“The series as a whole seems destined to become one of the best in the genre.”
—West Coast Review of Books

In this 75,000-word novel set in the main character through-line of the Door Into... series, sorceress and swordswoman Segnbora tai-Enraesi -- last scion of one of the Forty Noble Houses of Darthen and hero of the great War against the Shadow -- is forced to get to grips with the one part of her life she's successfully avoided for more than a decade: her day job.

Segnbora's been preoccupied with the demands of motherhood and the continuing business of supporting her husbands King Freelorn of Arlen and Herewiss Hearn's son in consolidating Freelorn's hold on the Arlene throne. But now her liege-lady and lover Eftgan of Darthen calls on Segnbora to take up her rightful role as Head of House tai-Enraesi and begin restoring her diminished Household to its proper position among the Forty.

Reviving the fortunes of a House sunk into decline over two lifetimes will be difficult work, Segnbora knows. But she doesn't suspect how difficult until, while visiting her lands in Darthen's rural north, she discovers that one Holding of House tai-Enraesi conceals a danger unexpected enough to challenge even a companion of Dragons and a wielder of the blue Fire of Power...

The Landlady is the second of five novelettes and short novels spanning the years between Book 3 of the Tale of the Five, The Door Into Sunset, and the forthcoming The Door Into Starlight.

Reader advisory: Like the rest of the works in the Tale of the Five series, this work contains adult / mature themes and situations set in a sexually diverse and inclusive culture. (And so, so much farmhouse food...)