From an Aurora Award-winning author comes a new fantasy epic in which
one mage must stand against a Deathless Goddess who controls all magic.
Only in Tananen do people worship a single deity: the Deathless Goddess.
Only in this small, forbidden realm are there those haunted by words of
no language known to woman or man. The words are Her Gift, and they
summon magic.
Mage scribes learn to write Her words as intentions: spells to make
beasts or plants, designed to any purpose. If an intention is flawed,
what the mage creates is a gossamer: a magical creature as wild and free
as it is costly for the mage.
For Her Gift comes at a steep price. Each successful intention ages a
mage until they dare no more. But her magic demands to be used; the
Deathless Goddess will take her fee, and mages will die.
To end this terrible toll, the greatest mage in Tananen vows to find and
destroy Her. He has yet to learn She is all that protects Tananen from
what waits outside. And all that keeps magic alive.