When the Emperor dies on campaign, destinies clash. Magician Kyron must escort the Emperor's body back to the Capital through enemy territory; and General Bordan, veteran of many wars, must fight in the political arena for the security of the throne - and the Empire.

G. R. Matthews began reading in the cot. His mother, at her wits end with the constant noise and unceasing activity, would plop him down on the soft mattress with an encyclopaedia full of pictures then quietly slip from the room. Growing up, he spent Sunday afternoons on the sofa watching westerns and Bond movies after suffering the dual horror of the sounds of ABBA and the hoover (Vacuum cleaner) drifting up the stairs to wake him in the morning. When not watching the six-gun heroes or spies being out-acted by their own eyebrows he devoured books like a hungry wolf in the dead of winter. Beginning with Patrick Moore and Arthur C Clarke, he soon moved on to Isaac Asimov. However, one wet afternoon in a book shop in his hometown, not far from the standing stones of Avebury, he picked up The Pawn of Prophecy and started to read – and soon Sci-Fi gave way to Fantasy.