Glenna McReynolds's The Chalice and the Blade heralded the arrival of a major new talent with the imagination and storytelling power of Diana Gabaldon.  Now this award-winning author enchants once more with a new, wondrous tale, sweeping us to a time and place where age-old sorcery and radiant passion collide....After a cataclysmic battle, the rightful owners of Carn Merioneth have reclaimed the ancient castle and released the pryf--the spawn of dragons--from their prison.  But for Mychael ab Arawn, son of the last rulers of Merioneth, there is no peace after victory.  Urged by a restless yearning to forsake his monk's vows, he now searches through the endless tunnels and caves beneath the castle, hoping to find the dragons that appeared to him in a fiery vision.Others, though, seek to turn Mychael to their own purposes.  Rhuddlan, leader of the Quicken-tree clan, would keep him tied to the world of men, leaving the dragons for Rhuddlan to rule.  The witch Madron urges Mychael--the first male, forbiddenly conceived, in a line of priestesses--to stand in his mother's place as seer.Only the Quicken-tree maid Llynya, with her lavender scent and lightning-fast blade, follows Mychael's dangerous path.  Seeking to redeem the honor she believes she has lost, she vows to discover with Mychael the deepest mysteries of the earth and time.  Yet even as he is drawn to her by a sensual power more potent than the dragon's blood that flows through him, Mychael