About the Book
Once there was a land with five evil kings, and each king had an evil queen. These were the King and Queen of Quills, of Wheels, of Spires, of Rings. Each of these rulers wielded great power, but most powerful of all, most wicked of all and, above all, most feared, were the King and Queen of Swords.
That was long ago and now the King and Queen of Swords are only painted faces on playing cards, flicking across the green baize of gaming-tables. Or are they?
For Jemany Vexing, true Prince of Ejland and Key to the Orokon, keeps hearing their names, in song and in story, as he sets out on the second stage of his quiest, seeking the long-lost mystic crystsals of the gods.
On the run and lying low, Jem is disguised as a wandering Vaga-player, making for the great southern city of Agondon. There, he hopes his mysterious new guardian – promised to him by the enigmatic harlequin – will guide him to the green Crystal of Viana. But Lord Empster is not all he appears to be, and Jem must wonder if his guardian is really good or evil – until adventure overtakes him and there is no time to wonder any more.
Meanwhile Cata, Jem's lost love, is caught in the machinations of the evil, ambitious Aunt Umbecca. Robbed of her memory, scrubbed and civilized, the wild girl has been turned into a lady. Cata recalls nothing of her powers – or of Jem. But her memory is beginning to stir, and soon she discovers a destiny that leads her from a mysterious meeting in a midnight wood to a bloody battlefield in a distant land.
Rich in magic, mystery, horror and humour, The King and Queen of Swords, the second volume of Tom Arden's sweeping fantasy epic, vividly depicts an eighteenth-century world of armies and assassins, brothels and bandits, love and longing, ransom and rape – and looming over it all, the ancient riddle of the King and Queen of Swords.
