Beyond Sanctuary

Heroic fiction. Mythic Fantasy. Beyond Sanctuary



THE SACRED BAND GOES NORTH – TO WAR!


Here is the newly revised Author’s Cut edition of BEYOND SANCTUARY, the first ever full-length novel to take you BEYOND the bestselling Thieves World™ fantasy universe, where gods still stalk the land, warring with demons and human sorcerers and trampling unfortunate humanity underfoot.


If you like stories of bold brave knights employed in meritorious duty, or tales of ladies delicate and fair, be warned: Beyond Sanctuary may be too realistic for your sensibilities. War is coming to Tyse, an occupied town at the foot of Wizardwall. And so is the Sacred Band, commanded by Tempus, who is called the favorite of the storm god, the Riddler, Tempus the Black, and worse by his enemies. Tempus longs to align his cavalry with the Nisibisi freemen on Wizardwall's slopes who are fighting to regain their homeland from the allied sorcerers of Black Nisibis and the evil Mygdonian empire, intent on conquering all who stand in their way.

BEYOND SANCTUARY, Tempus' Sacred Band of Stepsons will make a stand in Tyse, a war-torn town in the shadow of Wizardwall, teeming with refugees, insurgents, murderers, thieves, and wizards whose allegiance shifts with the wind. And abutting Tyse lies godless Peace Falls, where anything can happen, and often does. . . .

To some, Tempus is a villain. To his Stepsons, he is a demigod whose fighters never lose their battles. Many call him a hero, albeit a hero with a terrible curse: any he loves will spurn him; any who love him soon die of it. His curse grants him immortality, the gift of healing, and great prowess on the battlefield, but denies him sleep and love -- a curse so dreadful that even the southern storm god he once served has turned against him. But god or no god, Tempus and his Sacred Band of Stepsons, with help from his sorcerer-slaying sister Cime and Jihan the Froth Daughter, will battle Datan, the archmage of Black Nisibis and the inhuman legions of Roxane, the ultimate witch called Death's Queen.

In BEYOND SANCTUARY, Tempus and his Sacred Band face the deadliest demons and most malevolent mages conceivable. In this war there is no such thing as honorable defeat, or even honorable death in a losing cause: The winners will eat your soul.

BEYOND SANCTUARY is the first novel in Janet Morris’ BEYOND Sanctuary Trilogy, followed by BEYOND THE VEIL and BEYOND WIZARDWALL.

Best selling author Janet Morris began writing in 1976 and has since published more than 30 novels, many co-authored with her husband Chris Morris or others. She has contributed short fiction to the shared universe fantasy series Thieves World(TM), in which she created the Sacred Band of Stepsons, a mythical unit of ancient fighters modeled on the Sacred Band of Thebes. She created, orchestrated, and edited the Bangsian fantasy series Heroes in Hell, writing stories for the series as well as co-writing the related novel, The Little Helliad, with Chris Morris. She wrote the bestselling Silistra Quartet in the 1970s, including High Couch of Silistra, The Golden Sword, Wind from the Abyss, and The Carnelian Throne. This quartet has more than four million copies in Bantam print alone, and was translated into German, French, Italian, Russian and other languages. In the 1980s, Baen Books released a second edition of this landmark series. The third edition is the Author's Cut edition, newly revised by the author for Perseid Press. Most of her fiction work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written historical and other novels. Morris has written, contributed to, or edited several book-length works of non-fiction, as well as papers and articles on nonlethal weapons, developmental military technology and other defense and national security topics.