"Galoran, scarred count of Peyrefixade, believes things are finally going well for him when the duke's beautiful daughter Arsendis agrees to marry him.
But heretics threaten the duchy, and the conflict becomes deadly when they kidnap Arsendis. Galoran and his magic-working spiritual advisor Melchior face treachery and betrayal as they pursue the kidnappers into the high mountains. They must make alliances with their enemies to try to rescue Arsendis, but before they can, even darker plots are revealed.
Set in an alternate version of southern France in the Middle Ages, the story is told from the alternating viewpoints of the two main characters. The outcome turns on mystery and passion, as they are forced to question their very beliefs to determine where true loyalty lies."
The book is the sequel to Count Scar, a book we wrote together about twenty years ago. But we thought there was more story possible and decided to write and publish it. This book can be read without reading Count Scar first, though it's the same characters in the same setting. (We figured even if people had read the first book a long time ago they probably wouldn't remember it, so we made sure it wouldn't be necessary to read that one first to enjoy this one.)
The geography is essentially southern France along the Pyrenees, though we've moved a few things around. The people however are our own invention, inspired in some cases by real medieval figures by not meant to represent anyone. The social setting however is mostly historically accurate—other than the fact that there's magic!
Because real medieval priests studied all sorts of knowledge, including works of classical (pagan) antiquity, we decided to have magic studied by priests in this world. Makes it different from most other fantasy books (including mine!), where magic and religion are on different sides, if religion appears at all.
The political machinations are simplified from real medieval political history, though some people who read Count Scar thought there was a lot of politics there and will probably think the same here. In fact real medieval political history is enormously complicated; that may be where George RR Martin has gotten stalled, trying to make his "Game of Thrones" world be as complicated as late medieval England really was. The biggest simplification was to leave out the fact that northern French forces invaded southern France in an effort to wipe out the heresy that informs a lot of the background for the story. (There was enough going on already without bringing in the Albigensian Crusade.)
© C. Dale Brittain 2019
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