Cirrus@Austlit

'The Merdrun, cruel warriors blooded by thousands of years of slaughter, are gathering in the void between the worlds. Their long-hidden summon stone is waking, corrupting good people as well as bad, and turning arcane places into magically polluted wastelands. If it is not destroyed it will create a portal and call the Merdrun through. In a nightmare, a nine-year-old girl sees the Merdrun leader - and he sees her. If Karan and Llian are to save their daughter and their world, they must find a way to stop the greatest warrior in the void.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'The cruel Merdrun, the greatest warriors in the void, have invaded Santhenar but their portal failed, leaving them stranded. They're desperately trying to regain contact with the summon stone so they can reopen the portal and begin the slaughter of humanity. Llian, hurled through another portal, sees the summon stone wake and knows the allies have but one chance to destroy the Merdrun - though it will involve an alchemical quest that has always ended in ruin, a mad invasion in untested sky ships with untrained pilots, then the most unequal battle in all the Histories.' (Synopsis)

'The ferocious warrior race, the Merdrun, have finally succeeded in invading the beautiful world of Santhenar, in the culmination of a plan they’ve been working on for ten thousand years. But they have only fifty-five days to build the Sapphire Portal, the greatest tower in the history of the Three Worlds, and put their dreadful plan into effect. 

'Karan, Llian and their dubious and untrusting allies have only fifty-five days to destroy the reborn  summon stone that gives the Merdrun their power. Fifty-five days to develop their daughter Sulien’s magical gift and unlock the hidden memory that could reveal the Merdrun’s one fatal weakness. Fifty-five days to save her life.

'But Sulien has been abducted, along with dozens of other gifted children and a hundred thousand adults, all enslaved to build the mighty portal in time. To save her life, Karan faces the most difficult choice of all – going into the enemy camp and becoming a helpless slave herself.' (Publication summary)

'The world of Santhenar has fallen

'Most of the old allies are dead or captured, and the conquering Merdrun are carving Skyrock into a gigantic tower, with a sapphire-clad tunnel at its base. Is it a horrific new weapon to cleanse the world, so they can take it for their own? Only their arch-sorcerer, the sickening, life-drinking magiz, Dagog, knows.

'Karan, Flydd and their broken allies have only thirty days to find the answer. Thirty days to unlock nine-year-old Sulien's hidden memory and reveal the Merdrun's one fatal weakness. But Sulien has been abducted by the magiz, who needs her talent of far-seeing for his monstrous conspiracy.

'To save her daughter's life, Karan will have to break into a compound guarded by 150,000 enemy troops and every magical device known to the enemy.

'Assuming she can get past the traitor in the allies' ranks.' (Publication summary)