Waking Beauty

Synopsis

The road to revenge is a long one. For the Galingales, it reaches far into the past, to the bitter day the Intricatas robbed them of their place at the Court of the Serpent Crown. And far into the future, when they will at last reenter the crystal city, Quoz, in triumph. The journey itself has its pleasures: Cyrus Galingale is about to wed a rare beauty, Rose, who will conceive a son whose destiny will span all the Stations of the Wheel from glittering Quoz to dismal Arpagee. And the journey has its danger: for Cy, like all men, is tempted by the forbidden scents of the Maw, luring him nightly from the Hierarchate to the dark forest of Herwood. Fortunately the wedding that will avenge his family will also keep him safely bound, and therefore free. But unknown to Cy, Quoz is not to be his only destiny, nor Rose his only love. For he was once secretly betrothed to another, a girl thought lost to the indescribable ecstasies of the Maw, a green-eyed beauty called Rumer...