Lendle

Erika, a young priestess of the Goddess and the last of her ancient line, flees a tragedy in her homeland and finds herself in the wilds of an unfamiliar land…Bron Thorsen, an ambitious Ranger captain of the Vanirania Realm, is deployed to investigate an intruder on the periphery of his kingdom’s territory…His equally ambitious commanding officer, Kurt Targa, doggedly struggles to do his duty in the teeth of opposition from his own High Command…In her ancient fortress of the Tower, a dauntless and deathless Queen, the Vanadis, strives to unravel a mystery that threatens the foundations of her rule and realm, and the folk she created for both…Her Chancellor and Privy Councilor, Barbara Salter, resenting how her realm has been frozen in time for centuries, strives for new challenges, challenges that will set the realm moving forward once again…The lives of these five intersect in a manner none could have predicted, with the fate of their world hanging in the balance…Since the Dark Days and the turning of the ages, three thousand years ago, the folk of the Vanirania Realm have believed that their world is theirs alone. When her Rangers confirm the appearance of the first outlander known to exist since the Dark Days, the Vanadis quickly sets her forces in motion. Outlanders had threatened her realm before the Dark Days, and must not be allowed to threaten it again. All outlanders must be located; and the intruder above all must be taken and brought to the Tower for examination.In time, however, it becomes clear that the Ranger captain charged with capturing the intruder has somehow taken her side and has joined her as a fugitive in the uncharted outland forests beyond the realm. Mystified and then angered, their pursuers redouble their efforts, only to be faced with a trackless forest yielding no sign of their quarry.Thus is triggered an upheaval such as the Vanadis and realm have never known. Over the months to come, the Vanadis, her folk, and her realm must adjust themselves to a world that has changed beyond their imaginings, and the timeless rule of the Vanadis must be reconciled to the supreme power of the Goddess if any are to survive…