The Golden Gryphon Feather

In those days the blood of the gods circulated among mortals, and wonderworkers lived side by side with ordinary folk. Chryseis was a princess in whom strange forces and ancient mysteries contended. But she herself had to work out that which confronted her when she was sent as tribute to the legendary isle of Kaphtu.

For in that dawnland kingdom, she found herself an object of contention between the human and the non-human forces that had long been in truce. Her major defense was to be the feather of a mythical monster which alone could guide her to an unguessable inheritance.

C. J. Cherryh, who did the special introduction to Richard Purtill's novel, wrote: "It's a book I wish I'd written. It has magic; there are gods and mortals, and the kind of golden haze about it all which belongs to that age."