Bloodwinter

The wintry realm of Eron, decimated by plague, is only now beginning to build back to its former strength, so when ambitious and arrogant Eddyn rapes fellow metalsmith Strynn, there's no question that the resulting child will be kept. Custom demands that Strynn name a father for the babe; she chooses her friend (and Eddyn's rival) Avall, another metalsmith. Hoping to calm the bad blood among their families, the King of Eron sends the trio--the greatest metalworkers in the realm in centuries--to study at the distant, frigid keep of Gem-Hold-Winter. An uneasy truce is broken there when Eddyn learns that Avall has discovered a mysterious gem with the power to link minds across distances. Avall and Strynn believe that the gem will offer a powerful advantage if Eron's southern neighbor, the desert nation of Ixti, declares war. Meanwhile, Prince Kraxxi of Ixti (who has been living incognito in Eron after causing his brother's death in a hunting accident) learns of the gem from his lover--Avall's sister Merryn--and, driven by guilt and loyalty to his birth nation, complicates matters immensely. Deitz's (Above the Low Sky) unusual setting and strong, magnetic characters bode well for this new series, where loyalty seems to be as dangerous a character flaw as raw ambition. (Apr.)