A Child of Time

To pull up a seat at the game of life, one must strive to learn the rules.A challenge comes to those in learning: Everyone's rules are different.Briyan's life is beautiful. A tower, where the Natural Philosophy of alchemy is studied; a palace, which houses both duty and family; and an island, where a princess knows the land, and is part of it. She must abandon all of it when every child's (and many adults') worst fear ap- pears in her garden, in a handbasket-a faerie. At the mercy of such a dangerous creature's threats, Briyan and her friend Thea are forced to flee their island kingdom, leaving their families fearful, their own lives uprooted.But faerie abductions are seldom simple. Soon, the reliable logic and order of the princess' life are inaccessible, with unforeseen players added to the game table at inopportune times. The world proves itself more vast, the Universe more expansive, than Briyan of 'Olara grew to expect, and with new discomforts-and dangers-saturating her surroundings, growing pains appear to be the game's divine rule.