In the distant future, society has crumbled. Dark forces now rule the land, keeping all humans under their oppressive thumbs. In the darkness of the shadows and whispered on the winds, there is talk of a rebellion. In the swamps, a small band has formed. Determined to regain their freedom, the rebellion, heavily outnumbered, plans to overthrow an army of thousands . . . with the help of one incredible weapon. It is only a legend, a story left over from the Old World before magic and the wizards came to the land. A weapon of technology. It is the mystical Elephant, and whoever masters it holds the key to freedom, or defeat. One young man, determined to avenge the death of his family, sets out to join the rebellion and find Elephant. What he discovers will change everything. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Chup begged the Lady Charmian; then he turned and knelt down slowly, face toward the cliff. Charmian was at his right, holding the long bade point down at the ground. He said, “Now, about this little surgery I need … I suppose a single stroke would be too much to ask for. But more than two or three should not be needed, the blade is very heavy and quite sharp.” Without turning to see her face he added, “You are the most beautiful, and most desirable by far, of all the women I have ever known.” From the corner of his eye he saw Charmian losing her hesitation, gathering resolve, straightening her thin wrists in a tight two-handed grip to lift the weapon’s weight. Chup studied the details of the rock wall before him He had knelt down facing this way so that his hed would not roll over— Enough of that. He was Chup. He would not even close his eyes. The Demon Lord Zapranoth will devour you, if the Beast Lord Draffut cannot save you.

In this imaginative book, Maya Jasanoff uncovers the extraordinary stories of collectors who lived on the frontiers of the British Empire in India and Egypt, tracing their exploits to tell an intimate history of imperialism. Jasanoff delves beneath the grand narratives of power, exploitation, and resistance to look at the British Empire through the eyes of the people caught up in it. Written and researched on four continents, Edge of Empire enters a world where people lived, loved, mingled, and identified with one another in ways richer and more complex than previous accounts have led us to believe were possible. And as this book demonstrates, traces of that world remain tangible—and topical—today. An innovative, persuasive, and provocative work of history.

A new generation confronts the ages-old battle between magic and technology in this new chapter of Saberhagen's Empire of the East.

From the early days of the Renaissance to the Great Northern War, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the great military powers of the era. From the Renaissance to the Great Northern War, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was one of the great powers in Europe. This book examins the development of the armies, the battles and personalities that make this an interesting era. This is full of illustration and maps and one of the few sources readily available in one place in English

The Demon Lord Zapranoth will devour you, if the Beast Lord Draffut cannot save you. Her look seemed to him that his behavior was far from being unendurable; that, perhaps, if it went on a little longer it might even begin to give her pleasure … He found her lips. He tenderly kissed her checkbone before he began a line of kisses moving down her throat. Wait! What was this upon her skin? What had happened— What— With a cry Rolf sprang to his feet and backed away, almost falling in his haste. Before him now, and lately enfolded most tenderly in his arms was one of the most hideous human shapes it had ever been his ill-fortune to behold. What had been Catherine’s healthy young face had altered while he kissed it to the visage of a withered, snaggle-toothed, misshapen crone. Moving like some crippled sleepwalker, she tottered toward him. “Rolf?” she cawed out the one word, in something like a reptile’s voice, and then her figure seemed to blur, and down she fell on hands and knees.

Hear me, for I am Ardneh! Ardneh, who rides the Elephant, who wields the lightning, who rends fortifications as the rushing passage of time consumes cheap cloth. You slay me in this avatar, but I live on in other human beings. I am Ardneh, and in the end I will slay thee, and thou wilt not live on. Hear me Ekuman. Neither by day nor by night will I slay thee. Neither with the blade nor with the bow. Neither with the edge of the hand . . . nor with the fist. Neither with the wet . . . nor with the dry. Ekuman strained to hear more, but the old lips had ceased to move. Now only the flicker of torchlight gave the illusion of life to the victim's face, as it did to the face of the dead torturer at his feet.