Judith Tarr – författare

National bestselling author of Pride of Kings and World Fantasy Award nominee conjures a fascinating world of sorcerers and warriors in this dramatically powerful tale.  Led by Richard the Lionheart, king of the English and count of Anjou, the armies of the West are conducting a crusade against the sultan Saladin. In Cyprus, the king’s mother, Eleanor, has struck a devil’s bargain with the sorcerer Sinan, the Old Man of the Mountain, to grant Richard victory at any cost. Only Sinan knows that victory will cost the king his immortal soul.   Sioned, an illegitimate child of a princess of the Celts and the late king of England, is heir to twofold magic: the faery Sight of ancient Wales and the demonic powers of the Devil’s brood of Anjou. Summoned by her brother Richard to save both the Crusade and his soul, Sioned receives help from two unlikely allies—a prince of the infidels and an army of the jinn—as she races against time and the powers of the darkness. But with the extent of her abilities still untested and only her instincts to guide her, will she be able to swing the sorcerous struggle back toward the powers of the light?

World Fantasy Award nominee and National Bestselling author of House of War creates a fantastic legend inspired by the epic poem The Song of Roland and the mythical history of Merlin.   Centuries after the fall of Camelot and the disappearance of King Arthur, the wizard Merlin remains a prisoner in an enchanted forest. After years of isolation a visitor comes to him: the boy’s name is Roland. He is young and ardent, and though he is yet untested, Merlin can sense the magical power within him. Roland swears to free Merlin, unaware of the consequences such an oath carries.   Roland has since become a knight and mighty warrior. But his mystical powers are untested and his mentor remains imprisoned. Then an old enemy of Merlin’s returns, seeking the very object that tore apart the Knights of the Round Table—the Holy Grail. Now, with the help of a beautiful Saracen healer and a magical sword, Roland must face his test, fulfill his oath, and find his destiny.

The national bestselling author of Rite of Conquest continues the saga of a Britain torn between ancient magic and religious doctrine—and the turbulent lives of the two sons of William the Conqueror. William the Conqueror is dead. The Norman king freed England from the stranglehold of Saxon Christianity, but in the years following his beloved queen’s death, he turned his back on the magic that sustains the land. Inheriting the throne is the Conqueror’s eldest son, Red William, who is determined to leave magic out of his rule entirely. And without a true king, the land weakens, suffers, and begins to die. The fate of Britain lies with two people gifted in magic: Edith, princess of Scotland, and Henry, youngest son of the Conqueror. But Edith is imprisoned in a convent, forced to suppress her abilities and embrace Saxon ideology, while Henry has no lands or authority of his own. And only a great sacrifice—the blood of a king—will cleanse Britain from the evil and pestilence that infects it.