M'rain, on the cusp of womanhood, while gathering food in the desert, stops to rest in the mouth of a cave. She is captured and held by a mad man claiming magic power who holds a small band in thrall. He forces them to mine black rock that burns for him. Glick, a lizard with real magic, guardian of the caves, helps her escape. He charges her with rescuing all those held in the labyrinth of caves and restoring them to their home village. But M'rain only wants to go home. The people she must rescue, mostly women, come from a society at the other end of the cave maze - an early agrarian people very unlike M'rain's primitive desert one. Part way through her quest she meets P'puck, a young man who has just undergone his rite of manhood. He is smitten with M'rain but she is not interested. Nor is she free to decide her future until she completes her quest. The caves, a labyrinth of tunnels so complex that no one can pass through without getting lost, are forbidden to both peoples. But Glick, with his magic, gives M'rain threads of light to follow, and limited sight in the darkness. By the time the prisoners are rescued and restored to their home village M'rain believes she has changed too much to return to her own people; nor will she fit with the new ones. This leaves her despondent.But Glick has further plans for her, which involve establishing trade between the two societies. And P'puck still wants M'rain. Glick arranges for him to be M'rain's companion for the first forays back through the caves. Glick challenges him with accepting M'rain as leader, a role not given to women in either society.
About the Author: Yvonne Hertzberger is a native of the Netherlands who immigrated to Canada in 1950. She is married with two grown children, both married, and one grandchild. She resides quietly in Stratford, Ontario with her spouse, Mark, in a 130 year old, tiny, brick cottage, where she plans to live out her retirement. She calls herself a jill-of-all-trades. Her many past paid jobs included banking, day care, residential care for challenged children, hairdressing (her favourite), retail, and customer service. She enjoys gardening, singing, the theatre, decorating and socializing with friends and family. Hertzberger is an alumna of The University of Waterloo, first with a B.A. in psychology, then and Hon. B.A. Sociology and stopped 1/2 a thesis short of an M.A. in Sociology. She has always been an avid student of human behaviour. This is what gives her the insights she uses to develop the characters in her writing. Hertzberger came to writing late in life, hence the label 'late bloomer'. Her first Fantasy novel "Back From Chaos: Book One of Earth's Pendulum" was published in 2009. The second volume in the trilogy "Through Kestrel's Eyes" arrived in 2011 and the third and final volume, The Dreamt Child is now available. Labyrinth Quest is her fourth book, a Stand alone, also fitting into the Magic Realism category, as is the Earth's Pendulum trilogy