The Cycle of the Oak, Ash, Yew & Rowen

The Cycle of the Oak, Ash, Yew & Rowen

by Andre Norton & Sasha Miller

Oak, Yew, Ash, and Rowan: the four powers of the world, all once great and mighty, now yielding to the effects of centuries of war. A Kink of Oak and a Queen of Yew sit on the thrones of the land – the King a drunken lout, the Queen a magical schemer. Ash and Rowan are nearly dead, their totem trees in the sacred square withering away to nothing.
All is falling into place for the power hungry Queen Ysa, who will stop at nothing to ensure the continuation of her line. Her Expertise in the dark arts all but guarantees her success, and the wooden rings of royalty have transferred themselves to her hands of their own accord. Nothing and no one escapes her notice or her wrath. Only one thing may stand in her way: a long-ago prophecy that a Daughter of Ash will one day rise again to reclaim her rightful place on the throne. Queen Ysa’s shrewd machinations have seen to it that none of the House of Ash remains alive.

To the King a Daughter ~ 2000;

Knight or Knave ~ 2001;

Times are changing in Rendelsham. The old King is dead, and the foolish Prince Florian has assumed the throne. Florian's mother, Queen Ysa of the House of Oak, still controls the land from behind the scenes, but her job grows more difficult every day. Her unworthy, headstrong son is harder to control than her husband was, and she must spend more time than ever masking her own movements. The barbarian Sea-Rover clan presents problems from the edge of the Bog, Ysa's newest magical ally has been exposed as a traitor, and still the unknown yet encroaching threat from the North continues to grow.
Ashen, heir to the nearly dead House of Ash and illegitimate half-sister of the boy king, is the only force for good in the kingdom. To keep her further from the throne, Ysa has arranged for her to be married and far from Rendelsham—and Ashen, eager to be away from the predatory politics of the palace, is happy to go. But duty overwhelms personal desire in matters of the court, and soon she must return to Rendelsham for the good of the kingdom.
Through births and deaths, marriages and duels, love and betrayal, magic and force, the four Houses of Rendelsham can only survive by the strength of their unity—but is unity possible in such a court of intrigue as this one?

A Crown Disowned ~ 2002;

The Earth is shaking and splitting as the forces from the North draw nearer. The Ice Dragon Riders are speaking to the land, and more fire mountains awaken in the Bog. Rohan seeks to join forces with Tusser, leader of the Bog-folk, as Queen Ysa raises an army to clear the Bog.

War draws closer until even the Queen cannot deny it any longer. Raids from the North increase and for the first time, the Riders of the Ice Dragons appear. It is time for the Queen to give up her game of pitting one faction against another. Four great armies assemble and they all march under the same banner. Though they do not and cannot represent the Four Trees, this is nevertheless seen as a good omen.

Many good men from all four armies fall in battle, yet the Great Foulness is still at large. Is the combined might of the four powers enough to free the land from evil?

Dragon Blade ~ 2005;

Over a year has passed since the defeat of the Great Foulness, and the ravaged earth has begun to heal. Lost for generations, the signet rings of the Four Great Houses—Oak, Yew, Ash, and Rowan—have been restored to their rightful heirs. And Ashen NordornQueen, mistress of the Land of Ever Snow, looks forward to a life of peace and happiness with her beloved husband and their newborn son—only to learn that an ancient evil still threatens all that she holds dear.
The Mother Ice Dragon, the fearsome progenitor of her deadly breed, has awakened from slumber to menace the world anew. Legend holds that only the Dragon Blade, forged from the scales of her vanquished mate, can slay the deadly female dragon, but the Dragon Blade has been lost for ages.
As Ashen embarks on a perilous quest to find the mystic sword, she leaves her castle and homeland in the care of her closest friends, including Rannore, Lady of the Rowan, who soon faces danger of a different sort.... Dragon Blade continues the saga begun in To the King a Daughter and continued in Knight or Knave and A Crown Disowned.

The Knight of the Red Beard ~ 2008;

Having rebuilt the NordornLand from rubble, Ashen and Gaurin turn their attention to the next generation of Nordorn royalty.
Bjaudin, heir to the throne, focuses on his studies and chooses a bride, but the youngest siblings, Ellin and Mikkel, seem destined to alter the future of the NordornLand – for better or worse.
Thirteen-year-old Elin craves power and believes her new alliance with the Ysa may help her achieve it, but their manipulations have effects more far-reaching than anything they could have imagined.
Eleven-year-old Mikkel stows away on a Sea-Rover ship, hoping for a brief adventure before is is inevitably returned ti his parents. But when he is taken prisoner, his bonds to the NordornLand are soon the last thing on his mind.
Ashen and Gaurin have worked tirelessly to bring peace and prosperity to their kingdom. But when growing tensions force them to take to the streets, it appears that this era of peace may be at its end…

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