The elves claim no one can enter Animonea and live. Nine champions hope they are wrong . . . When Gray Darien's love, Lady Tana, is kidnapped, he leads a warrior band into the realm of Faerie to rescue her. Among them, a Scythian mercenary, a shapeshifting Contessa, an American soldier from WWII, a woman created by enchantment-and a Faerie prince who wants Gray dead. They enter Animonea, a land the Elf-King feared so much he raised a wall to keep its denizens out. There, every animal, tree, insect, and bird possesses intelligence. Every object-swords, chairs, garments-can speak. Which creatures can they trust? Which merciless predators intend to destroy them? Gray is soon embroiled in a war against an invading army of nightmarish mechanical soldiers intent on eradicating the source of Animonea's sentience. Unless he and his companions can overcome the designs of men, wolves, rivers, and trees, Animonea will perish, and Gray and Tana with it. A novel both complete in itself and the first book of a series.