Folded Earth (Folded Series, #1)

Ora Buckmaster is a Northern Wolf, a race of humans who've lived at the top of the world since First Fires. She's the daughter of a Keep famed for its legendary 'Messenger-men' of the North. But now? She's come to live in growing Bridge Township.

Ora can feel herself fading away in this new place in the hours before she loses her position, the Warden is assassinated, and the Township Council suddenly needs a woman to carry a critical message into the mountains. She's more than tough enough, she's just the woman for the job.

The path winds into the tumble of disturbed land called 'The Warp', where deadly and unnatural beasts abound. But if she and the guard can make it beyond them, there rises a wide, treed valley, rich with game, where Ora has a message to deliver. Tales of a powerful, mythical race, and its shrewd 'Lock-Maker King' abound. But Ora's directions are very real: Survive to see this message hit its mark.

Because, in the halls of Township authority, assassins hunt, bizarre calamities strike, and the lands and waters sour. For mysterious reasons, the Council's convinced they must lean upon the assistance of an ancient race to bring things to rights again.

All they need is for the Lock-Maker King and his mythic people to return from the folds of time....