A Lord of Three is the first book in the trilogy The Furnishings of Baba Yaga’s Hut. The book is currently under revision, but I hope to have some samples posted soon. In the meantime, here’s a little taste:
The Tenth Aeon is over and the Eleventh is in its infancy. The reign of the god Kesed has ended, but the gods of the new Aeon have not yet taken their thrones. Nations and faiths are in turmoil, the rules of magic are changing, and everywhere those in power are trying to bend affairs to their own advantage. But when the gods play chess, they use mortals for their pawns . . .
Vasilisa the Beautiful, daughter of humble dressmakers, is now princess of the flying island of Windflower. Her brief stint as princess has been peaceful, if unremarkable. But all that changes the night a mysterious stranger is apprehended in the treasure vault of the palace. Thus begins Vasilisa’s unusual friendship with Virgil Blue: world-walker, magician, madman.
Brought before the throne to explain his actions, the otherworldly Blue confesses a most unusual motive: he has come to tell Vasilisa a story. What begins as a night’s entertainment swiftly unfolds into a vast collection of tales piecing together from many perspectives the death of the Tenth Aeon and the birth of the Eleventh. On the 702nd night of his residence in Windflower, Blue begins the tale of Professor Nehemiah Higginbottom: engineer, scholar, saboteur.
In the palace of the King of Mydmos, Higginbottom undertakes the education of a most unusual young prince. Between lessons, he finds himself ever more deeply involved in the lies and intrigue of palace life. And in the evenings he tells the prince the tale of Victorinox: space-farer, inventor, diabolist.
In the cursed city of Ureom’s Folly, Victorinox hunts a deadly foe and struggles to come to terms with the disaster that shattered his carefree life among the stars and broke the mind of his beloved. His only companion and confidante is Ovidio Kinmak: warden, surgeon, necromancer.
The last sane man in Ureom’s Folly, Kinmak struggles to piece together the shattered citizens of his cursed city, all the while dodging the destructive rays of a powerful magic stone. In the evenings he entertains his guest with the tale of Ludlow the Lazy: peasant, trickster, king.
He is the laziest boy in the Ashlingwood, but Ludlow is destined for greatness. From shiftless wood-gatherer to bold adventurer courting the hand of a beautiful princess, Ludlow finds himself driven by the winds of prophecy and by legends of The Furnishings of Baba Yaga’s Hut.
From peasant huts to royal palaces, from cursed cities to distant planets, the magical and much-coveted furnishings of Baba Yaga’s dancing hut are sought by elite collectors everywhere.
To join their numbers, one must first become . . . A Lord of Three.
Chronicler's Note: 