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THE STRANGEST CIVIL WAR NOVEL YOU EVER READ!

When Avram became King of Detina, he declared he intended to liberate the blond serfs from their ties to the land. The northern provinces, where most of the serfs lived, would not accept his lordship. The hot north was a land of broad estates, whose noble overlords took the serfs' labor and gave back next to nothing. Those provinces left Detina, choosing Avram's cousin, Grand Duke Geoffrey, as their king in his place.

Avram said he had inherited all of the kingdom, not just a part. He refused to let Geoffrey rule the north without a challenge. And the southron provinces, full of merchants and smallholders stood solidly behind him. So he sent armies clad in gray against the north. Geoffrey raised his own army, and arrayed his men in blue made from the indigo much raised on northern estates to distinguish them from the southrons.

Avram held the larger part of the kingdom, and the wealthier part, too. But Geoffrey's men were bolder soldiers. And the north, taken all in all, had better wizards than the southrons did. The war raged for almost three years, until Avram's General named Guildenstern and his great lieutenant, Doubting George, moved against the northern army under Count Thraxton the Braggart and his commander of unicorn-riders, Ned of the Forest, which held the town of Rising Rock, close by Sentry Peak....

A terrible civil war was tearing apart the kingdom of Detina, a land which could no longer be half serf and half free. When the new ruler, King Avram, announced his intent to liberate the blond serfs upon which the northern provinces depended, Detina was torn in two, and the rebellious north took Avram's cousin, Grand Duke Geoffrey, as their king.

Neither side could expect an easy victory. The south was larger and wealthier, but the north had better soldiers and more powerful wizards. Led by officers riding unicorns, supplied by flying carpets, both sides had been clashing for three years when Count Thraxton, a conceited wizardgeneral whose opinions of his spell-casting ability far outstripped the reality, bungled a spell which backfired disastrously against his own side, giving the Unionists a decisive victory.

But the war was far from over: Thraxton the idiot had been relieved of command; which meant that the south faced a far more competent general: Joseph the Gamecock. And Joseph and his troops were determined to hold Peachtree Province against the loyalist troops. They had occupied Rockface Rise, which offered only two narrow places where the Unionists could come at them, and had further fortified it with trenches and catapults. When the southern army attacked, they would face formidable obstacles both natural and manmade, as well as the repeating crossbows of the troops and the deadly sorcerous storm and lightning wielded by the northern wizards.

Still, the very survival of Detina as one united realm was at stake, and King Avram's forces had no choice but to attack, no matter what the odds, no matter how desperate the situation....

THE NORTH SHALL RISE AGAIN!

When Avram became King of Detina, he declared he intended to liberate the blond serfs from their ties to the land. This noble assertion immediately plunged the kingdom into a civil war that would prove long and bloody, and set brother against brother. The northern provinces, dependent on their serf's labor, seceded, choosing Avram's cousin, Grand Duke Geoffrey, as their king. To save the kingdom, Avram sent armies clad in gray against the slave-holding North, battling Geoffrey's army, arrayed in blue.

Though King Avram held more land and wealth than Geoffrey, Geoffrey's men were better soldiers and the North had better and more powerful wizards. Still, as the war raged on, greater population and superior organization began to tell and the tide turned against the North.

Even so, the war is far from over. The South still faces two formidable leaders: General Bell, whose loss of a leg has only strengthened his resolve, and Ned of the Forest, whose unicorn riders are the most dangerous force on the Northern side. And though the Southern sorcerers have become more adept at war spells, use of sorcery is unpredictable--as the North learned earlier when its forces held an almost impregnable position, but retreated in terror when an overconfident sorcerer's spell went awry.

Though victory seems in sight for the South, its armies must now battle the North on its own ground, ground which will prove treacherous and deadly....