A Shift of Time — Julie E. Czerneda

The 4th book in the Aurora Awardâ€"winning Night's Edge series returns readers to a rich and atmospheric fantasy world

Perfect for readers of Charles de Lint, Naomi Novik, and Katherine Arden, A Shift of Time is a charming, heartwarming, hopeful fable

Summer has arrived in Marrowdell, but its wild magic is out of sorts. Bannan, returning from his sister's home in Vorkoun, steps through Jenn's special crossing to find the Ansnan Towers intact and no sign of other settlement. Something is deeply wrong within the edge -- and with the Verge. Soon the youngling dragon Imp returns from that magical realm with a dire message: turn-born are missing.

Deep in the mines of Ansnor turn-borns are being trapped and killed, the contents of their shattered bodies taken for dark magic. Each lost turn-born further destabilizes the Verge, releasing chaos even the sei cannot control. Dragons and kruar become lost in the past, resuming their war, while the mother of all nyphrit gorges on the shift in time, creating more and more of her foul kind to threaten the edge.

When Mistress Sand disappears, Jenn and Bannan rush to Ansnor to save her, but they have made a grave mistake. For in the edge, those who hunt magic and those with gifts grow bold, and as the only turn-born filled with pearl and the magic of the sei, Jenn Nalynn is the greatest prize of all.