First Time in Paperback. Three Top Writers Continue the Epic Fantasy
Adventure Begun in the Best-Seller The Shadow of the Lion.
Prince Manfred and his mentor and bodyguard, the deadly warrior Erik,
have survived dangers and enemies both natural and supernatural, and if
they thought that their new mission was going to be anything but more of
the same, they soon gave up on that hope. Returning from Jerusalem, they
and their escort of knights of the Holy Trinity are escorting an envoy
of Il Khan Mongol to the lands of the Golden Horde--between the Black
Sea and the Carpathians, which happen to be the eastern bastion against
their old enemies, the demon Chernobog and his possessed puppet, the
Jangellion.
Unfortunately, what began as a diplomatic mission leads to Manfred and
his knights being caught up in an inter-clan civil war, rescuing a
fugitive woman and her injured brother, and becoming involved in the
problems of Prince Vlad, Duke of Valahia, who has been held as a hostage
by King Emeric of Hungary until freed by Countess Elizabeth Batholdy to
use as bait to capture a group of nonhumans. Instead, the wolflike
nonhumans, who masquerade as gypsies, free Prince Vlad, and help him to
return to his homeland to raise revolt against Hungary and to renew
age-old magics.
Manfred and Erik are forced into an alliance of convenience between the
Golden Horde and the ancient magical forces of Valahia, as directed by
the troubled Vlad. The magic calls for blood and Vlad is deathly afraid
of it--and at the same time, is irresistibly drawn toward it . . .
