The continuing adventures of Christopher Sinclair, mechanical engineer turned priest of war. Christopher, raised from the dead and promoted to a moderate rank, takes command of the army regiment he trained and equipped. Sent south to an allegedly easy posting, he finds himself in the way of several thousand rabid dog-men. Guns and fortifications turn back the horde, but Christopher has other problems that cannot be solved with mere firepower: a wicked assassin; hostile clergymen; dubious allies including a bard, Lalania, with a connection to a mysterious group of scholars; and worst of all his own impolitic tongue. But all of these pale into mere distractions once he discovers the true enemy: an invisible, mind-eating horror who plays the kingdom like a puppet-master’s stage. Lalania claims she can help--but will it be enough? PRAISE FOR SWORD OF THE BRIGHT LADY : " Sword of the Bright Lady is an exciting new take on the modern-man-meets-magic conflict--it's a how-to guide for surviving in a world of gods and monsters." --DAVE GROSS, author of Prince of Wolves "Readers looking for a new twist on an old story will be interested in this tale of modern idealism set in a gritty medieval world." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY M.C. Planck is the author of Sword of the Bright Lady (World of Prime: Book 1) and The Kassa Gambit. After a nearly-transient childhood, he hitchhiked across the country and ran out of money in Arizona. So he stayed there for thirty years, raising dogs, getting a degree in philosophy, and founding a scientific instrument company. Having read virtually everything by the old Masters of SF&F, he decided he was ready to write. A decade later, with a little help from the Critters online critique group, he was actually ready. He was relieved to find that writing novels is easier than writing software, as a single punctuation error won't cause your audience to explode and die. When he ran out of dogs, he moved to Australia to raise his daughter with kangaroos. Gold Throne in Shadow World of Prime Book Two By M.C. Planck Prometheus Books Copyright © 2015 M. C. Planck All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-63388-096-2 Contents 1. Reflections, 7, 2. Interviews, 12, 3. Return of the Priest, 28, 4. Changing Wizards, 40, 5. Major Tom, 58, 6. Hard Duty, 77, 7. Welcome to the Jungle, 89, 8. A Night on the Town, 108, 9. Defeat from the Jaws of Victory, 127, 10. Trouble in Bed, 151, 11. Fortress of Solitude, 172, 12. Dogfight, 194, 13. A Shocking Experience, 214, 14. King's Cross, 237, 15. Midsummer Night's Dream, 259, 16. Bar Brawls and Betrayals, 272, 17. Continuing Education, 293, Acknowledgments, 313, About the Author, 315, CHAPTER 1 REFLECTIONS Christopher stood in front of the mirror, naked, admiring Krellyan's handiwork. The dents of a lifetime were erased, washed away by the power of the Saint's magic, leaving his skin smooth and unwrinkled. Too smooth: he had no calluses on his hands or feet. He'd have to be careful until he made new ones. But now he had that ageless look that the elite of the Kingdom shared. Inside he was still a forty-year-old man. On the outside he could pass for twenty-something. The magic hadn't made him any stronger or faster than he had been. The hardness under his skin was earned the old-fashioned way, the profit of surviving the arduous lifestyle of this world. The reflexes he had cultivated in twenty years of amateur hobby had been honed by a year of deadly serious craft. But the scars he had also gained were gone. The regeneration had kept the good and replaced the bad. With a trivial exception, one easily corrected with ordinary cosmetic surgery. Christopher wasn't about to suffer through that needlessly — it was a decision he'd leave to his wife, when he saw her again. The indiscriminate regeneration spell had replaced all of his missing flesh. And it was starting to look like when, not if . He was no longer a lonely, penniless wayfarer lost on a strange world. The lost and strange remained, but now he had allies, an army, and bags of money. Most importantly, the bargain he had made with the god Marcius made sense to him. This world needed a good shaking up, a transfer in the balance of power. The people on the bottom needed more, at the expense of the people on top, and Christopher had just the lever to do it. They had said in the Wild West, "God didn't make men equal, Samuel Colt did." On this world, it would be Crazy Pater Christopher and his buckets of dirt that made men equal. The nobles had tael, the source of magic and unnatural vitality that made a man as hard to kill as an elephant. Now the commoners would have elephant guns. "If you are finished admiring yourself, we have business to discuss," Cardinal Faren said from the doorway. The great Cathedral in Kingsrock had a number of plainly furnished cells for the use of traveling priests. This was not one of them. They had put Christopher in the most luxurious room in t