Seven of Swords

From the flaps of the Tor first edition: "From crystal sorceries to enchanted tapestries, through worlds of untamed magic and voids of unutterable shadow, a children's quest becomes a nightmare race to capture the one object that will free a hellish evil... or save a hero's life - The Seventh Sword For eighteen years, the silver-eyed Torloc seeress Irissa and the giant warrior-mage Kendric have peacefully reigned in Rengarth, a world of relentless wild magic, while raising their daughter, Javelle, and young son, Thane. Yet despite the apparent harmony of their lives, Irissa is troubled: she and Kendric are exiles, unable to travel the Gates between Worlds, but forever on guard against their enemy, the evil wizard Greronfrey. And while Thane possesses magic powers which surpass his mother's, embittered Javelle has no sorcerous talents at all. Suddenly Kendric is struck down, poisoned with a cosmic taint from the dark waters between worlds. Invoking allies from the ghostly Spectral City, Irissa learns her lover can only be saved by the mystic force of the Frost-forge sword Kendrc once wielded as a Wrathman on the world Rule. The sword is lost. And Irissa cannot summon the magic to find Rule - But Thane can. Weaving a spell into a tapestry, Thane and Javelle enter the shadow-infested void of Without, then reach Rule, bringing with them three companions: the annoying talking cat Felabba, latest incarnation of the feline Guardian with ninety-nine lives; a hideous three-eyed Cloudhound called Briarwhip; and Eeryon, a boy from Without, a strange youth covered in writhing sorcereies. Relying on Thane's untested abilities and Javelle's knowledge of her parents' past, the young adventurers must cross a land transformed by apocalypse, confronting the deadly perils of living stone warriors, wandering islands, ice mazes, and apparitions. Meanwhile, Irissa, using all her arts to help her children, is captured by foul Geronfrey - and imprisoned in Without. And she discovers that Eeryon is Geronfrey's creation: a "son" of shadow, birthed by Irissa's unhuman mirror image, Issiri. Eeryon, too, seeks the lost sword, whose power would let Geronfrey spread a reign of horror and abomination across the universe. As Kendric fights to enter the haunted tapestry, as Irissa struggles to escape a prison beyond space, as Greonfrey schemes to destroy his enemies' children, Thane, Javelle, and Eeryon discover an underwater city of lethal illusions. And there at the shore of an ancient pond, gods, ghosts, and the might of awesome magics converge in a terrifying battle for ultimate control of the Seventh Sword."