[cite web | url = http://www.locusmag.com/SFAwards/Db/Aurealis2004.html | title = 2004 Aurealis Awards | publisher = The Locus Index to SF Awards | date = | accessdate = 2008-03-06] ] Plot Introduction
'I almost regretted having Awareness. Without it, I wouldn't have noticed a thing; I would have been as oblivious to the danger as everyone else.'
Blaze Halfbreed doesn't like Gorthan Spit, but she's being paid to find an enslaved Cirkasian woman. A woman needed by the Keepers to further their political ambitions.
When Blaze sees dunmagic running over the floor in the taproom of the Drunken Plaice, she knows trouble is not far away. Could it be in the form of the three tall, very handsome men at other tables? Just what is their business here?
Her searth for the Cirkasian takes Blaze deep into Gorthan Spit, and she is horrified to unravel a threat to all the Isles of Glory...and a more immediate threat to her own life.
Could the key to it all lie with an ancient legend of vanished islands?
Characters
Blaze Halfbreed:A halfbreed Awarewoman. Blaze is half-Southerner, half-Fen-islander. She was recently in the Keeper's employ as a bounty hunter or dunmaster assassin, but then left their service. Blaze Halfbreed is Tor Ryder's lover.Flame Windrider:A Cirkasian woman with sylvtalent. She is also the Castlemaid, the only offspring of the Castlelord and Castlelady. She escaped to Gorthan Spit to avoid marrying the Bastionlord and took the name of Flame Windrider. Her real name is Lyssal. She is in love with Ruarth, a Dustel Islander trapped in the shape of a bird.Ruarth Windrider:An Aware Dustel Islander trapped by Morthred's dunmagic in the form of a bird. He is in love with Flame Windrider.Tor Ryder:A Menod patriarch Aware Stragglerman. He once took part in a rebellion on Calment, a.k.a. the Lance of Calment. Tor Ryder is Blaze Halfbreed's lover.
References
