For generations, as dawn touched the River of Gold and light hit the fertile valleys of southern France, the young men of the Kindred and the Norakamo tribes raided each other’s horse herds. But when a full-blown war threatened both tribes’ very existence, a taboo-breaking alliance was forged to survive this common enemy. To seal it, Alane, the Norakamo chief’s daughter, was promised in marriage to Nardo, the Kindred chief’s son. Though they worship the same god, their ways are very different—especially for the proud and beautiful Alane, who fights against her forced union with Nardo. But she soon discovers that she can no longer resist the yearnings of her heart for this extraordinary man. And now Alane and Nardo must struggle to rally their people to defend their lands as they, too, must confront their own intense conflicts, ambitions and desires. For if their marriage cannot last, neither will their tribes…

In the lush green valleys of southern France, long before the mists of time, as humankind takes its first defiant steps to tame the earth, one special tribe among the Kindred is ruled by the Priestess Arika. But a feared change is coming, for the distant thunder of hooves brings terrifying whispers of a fierce race of conquerors whose astonishing horsemanship gives them the power of conquest…a power that threatens to enslave Kindred women, murder their men, burn their villages. It is left to the exiled Ronan, Arika’s handsome young son, to meet this challenge. But first he must reunite with his true love, Nel, whose charisma and magical talents with animals may help him master the wild horse. And as the young lovers and their band of loyal renegades race to stem the invaders’ relentless advance, the grasslands quake with the sound of battle to determine the Kindreds’ destiny. Against the lush backdrop of a vanished primeval world, this spellbinding novel tells the timeless tale of adventure and conflict, rivalry and revenge, love and passion.