Windrose Chronicles Books
In her latest novel, The Silent Tower, Barbara Hambly has written a complex tale of dark magic, mystery and deadly danger involving a woman computer programmer who struggles to help a condemned wizard save--or perhaps destroy?--two worlds...
It was impossible, Joanna knew. When she betrayed her lover Antryg Windrose to the Council, he had been sentenced to death. Then she had believed his brain was possessed by the Dark Mage Suraklin, though now she knew that Suraklin had chosen Gary Fairchild. But guilty or innocent, Antryg was separated from her by the awesome Void between the worlds, far from any hope of rescue. Nevertheless, she had to save him. Suraklin was planning to gain immortality by placing his mind in a computer that would get its power by draining the life-force from all on both worlds, dooming everyone to eternal misery and hopelessness. And only Antryg was strong enough a wizard to challenge the Dark Mage. Once again, Joanna dared the fearsome tunnel through the Void, praying desperately that Antryg still lived and that she could find help to free him. If not...But she refused to think of that.
The Citadel of Wizards was under siege. Deep in the Vaults beneath the walled city, Gates into inhuman realities were opening and closing without warning. Monsters emerged from other dimensions; and ancient, malign magics came to life under the influence of cosmic chaos. Someone was tampering with the Void. The Council of Wizards blamed Antryg Windrose, the rebel mage who had fled their justice to find haven in the City of Angels. Across dimensions, they reached out to bring him back... Antryg refused the wizards' summons. But when Joanna was kidnapped, Antryg followed the woman he loved back across the Void. Trapped in the Citadel between the vengeful mages who once had been his friends and the unspeakable horrors in the Vaults below, Antryg launched a desperate bid to rescue Joanna -- while all about him, the very fabric of the universe unraveled...
Kyra was preparing for her final wizard test before the Council. But suddenly, something was twisting her magic, weaving sinister portents of doom into even the simplest of her spells. Then she knew for certain that her young sister Alix was soon to marry--and soon to die. And so she journeyed back to the family who had disowned her. To save her sister, Kyra would have to face down her father's rage, stand firm against the venomous rivalries of her family's enemies, and confront the Inquisition. Then she must defeat a still deadlier foe--if only she could find it!
A novelette of 14,000 words, in the Antryg Windrose series. The exiled wizard Antryg Windrose and his computer programmer companion Joanna are called to find people who are being kidnapped from entities beyond the Void - and to learn the secret of who is abducting the innocent, and why.