The Gilded Serpent

About the Book

Set upon the distant world of Taüma, this is a tale of many passions: the passion of an immensely powerful immortal ruler for a mortal man, the unlawful passion of one brother for another, the passion of a jealous woman for a man who is indifferent to her, and the passion of a pair of "star-crossed" lovers- and hatred, which together ultimately precipitate a bloody war culminating in the downfall of the "white city" of Lôren in the land of Karled-Dû.

Rycharst Kalmaïthis, Lord of Shadowe, an exotic immortal exiled on this remote world, has sworn revenge on the land of Karled-Dû and its overlord, the Dukrugvola, for the indignity of being driven out of his domain and having had his freedom in the destruction of the circlet Caelvorchadu which chains him in his exile and which is held in the safekeeping of the Dukrugvola; and thirdly, he desires to recover into his power the fair young man, Francys Coras, whose name has become a by-word for scandal and vice throughout Karled-Dû following his escape from the clutches of the Lord of Shadowe some three years prior to the opening of this story.

It is around the character of Francys Coras that the whole tale unfolds. He enters on the stage as a hero, having recently saved the Dukrugvola's life during a military campaign, and the story charts the course of his life over the following year or more, whilst his reactions to his experiences, and teh responses which he evokes from others conspire to build a chain of events with far-reaching effects upon the whole of the world.

This book is the first volume of a quartet (The White City Dimmed) which will take the story through to its gripping conclusion.

About the Author

"Helen Quinn" lives in Devon, England. Although she has been writing for many years, due to illness and other commitments, it is only recently that she has been able to find the time and energy to complete the first part of The White City Dimmed quartet. As a single parent, working full time, with a home, a son and a cat to maintain, her writing time in inevitably restricted, but her enthusiasm remains undiminished.