The second book in the Forging of a Knight series! Qualtan has become a knight at last. With Glaive, the half-orcne thief by his side, he will join a host of new friends: Jesepha, the strong-willed female knight; her mentor, the elder knight Bartholomew, who carries a strange secret; the young and hot-headed knight Euric; the glum and impatient knight Richard; and the dashing merchant lord Visandus. A seemingly routine mission will unravel into one of greater horror, involving inter-dimensional creatures, rival sea-faring pirate nations, and a face-to-face confrontation between Qualtan and Darksiege, one of Those That Stand in Shadow, at last! Should they somehow prevail, it will just be a precursor to an even GREATER threat!

"A betrayal from the School leads Darksiege, last of Those That Stand in Shadow, with the means to achieve ultimate power at last. A mighty artifact, divided and cast into different realms, will spell doom if found. Qualtan, Glaive, Cassandra, and Bartholomew will travel to places dark and terrible, including present-day Earth, to prevent Darksiege from gaining the victory he craves, but all is not as it seems. Are Darksiege and his opponents in a true quest, or have they been deceived into playing a much deeper game? Will Qualtan be forced into an unholy alliance with his mortal enemy to uncover the TRUE foe that menaces them all?"--Back cover

A battle against the forces of Those That Stand in Shadow brings an end to an old hero and a beginning for a new one. Together with a half-orcne thief named Glaive, a young warrior named Qualtan must battle through undead hordes, evil druids, shape-shifting Maugs, hungry trolls and more on his journey to become a knight, learning in the process that good and evil are not always what they seem, and that friendship can sometimes go hand in hand with treachery.

Legend calls them the Ruinous Ones: the Dokahlfar and Vartahlfar. They were evil elves and dwarfish minions that controlled an unknown technological magic. Driven to corrupt all things of goodness and light, the evil elves sought power beyond that of tree and root. They warred against their own kin, the high elves, and were defeated, fleeing into the dark, perhaps never to be heard from again. Honorable and brave knight Qualtan knows little of elves as he sets out on his own quest. His half-orcne friend, Glaive, went missing during a secret assignment from the king, which went awry. Qualtan searches for his lost ally, but in the process he is caught up in the story of the Ruinous Ones and now must uncover the secret of their disappearance-and if they seek to return and claim the power they seek.

Book Five in the Forging of a Knight series! For the sake of a forbidden love, Qualtan will find himself on the run with a Mah-Zakim to free her from her curse, or be consumed by it. No longer a knight, his friends now turned against him, how great will the price be that must be paid? Can a Mah-Zakim truly love back, or has the curse that has followed the First Knight for so long come true at last?

They have been hinted at - heroes of glorious legend, villains of infamous fable - some have made their presence known, while others only by name: Aurelus, Amali, Termenon, Qualtan, Jesepha, Darksiege, and Shaz. Now, heroes of the past and present will unite against Those That Stand in Shadow. From the steaming jungles of the Third Continent to a Prison Planet forged by angels, the Arch-Mages and their champions will find themselves in a race against time to prevent Shaz and his agents from finding the Dark Ones' demonic fathers and releasing them from bondage. Enemies will become allies, and allies will become foes in the ultimate confrontation with evil that will span two continents, new lands, and new terrors!

Renowned scholar Thomas Asbridge brings to life medieval England’s most celebrated knight, William Marshal—providing an unprecedented and intimate view of this age and the legendary warrior class that shaped it. Caught on the wrong side of an English civil war and condemned by his father to the gallows at age five, William Marshal defied all odds to become one of England’s most celebrated knights. Thomas Asbridge’s rousing narrative chronicles William’s rise, using his life as a prism to view the origins, experiences, and influence of the knight in British history. In William’s day, the brutish realities of war and politics collided with romanticized myths about an Arthurian “golden age,” giving rise to a new chivalric ideal. Asbridge details the training rituals, weaponry, and battle tactics of knighthood, and explores the codes of chivalry and courtliness that shaped their daily lives. These skills were essential to survive one of the most turbulent periods in English history—an era of striking transformation, as the West emerged from the Dark Ages. A leading retainer of five English kings, Marshal served the great figures of this age, from Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine to Richard the Lionheart and his infamous brother John, and was involved in some of the most critical phases of medieval history, from the Magna Carta to the survival of the Angevin/Plantagenet dynasty. Asbridge introduces this storied knight to modern readers and places him firmly in the context of the majesty, passion, and bloody intrigue of the Middle Ages. The Greatest Knight features 16 pages of black-and-white and color illustrations.

Genevieve Daylee didn't expect to be standing in front of a judge on her twenty-seventh birthday. But ever since her life became entangled with a former motorcycle gang, she's learned not to expect anything but trouble. Her mother, a woman she once admired and adored, is gone, leaving behind a trail of secrets and lies. She's living in a tiny apartment above a garage owned by her brother, a man who loathes her very existence. And the father she met beside her mother's grave is as much of a stranger as Isaiah Reynolds, the broken man with soulless eyes standing beside her in front of the judge. Isaiah is her protector from the murderer at large in Clifton Forge. Though he's more like a riven knight in dented armor than a prince on a white stallion. She knows next to nothing about him, other than he works as a mechanic. As of tonight, he'll be sharing her bathroom. And, according to the judge, Isaiah is now her husband.

Vice is endemic to Western capitalism, according to this fascinating, wildly entertaining, often startling history of modern finance. Ian Klaus’s Forging Capitalism demonstrates how international financial affairs in the nineteenth century were conducted not only by gentlemen as a noble pursuit but also by connivers, thieves, swindlers, and frauds who believed that no risk was too great and no scheme too outrageous if the monetary reward was substantial enough. Taken together, the grand deceptions of the ambitious schemers and the determined efforts to guard against them have been instrumental in creating the financial establishments of today. In a story teeming with playboys and scoundrels and rich in colorful and amazing events, Klaus chronicles the evolution of trust through three distinct epochs: the age of values, the age of networks and reputations, and, ultimately, in a world of increased technology and wealth, the age of skepticism and verification. In today’s world, where the questionable dealings of large international financial institutions are continually in the spotlight, this extraordinary history has great relevance, offering essential lessons in both the importance and the limitations of trust.

The arrival of the Els by spaceship 19 years earlier was a pivotal moment for the kingdom, and a prophecy was born! But what were those early years like for the Els, and how did they come to be monarchs of the kingdom? And what catastrophic event triggered everything that was to follow?