A Child of Byne — Charles Brass

Since escaping Earth, Warden Maels Raptori has established the Guild Guard as a force for good in the overweb. His organization works closely with the Witches Guild to safeguard their covens and sisters. When the Guild asks Warden Maels to help with an urgent situation on a primitive underworld, naturally he responds. The mission seems simple enough: escort the newly elected executive from her academy through unforgiving territory to the capital city on the opposite coast. But the revelation of his true mission leaves Maels with an impossible choice. To succeed he must assassinate an eight-year-old girl, with witnesses to lay the deed squarely on his shoulders. If he fails, war will break out between Byne's three factions of government, and the Guild House coveness vows that Maels will never be allowed to leave the planet. Maels has mere weeks to find a solution on a world that, by its very nature, hungers for his demise. The overweb's sole-surviving Raptori must find a way to save the