Description
They were warriors -- the silver-haired woman and the man who served her -- and their greatest enemy was time itself!
They had mastered the technology of the Gates, and free to move in time and space instantaneously, the qhal had grown drunk with their seemingly limitless power.
They created civilizations and manipulated lesser life forms -- those species forced to plod through time. But each "now" inevitably grew tedious to the qhal, and while none ventured into the past for fear of destroying what already existed, they recklessly sought the future -- a future which became so crowded with strange possibilities that the fabric of time convulsed and imploded.
Whole worlds were ruined. Only the Gates remained unscathed, and eventually humans found them.
Having been victims of the qhal all too often, men were wary of the Gates' power. So a hundred volunteers set out to seal every portal from the far side of time -- a desperate mission from which none could ever return.
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What kind of place had they come to, Vanye wondered, where men left enemies chained to stakes for hungry wolves to kill? Such cruelty did not faze his liege, the Lady Morgaine, who had seen worse on many worlds. Yet Vanye had impulsively rescued a man condemned to that fate. And now, when time was critical, they were forced to wait until the wounded stranger regained strength enough to ride.
Morgaine seethed at the delay. The road ahead would lead them to another Gate -- that was all she needed to know about this world. She meant to fulfill her purpose at any cost., but involvement with the people here complicated matters . . . increased the risks. Risks Vanye couldn't imagine.
Vanye himself had already begun to regret the act of kindness. For now, in addition to the peril of the Gate, they faced the unknown dangers of an alien world in the company of a man they dared not trust . . . a man whose own deadly enemies -- human and qhal -- could threaten Morgaine and her mission.
ISBN:9780749300067