The Rose upon the Rood of Time (Dark Spiral) (Volume 1)

Out of the Entuthon Benython, a sister of the dark spiral comes to a diffident highland boy. His name is Wren. His people, the Orroch of Aina Livia, are pressed under a hard, cruel heel. His family has split apart. He lives in a broken world. Long ago, the Suleviae came to Aina Livia and founded spirals to the seven aspects of the Lady, and the secret flower that was trampled in the east flourished again in the west. On the field at Dechen D’or, the Lady Duna Dain met the Arch-Bede Cathbad, wresting the Rood of Time from his hands. Thus was the Rood lost and the Rose wounded. Centuries have gone, and the Bedes of the Aurum have come again to Livian shores, setting a Grael King on the throne of the kingless land. They accuse the Spiral of concealing the Rood, and await the druí who alone can wield it. In all this, the Spiral has been silent. Rife with schisms, it is at war within itself. And as the sweetness ebbs from the icons of the peaceful lady, the common folk begin to keep icons of the forbidden aspects: the red lady, La Teine, and the dark lady, Tel Atael. In Paidrin, on the white western shores, a crone seals a newborn infant girl, whose hair is like flame. In Twill, at the foot of the Greenmen, crossers have been coming from the dark, struggling to regain human form with the help of Wren’s mother. When the last crosser comes out of the Myrrwood, Wren and his sister Boinn bring her home. Little do they suspect how closely their lives are bound up in the fate of their people.