In the land of Chaimara, all females are born with the right to be shamans, Keepers of their world. They are free to choose to follow the path or not. However, believing that such power is no longer required, for the land is safe and flourishing, the elders, men and women both, decide to suppress the emergence of all such Keepers through the ceremony of the hareya.
The power of the Keepers remains dormant a long time, until it finds itself again in a young girl named MARI in the village of Chadrons. A Storyteller emerges like a wraith out of the desert and gives Mari a gift, a fragment of the ancient Ilmat-Mor that burns in her hands.
That same night, Mari's guardian tells her she must leave everything she has ever known, for her life is in danger. Armies of the Joraghi begin to hunt her at the bidding of Yarok-Mas, who stole the other half of the stone from a prisoner, Mari's mother, Isira. He is fanatically driven to possess the whole of the Ilmat-Mor and wield the ancient and absolute power it holds.
Against her will, Mari journeys into the world of a Chaimara she has never known. Time and place shift without warning. People cross her path, some intense and frightening, some comic, others strange, all of them with a hidden purpose and message for her. There are those she encounters, like the Shapeshifters, who live in darkness, ready to betray her, knowing the Joraghi will pay a good price for their knowledge.
Alone, Mari journeys through the desert of the Kalahi until she bands at last with a small group of rebels who live in the mountains of Dromgorden. They are led by her brother Liam, till then thought lost, and with him, Starfayl, a poet and warrior. As they enter the battle that must be waged to retrieve Isira, Mari discovers the truth of the Storytellers' gift, and of the destiny that awaits her.
The high fantasy novel MARI has been a finalist in the ListenUp Audiobook contest.
About the Author: REGINA CLARKE was born in England and grew up near Boston, Massachusetts. With a doctorate in English, she taught at CUNY and then spent many years writing for corporations, creating books on network management systems, virtual protocols, and military surveillance software. During those years, writing fiction and fantasy was an ongoing process and passion. Her short stories have appeared in Thrice Fiction, Kzine, Mad Scientist Journal, Over My Dead Body!, NewMyths, Aurora Wolf, and T. Gene Davis's Speculative Blog, among others. She has also been a ghostwriter, published a book on environmental management, and created an online workbook on soul development for the A.R.E. in Virginia Beach. In the spring of 2012 she was a finalist in the Hollywood SCRIPTOID Screenwriter's Feature Challenge for her script about a mother seeking the disabled child she had abandoned, in "Second Chances." In October 2016, her YA fantasy MARI was a finalist in the ListenUp Audiobook competition. She has lived in many places on both coasts, in Texas, and overseas, but now calls the historic and beautiful Hudson River Valley her home.
