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,
survived dangers and enemies both natural and supernmatural, 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 II
Khan Mongol to the lands of the Golden Horde-between the Black Sea and
the Carpathians, which happen to be 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, rescuingh 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 og Hungary until freed by Countess Elizabeth Batholdy to
use as bait to capture a gropu pf 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...
