THE PERFECT SPY

For uncounted ages Shadith existed only as a spirit entrapped in the Diadem - a powerful and enigmatic alien artifact - but now, freed and once again in a body of her own, she finds that she has developed the ability to infiltrate any group by transferring her consciousness into another living creature - thus becoming the perfect spy.  And an ideal employee of Excavations Limited, a high-tech private detective agency known for the unique talents of its investigators.

Hired to locate and return a Disruptor - a device which has the power to compromise any known security system - Shadith is sent to Ambela, a planet devastated by war.  But in pursuit of the thief, a being with chameleon-like powers, Shadith stumbles across a far greater crime.

Will her special talents be enough to break up a syndicate which creates civil wars as a tourist attraction?

SHADITH

For centuries she had been entrapped in the Diadem - an enigmatic artifact of a long-lost alien civilization - and had been a virtual slave to its wearer.  With the destruction of the Diadem she had been freed - and had become a human woman once more.

But her centuries-long association with this magical relic has left her changed - gifted with her own kinds of magic - among them an empathic musical skill which transcends language, enabling Shadith to communicate with alien species who would otherwise be unreachable.

So when recruiting begins for a diplomatic mission to Béluchad, a newly rediscovered planet where the two native species use music as a means of communication, Shadith is the obvious choice.  But Béluchad is a world on the brink of war - being torn apart by two ruthless imperialistic races vying for control of mineral rights.  Mineral rights which should belong to the natives.

Will Shadith's magical powers of communication be enough to make peace on a planet where two alien races fight to exploit valuable natural resources, while denying the rights of the native sentient species?

JO CLAYTON

"Aleytys is a heroine as tough as, and more believable and engaging than, the general run of swords-and-sorcery barbarians."
- Publishers Weekly

Aleytys, wanderer of the skies, seeker of the home planet of her mother's super-race, wearer-slave of the mind-enhancing diadem, is down on Maeve, forest planet of tree-dwellers and semi-humans.  Her aim to continue her quest, to shake her pursuers.

It's an action-packed adventure filled with conflict and conspiracy, guerrilla warfare between the tree-folk and the technology of the Company, and a face-to-face confrontation with the implacable spider-beings from whom the diadem was stolen....

"Clayton seems to have captured much of Andre Norton's touch in characterization, description, and her method of handling psionic powers, both between humans, and between humans and non-humans."
- Madison Review of Books