The Seven-Petaled Shield

Eons ago, a great king used a magical device—the Seven-Petaled Shield—to defeat the forces of primal chaos, but now few remember that secret knowledge. When an ambitious emperor conquers the city that safeguards the Shield, the newly-widowed young Queen, guardian of the heart-stone of the Shield, flees for her life, along with her adolescent son. As one land after another falls to the empire, they become separated and her son fears the emperor has executed his mother. Consumed with grief and vengeance, he transforms himself into the agent of chaos, a ravening destroyer who threatens all the living world. The only ones standing in the way of annihilation are the mother he thinks is dead, a dispossessed enemy prince, a demented prophet, and the nomadic horsewoman whose love alone can heal the heart of the heir to the magical Shield.

Autorentext

Deborah J. Ross is the author of the acclaimed Darkover novels collaborating and following in the footsteps of bestselling writer Marion Zimmer Bradley. Ross became friends with Bradley when she sold a short story for the first Sword and Sorceress anthology. Bradley continued to encourage her over the next two decades, through births, deaths, divorces, a sojourn in France, her literary apprenticeship, four dozen more short stories, two novels, and finally her work with Darkover. Ross is also the author of The Seven-Petaled Shield series. Ross now lives in California with her husband, writer Dave Trowbridge. She can be found online at deborahjross.blogspot.com.