Book excerpt: Book 1: LORD OF THE CHANGING WINDS Little ever happens in the quiet villages of peaceful Feierabiand. For Kes, the course of her life seems set: she'll grow up to be an herb-woman and healer, never quite fitting in but always more or less accepted. And she's content with that path - or she thinks she is. Until the day the griffins come down from the mountains, bringing with them the fiery wind of their desert and a desperate need for a healer. But what the griffins need is a healer who is not quite human...or a healer who can be made into something not quite human. Book 2: LAND OF THE BURNING SANDS Gereint Enseichen of Casmantium knows little and cares less about the recent war in which his king tried to use griffins and fire to wrest territory from the neighboring country of Feierabiand. Now, his kingdom's unexpected defeat offers him a chance to escape from his own servitude. But now that the griffins find themselves in a position of strength, they are not inclined to forgive and the entire kingdom finds itself in a deadly peril. Willing or not, Gereint is caught up in a desperate struggle between the griffins and the last remaining mage...