Showing results for "Black" in Medieval

Dead things have been found in the fields of Enfaire, a God-fearing town north of Reams. Not just dead things, but twisted forms…unholy shapes. And there are rumors of a blasphemous union and of fell creatures that haunt the night. Yet even as plague and witch pyres blacken the sky, the town remains untouched by the malady that has already claimed thousands and will claim thousands more. It is here, in Enfaire, that an old Franciscan friar and his ward take shelter from a storm. It is here, in a little town on the edge of civilization, that they will have their faith truly tested.

King Richard the Lionheart is dead, and his brother, John Lackland, sits uneasily upon the throne of England. Across the sea, Prince Louis, heir to the powerful King Philip Augustus of France, looks to King John’s crown with a covetous eye. But King John must be wary of rebellion, as well as invasion, for even his own barons would see their king unseated, and the French pretender put in his place. Thrust amid this tumult is young Estienne Wace, orphan squire to Earl William Marshal – the greatest knight to ever serve the kings of England.

Piran Chegwin had known since he was just a boy that he wanted to be a priest—to bring comfort and care to ordinary folk in a little parish church. So when his father manages to scrape together the money for him to study theology at Oxford, it seems his future is set. That is, until he encounters Martin de Villiers, an ambitious, self-important fellow student who takes an instant dislike to Piran. Piran's only offense? Having been born a Cornishman. But to Martin's eyes, it's an offense that must be set right.

Red Blades of Black Cathay delivers a visceral dive into a world of knightly resolve and nomadic conquest. Godric’s arc from a battered wanderer to defender of a foreign land blends chivalric valor with the grim pragmatism of survival. Howard has again crafted a saga pulsing with action, making for a gripping listen.

Duke Boleslav, brother to Wenceslas, reveals to his young son his own life's dreadful tale, and why this boy must dedicate his life to his father's salvation. Pagan priests vie with one another and with the growing power of Christianity. Prague is a trading center with an important slave market, a thriving iron industry, and is a crossroads of far-reaching trade routes. It is growing in wealth, yet threatened by jealous enemies and forces, both external and within its borders.

When 16th-century printers Henri and Bertrand Dubois find a stack of letters among their grandmother's memorabilia, they realize their lives are about to change, for in those missives is incontrovertible proof that the legend of the lost chronicles of King Alfred is no legend at all. Publishing those chronicles would be the coup of a lifetime, elevating not only the brothers' prestige among publishers in two kingdoms but also their position in society. But first, they have to find them.

A quiet life of service is all he desires. But when peace becomes tenuous, his commitment to duty leads him to deadly danger…14th century. Lord Alfred is content with his mundane destiny. Too far removed from the throne to ever ascend and more interested in scholarship, he still willingly accepts his kingly grandfather’s charge to execute a secret mission. But when his bid to protect the heir leaves him captive to a dangerous man, the young lordling fears he’ll see death before his family will pay any ransom.

Sot, rescued as a child from the brutality of Danish slave markets, grows up under the fierce protection of Roar Bjornsson, a famed warrior and trader. Known for her dark skin and amber eyes—marks of a distant land she cannot remember—Sot is both admired and feared, called witch and warrior in equal measure. But beneath her poised exterior, she wrestles with a restless heart and an aching desire for identity. When she leaves the comfort of Roar’s protection to follow the enigmatic Saxon warrior Eadric, Sot plunges into a world fraught with treachery and bloodshed.

The old Duke of Brittany had vacillated for years over who would succeed him and finally settles in his will on his half-brother, John de Montfort. But the years of vacillation had left others believing the ducal crown would pass to them, and no one understands this better than Montfort's wife, Jeanne de Flandre. When the schemes and political maneuvers of the Countess of Penthièvre land Montfort in the French king's prison, it falls to Jeanne to defend his rights to the duchy and protect their son's patrimony.