Paul Taffinder – författare

The stars fell

The oceans boiled and flooded the land

A darkness descended

ECHREXAR murdered our dreams

There was a time, before the breaking of the Golden Age of the world, when the peoples were as the birds of the air - of a thousand forms - and each of the thousand spoke no single tongue. Until Echrexar, the eater of a million million souls. Echrexar laid waste the land and the sea and darkened the skies so that the people were nearly no more. But the 10,000 Immortals saved the people in their refuges. And it was the black-robed Exarchs of the Faith, sent forth from the whitestone pyramid temple at Cise Hook, who gave them the archives and the teachings. 

Eslin grew up with a small band of survivors beneath the permafrost of the deep Svalbard refuge, thrown back into an in-between time of perpetual darkness and grim survival underground. As the world recovers, it has entered a new Dark Age of dream wanderers who foretell the future, fanatics of the Faith and, among the old fortresses, internecine purges between the Lords of Kiangsu Realm. In this febrile empire, Eslin has found a new role as Skava, the spymaster of the once-powerful Kingdom of Honam, fired by a passionate intensity to rebuild the world and all its dreams.

Betrayal is the worst of deeds. Betrayal is a curse upon your fellows. Betrayal is akin to the opening of the four doorsof the sealed earth: it is an invitation to the in-betweenand, thus, to Echrexar. It is sacrilege.

The Book of the Dead - ''Dogmata'': lines 7777-7779

More than ever, the exarchs of the Faith fear the in-between time and the in-between places and the violent return of the god Echrexar. Their dreams show them blood and only blood. Assailed by enemies, Skava devises plans and stratagems to overthrow king and Archivists in her ambition to remake the world. Assassins have struck from the shadows, the Realm is in turmoil. However, King Jeval is fighting back, with a huge Ta-shih army aiming to strike first. He, too, has assassins and he does not forgive betrayal. Nor do the Immortals, Harbin and Kesmet, long-committed to oppose Skava from their fastness in the storm-lashed Hundred Islands, recoil from alliances that might defeat her.

With her loyal squad of Maki and Yan, Skava has her eye fixed on the whitestone pyramid Temple at Cise Hook and the archaic secrets concealed deep in its labyrinth.

Could they change the future of the world?

Conjured on an epic scale, Betrayer of Dreams is the thrilling second volume of The Dream Murderer Cycle, a brilliantly original portrayal of a post-apocalyptic dominion of nobles, spies, zealots and assassins whose passions, conspiracies and predatory ambitions have sprung twisted from the mythology of a destroyed world.

"A unique and potent combination of epic narrative withblood-soaked psychology."

Reader''s Digest

"Stunningly entertaining... this epic story of power struggle-and for the highest of stakes: the future of humanity"

The European

Your fate is written in the dreams of the gods.

The Six Hundredth Tablet of Wisdom.

The true Faith is at war with itself. Prophecies will be fulfilled. Grandmaster Tam and the hunters of heretics are banished but foresee triumph even as the god of the in-between returns. A new age of orthodoxy is imminent and Exarch Hassin seeks to subvert Clan Ouine to his fanatical cause.

Skava and the renegade armies of the Biljan Kingdoms scramble to meet the fury of King Jeval who marches with his vaunted battalions to crush Clan Ouine. In spite of all Skava''s stratagems, Prince Osir and his sister the Lady Che Keleu lead a new-forged army across the mountains in the king''s name.

Skava has set the tiles of fate to fall one upon another in a pattern that will wrench the world to her purpose. The Realm tumbles inevitably towards war and a decisive clash at Tower Pike. But has she overreached? Skava''s battlefield weapons, built in secret but untested, promise much; allies offer unexpected pledges; victory might be within grasp...But those same allies vow blood feud whilst friends clutch daggers behind her back. Assassins and plots multiply. And the king has his own surprises to unleash.

In the end, everything leads to the ancient temple at Cise Hook where the gods, it seems, dream their reckless dreams...

Conjured on an epic scale, Mistress of Dreams is the astounding third volume of The Dream Murderer Cycle, a brilliantly original portrayal of a post-apocalyptic dominion of nobles, spies, zealots and assassins whose passions, conspiracies and predatory ambitions have sprung twisted from the mythology of a destroyed world.