Kirjahaku

After the death of her father, Juilan Pranss lands employment that takes her off planet-for the first time. She immediately begins having strange dreams and thoughts that continue, even after Joddrie Ferstan kidnaps her. Joddrie, a soldier of fortune with grandiose plans, takes her to a planet that is being colonized by her known world, where the Ceitwans-the humans of this distant planet-have existed for more than a millennium. They along with the indigenous Xirophans, are resisting the invasion. As Joddrie compels her with him to implement his plans, Juilan's often-terrifying dreams persist and she fears she has been possessed. Juilan escapes Ferstan, with the help of the moody outcast, Trenner Curembac. He promises to help her with these mental aberrations and also gives her proof that she is Ceitwan and the heir to the mysterious Holder position. He helps her prepare to handle the Evincor-a crystalline anomaly that defies known physics as it yields critical information about the planet. Juilan also learns that an economically-powerful, sadistic psychopath is stalking her every move, waiting to capture her so he can become dictator of the culture. His plans to achieve this could mean her death.

Dwinn Somuron is part of the third generation of people whose starship crash-landed on a planet's massive storm-battered plateau. More than half of the first generation explored the trees beyond the sheer escarpment-and vanished. Those remaining struggled for survival in the depths of a rock-shrouded realm they called the Always Dark. Dwinn lives in the Always Dark. Within these stone walls the once star-faring culture has been reduced to feudal conditions and women are shunted aside as only workers and breeders. Dwinn abhors the conditions and continually breaks rules of conduct. She is driven by inherent memories that give fragments of her ancestors' lives. There is a stone, her mind tells her...a special stone that can validate her family's legend that those who vanished into the trees-into Beyond--really survived. Although thoughts of the stone intrigue her, reaching Beyond is Dwinn's obsessive goal. She has already planned her escape. But her plans are stymied when she meets Lusaar Gursenni, the only son of the head official of the land. His enemies want to dispose of him and his reformist parent ruler. Lusaar resists and becomes a hunted man. Although their compulsions are different, Lusaar and Dwinn make concessions. Together they must battle mutual enemies and harsh environmental conditions while trying to reach their goals.