Across the Summer Sea

Book Two of the Phoenix Realm One spring night under the scimitar moon, Princess Kelene of Numer and her mother frolic as mermaids in the ocean waves, unaware until it's too late that her youngest brother has followed them--and drowned. When this tragedy plunges her mother into grief-stricken shock, Kelene sets out to find Dominic of Landers, the only healer in the known world who can perhaps help. Her voyage west leads her to confront the ghost of her father, a ruthless pirate--and the vagaries of her own heart. Meanwhile, across the sea in Cormalen, trouble brews in a cauldron of court intrigue, scandal, and royal secrets. A most unsuitable suitor pursues Dominic's sister: the immortal bird-girl Avreal, known for her stage dancing, her hot temper, her outrageous lack of convention--and the fiery, sometimes lethal power of her phoenix voice. But when past sins threaten the quietly budding romance between Princess Venessa and Wylan of Landers, not even Avreal's song can quell the unrest. The repercussions could level the throne and all the Landers and King Segar have built over the last quarter century.