Cloaks Series

"A TREASURE!" --Hugo and Nebula winner Mary Robinette Kowal Old Mr. Heldrick is every bit as dangerous as the kids imagine--not because he's a demented killer but because his house hides a portal to another world, and he's the guardian. When Bess is caught in his basement, she's forced to flee through that doorway, not knowing where it leads. She finds herself in a nightmare world controlled by black-cloaked, knife-wielding horsemen. Within minutes she's on the run. Lost and hungry, she steals and eats fruit from an orchard, which turns out to be poisonous and nearly kills her before she reaches a farm family who take her in. The family members hide her and nurse her back to health, at great risk to themselves. Then, just when she's nearly recovered, the trackers arrive.... And that's when her problems really begin. Full of intrigue, suspense, and surprise, CLOAKS has been called "a shining example of the genre" by Nebula nominee Sylvia Spruck Wrigley. It will keep you glued until the last page.

An aging renegade. An aging tyrant. And a young woman who refuses to share her secrets with anyone. When two quistrils from the Citadel accost a young woman and Grayvle and Heldrick pull off a rescue, one of the quistrils escapes. All the quistrils of the Citadel are now bound to learn of Heldrick and Grayvle's continued existence and to set as a top priority the goal of capturing them. And Grayvle was injured during the rescue. Fortunately, Heldrick and the woman, Estrienn, are able to keep Grayvle alive long enough to get him some better medical attention. Unfortunately, Estrienn wants to remain with them and join in their fight. But Heldrick and Grayvle are themselves renegade quistrils: stronger, faster, and far better-trained than any non-quistril, let alone a mere woman. She will only get in their way. Yet Heldrick has underestimated a female once before. He doesn't intend to do so again. As time passes and Estrienn proves her intelligence and competence, he feels vindicated. He remains bothered, however, by Estrienn's refusal to tell them who she really is, where she's from, or what she was doing outside after curfew on a cold winter's night...and by whether to include her in what turns out to be his most audacious scheme yet.

The long-awaited third book in the CLOAKS series! Hundreds of years ago, the Settlers created the quistrils to kill for them, then die for them--ultimately leaving the planet empty for them. Their plans didn't work as expected, and now the Settlers are gone; but the quistrils remain, keeping the world stagnant under their authoritarian rule. Heldrick has been fighting a lone battle against quistril domination for years, but with the recent coup, he's suddenly become the Ascendant of Kallikot Citadel. It's a great opportunity to institute change--except that in order to secure his position, he seems forced into taking the very actions he's been fighting against. As if that weren't enough, Estrienn, one of his closest associates, is actually a spy for Norvenmot. But Estrienn has her own difficulties. Over the past six months her respect for Heldrick has grown, and she's fallen in love with Grayvle, Heldrick's prime lieutenant. Everything was fine while Heldrick and Grayvle were fighting against the Citadel, but now that Heldrick is in charge of it, her Norvenmot masters are pushing harder for information that she's no longer anxious to provide. No matter which course she takes, she'll feel like a traitor. Meanwhile, Norvenmot itself is hatching plans that not even Estrienn is aware of. And a small village near the Norvenmot-Kallikot border may just be getting ready to take actions that could spell disaster--for everyone.

The first two CLOAKS books in one volume! In Cloaks, called "a treasure" by Hugo-winner Mary Robinette Kowal, an old man in a small town hides a portal to another world in his basement. When Bess discovers it and goes through, she finds a world controlled by black-cloaked, knife-wielding horsemen called quistrils who have her on the run within minutes. Her only hope is to get back through the portal, if only she weren't already lost–and seriously ill, poisoned by local fruit growing in an orchard. In Pandir Decloaked, Heldrick, a renegade quistril, is no longer satisfied with merely causing mayhem among the other quistrils. Due to Bess's influence, his goal now is to completely overturn quistril domination, a task which may take centuries to complete. But he finds it difficult being patient, and bit by bit his plans grow in scope while shrinking in timescale, and before long they include the unseating of Pandir himself, the current leader of the quistrils. These two books are full of intrigue, suspense, and surprise. They will keep you glued until the last page.