From the Site:
All the orphaned Daine wants when she comes to Tortall is a job. What
she finds is magic in many forms, an ongoing war with creatures from
legends and nightmares, a new home and, eventually, her unknown
father. Hired by the Queen's Riders to help with their horses, she
learns her knack with animals is a rare magic which helps her to
communicate with the animal kingdom. With that discovery she becomes
the student--then friend and sometimes protector--of the great mage
Numair. He also helps her to develop her second magical skill, the
ability to sense the presence of the immortals, fabled creatures who
have come to mortal lands after a long imprisonment. All these changes
in Daine's life bring her new human friends as well as animal ones:
Tortall's rulers, Alanna the Lioness, the heir to the throne of
imperial Carthak, a pygmy marmoset, and the badger god. Often she
comes into contact--and sometimes conflict--with Stormwings--half
human, half steel birds; dragons; spidrens--giant furred spiders with
human heads and an appetite for human flesh; griffins; and the clawed,
winged horses called hurroks. Daine is kept on the move as she grows
into adulthood and her power, coming to terms with her world and her
strange, mixed parentage.
