapons glitter, men’s voices are raised in battle-song and bright banners crack and flap in a sharp breeze; armies of steel and bronze are marching to war as the ruthless king of the southern realm executes his plan to seize dominion over the Four Kingdoms. With Tir’s most powerful protectors slain by treachery and the defenders scattered, it appears nothing can stand in the tyrant’s way. Asrathiel, summoner of storms, called 'Weatherwitch' by her wayward, eldritch companion, aids the defenders as best she can, but the invading armies are pushing further north and it seems that all is lost . . . Until a new peril unexpectedly looms; a far more dangerous and deadly menace that threatens not merely the balance of power, but the entire human race . . . ‘Dart-Thornton conjures up her world of Tir in the luminous yet hard-edged manner of Jack Vance and Mary Gentle’ Washington Post

Second volume in The Bitterbynde Trilogy, a marvellously colourful and imaginative fantasy debut.Though her memory remains clouded by sorcery, Imrhien (heroine of THE ILL-MADE MUTE) must take vital news to the King-Emperor of Caermelor, hoping also to find there the fearless ranger who has won her heart. She assumes the identity of 'Rohain', a noblewoman visiting from the distant Sorrow Isles, but finds the King and his rangers heading off to battle the Unseelie hordes. Meanwhile, awaiting their return, the newcomer must survive in a court where treachery and deceit are as deadly as any eldritch peril.Worse still, attacks by nightmare monsters of the Wild Hunt grow ever more frequent and brutal, and when evil forces lay siege to the royal sanctuary on a hidden mystic island, she realises with horror that she herself is the real target of these onslaughts -- but has no idea why.

On the misty, pine-clad slopes of the western highlands five princes go hunting – but the mountains are perilous and they clash with unexpected foes. To the north, a burrower digs its way through a labyrinth of underground caverns; there is no knowing what it is, how it came there, or where it is going. The great golden sword Fallowblade is displayed above the mantelshelf on the house of Lord Avalloc Stormbringer. A weapon almost legendary by reputation, it was used in days of yore to destroy the goblin hordes. Asrathiel Stormbringer, powerful weathermage, is learning swordplay so that one day she might wield the magnificent blade, doing justice to this family heirloon . . . . . . while in the south, a tyrant rages and deceives, and hatches inimical plots. Five princes, an enigmatic burrower, a weathermaster and a fabulous sword – these elements come together to weave the surprising story of WEATHERWITCH.

Jarred is a young boy who has grown up among his mother's peaceful desert people. While Jarred loves his mother, he longs to know the history of his father, a journeyman who left years earlier, promising to return for his wife and infant son. A broken promise but a token left behind--an amulet for Jarred that he has worn always. Some say it brings more than a bit of good luck his way, for no harm has ever befallen the boy. When Jarred comes to manhood, he decides to journey into the world to seek his fortune and perhaps along the way find news of his father. In his travels he will come to a place so unlike his own as to boggle his mind--a place of immense tracts of waterways and marshes, where the very air seems to teem with magic and a people surrounded by creatures fey and not, with enough strange customs and superstitions to make his head swirl. And to the beautiful Lilith, a woman who will haunt his dreams and ultimately steal his heart...who perhaps can provide a key to his heritage. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

THE BITTERBYNDE BOOK 3: THE BATTLE OF EVERNIGHT. The fugitive who calls herself Tahquil has at last discovered the truth. She is being hunted down because of the secret she alone knows. Her mind, however, is still clouded by a potent spell called the Bitterbynde, and she is also dying from a strange wasting disease, whose cure is elusive?Disaster strikes and she finds herself in Evernight - at the fortress of the Raven Prince himself.Nothing can prepare her for the horror that is Evernight, where magic rules and the sun is banished. In addition, the Raven Prince's whims shape the weather, the elements, and the very nature of existence. Nonetheless Tahquil refuses to be a mere pawn of these Faeran lords and ladies, who are as merciless as they are beautiful.As Morragan's wights and Angavar's knights become locked in battle that could engulf all of Erith, Tahquil's quest for the truth finally hinges on a desperate choice.Above all, if she opens the Gate, will she thereby save two worlds - or instead destroy all and everything she holds dear?The stunning conclusion to the best-selling Bitterbynde Trilogy, now with an extra chapter!

Cecilia Dart-Thornton

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