The Heirs of Hammerfell (Darkover, #8)

Darkover—planet of the Bloody Sun, world of legend and mystery, the long-lost Terran colony where an ancient power has awakened humans to their own hidden talents of laran, that special magic through which those gifted enough can communicate directly mind to mind, call up fire, even link their thoughts to control bird and beast.Set in the age of The Hundred Kingdoms, The Heirs of Hammerfell takes place in a time of war and strife when Darkover was divided by border conflicts into numerous small, antagonistic kingdoms. Focusing on a devastating clan feud between two of these realms—Hammerfell and Storn—a feud which has seen the land soaked red with blood for countless generations. But now Storn has struck what may prove Hammerfell’s death stroke, setting the ancestral castle ablaze, slaying its lord, and sending its lady fleeing into the night with her twin infant sons, Alastair and Conn.Conn is separated from his mother and lost to her on that fateful night, but she and Alastair find sanctuary in Thendara City, among the wealthy and the laran-gifted, keeping the memory of Hammerfell alive with them in exile. Yet Conn, too, survives, rescued by a loyal servant and raised in secret among those who would see the might of Storn overthrown and the banner of Hammerfell flying proudly high once again.But it is not until Conn’s laran manifests that the fates of the twins are finally, inextricably linked in a pattern which could bring a new beginning or total ruin to Hammerfell and its heirs…