In the kingdom of Crotheny, two young girls play in the tangled gardens of the sacred city of the dead where, fleeing an imaginary attacker, they discover the unknown crypt of a legendary, ancestral queen. In the wilds of the forest, while investigating the mass slaughter of an innocent family, the king's forester comes face-to-face with a monstrous beast found only in folk tales and nightmares. Meanwhile, travelling the same road, a scholarly young priest begins his education in the nature of the evil that festers just beneath the surface of a seemingly peaceful realm. For the royal family is facing a betrayal that only sorcery can accomplish. And now, for three beautiful sisters, for a young man elevated to knighthood, and for for countless others, a darkness is emerging to shatter all that once seemed certain, familiar, and good. Numerous separate destinies will become entangled as malevolent forces stalk the land -- and the Briar King, that primeval harbinger of death, has awakened from his slumber.
- ISBN10 1299024998
- ISBN13 9781299024991
- Publish Date 1 January 2008 (first published 18 July 2003)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 12 May 2015
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Del Rey Books
- Format eBook
- Pages 455
- Language English