Cirrus@Austlit

'Viv’s life has just got a whole lot more dangerous. Her pledge to care for a child means she must put the child’s needs above her own and delay her search for her mother and the beautiful Thris. She nicknames the little girl Poss and heads for Esh-accom where the Scharii say Poss’s surviving family might be. But Poss falls ill and desperate to save the little girl’s life, Viv calls on her thieving skills and is captured.

'To make matters worse, her captor is from the camp she accidentally blew up, the man who pursued her on horseback, the man she only escaped thanks to the pig-bear attack. Yet mystery surrounds him. While he aids Poss, Viv is forced to make a bargain with him that will have terrible consequences.

'Viv has had little to do with children and Poss is very untrusting, but as they journey on, love grows between them. They fight their way over hazardous ridges but as they near Esh-accom’s safety, are overtaken by Waradi fighters. The fighters are on the run with Eshadi fighters hot on their heels, and while Viv manages to hide Poss, she is taken prisoner.

'The Waradi don’t get far before the Eshadi catch them and a massacre follows. The Eshadi leader believes Viv is in league with the Waradi and, only prevented from executing her on the spot by one of his men, condemns her to a slower, more painful death.

'In Ezam, Thris struggles to care for Ky, who is so traumatised by his travels in the folds, that he flees in terror and accidentally transits again. Thris pursues him and they find themselves marooned in an alien fold. After a long search, they discover a way out, but it bears all the signs of a death-trap.

'Ash is unaware of his friends’ plight. Desperate to find reasons for the plumage of ascension in his wings, he goes to the White Helixai, but its pristine pools of pure light rob him of memories of the outside world and of the angels there he loves. And as time stretches away, and he sinks deeper into a trance, the words of his blue angel predecessor, Senquar-archae, that light is the lure and light the trap, might well prove prophetic.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.