Confident that they were not here to raid, I gave permission for Jarl Injeborg's crew to disembark and make camp. Outside the walls of course. Whatever their intentions, if they could see how weak were our defences, they might well be tempted to sack the town. I took Carradock's comment on their piratical nature perfectly seriously.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLDLmbSNsg4
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Back among my people, I organised a rota of pretend guards to face the Vikings, sent Carradock off to separate the prisoners and bring back the ones from Southway, then took Figus and Carlena with me to the keep.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡC89autlnUp
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There, in privacy, I explained the food situation and how important those 30 units of food in the ship were to us. We were up to 6 units of meat daily, with consumption at 15 (hopefully 14 when I got rid of the prisoners). Reserves were at 38. That gave us 4 days and then people would be on short rations. If we had the fish in the longship, that would give us 8 days before the stores were empty. Even then, we'd have plenty of iron but I had no idea how long it would take to build a ship, crew it and make a return journey to the Kingdom of Lost Souls. More than 8 days surely?528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡHEwskielPR
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'Which is why,' I concluded, 'I think Figus will have to go to the Necromancer and ask for an advance.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡp1QmJiMrpv
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'Tonight sire?' Figus looked carefully at me.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMwOJLgYJdQ
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'Right away.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRT3iZZG8Ra
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'Perhaps the morning would be better, it is Moon Day and I have been working on entertainment that might raise the morale of the people.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡnlaQhIxZUL
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'What's the significance of Moon Day?' I wondered aloud.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1YwJI6ers8
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Immediately Figus turned to Carlena with a face of pure suspicion. 'What's going on?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡilp8zFVbii
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Feeling a flush of embarrassment, I realised I'd asked a question that King Carlos would not have raised. I had been too caught up in the menus and had dropped my concentration.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡx3NeNRDyeR
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'Well?' now the Bard turned his startling blue eyes on mine, expression hard and suspicious.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡeingXiBNrv
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'Well what?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAd3IPT1lwE
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'You're not King Carlos, are you?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡF0o1rMxEEJ
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'What do you mean?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAh6gbHGe37
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'You don't talk like him. You don't think like him. And you don't know that on Moon Day the burghers of the town attend you in the evening.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrEiXaFVjR5
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'Listen carefully, Figus,' Carlena didn't move but her sharp, clipped words leaned over the Bard. 'If you go around talking like that, you'll bring ruin on us all. If his popularity gets any lower, no one will work or fight. And they'll abandon the realm.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdZYqaPk4NE
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'I'm no fool Carlena, even though you think me one. Just tell me.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW6huxNWw4z
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'My real name is Sean de Courcy,' I said quietly, 'I was summoned here by Carlena to replace King Carlos.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsmwe6nPtLS
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'Summoned?' Figus looked at the sorceress.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡO324NRNwh3
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'That ignorant slob was a fool. All he cared about was his dinner menu. And he thought we could do nothing about his ruin of the kingdom. That we couldn't lift a hand against him without the realm losing its menus.' Carlena was becoming impassioned, her normal pale face flushed and her words coming fast. 'He underestimated me though, and Miya, our goddess. She didn't want her realm to be destroyed. She came to me in a dream and guided me in a ritual to replace King Carlos with a hero from another plane.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAxP34TI4CM
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This was the first time I'd heard that a goddess had been involved in the summons. The role of gods and goddesses was clearly another aspect of this world that I needed to understand better.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjnb68BD0YZ
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'Pause there, please Carlena. Can you tell me more about Miya and the other gods? Can we get her help? Does everyone have the help of a god? How can I talk to her?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡaihbdVh5jl
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'I'm a Sorcerer. All I can tell you is what everyone knows, that the gods created this world to play out their game. Each has one kingdom and they are all rivals to each other.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtGo8mMPnzv
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'But how much do they intervene? How can we – or our enemies – draw on the powers of our gods?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4HOy1bAS1u
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'They provide divine spells to their priests daily: Clerics, Druids, Paladins and Bards.' The Sorceress waved a hand towards Figus. 'Otherwise, hardly at all. I had never seen or heard from Miya before my dream.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTocWbhdQXC
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Figus nodded, then spoke, still with a tense and clipped voice. 'I believe… Sean de Courcy… that if you were to build the church up to a cathedral, and have very large numbers of worshippers for her, that Miya might be able to intervene more and provide significant benefits to the realm. Her attributes being those of fertility and renewal, they would most likely involve crops and healing.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWsclx4FtRS
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'Interesting.' And it really was. I was already thinking that upgrading the church was an attractive option and this information reinforced that idea. 'There you have it, Figus. I'm a newcomer. I don't know the name of the days of the week here, let alone the rituals around them. But I'm confident I can save the kingdom and, in time, go on the offensive.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡr9OMOdEnVo
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'This makes sense of everything that's happened in the last four days.' After my last words, the tension in Figus seemed to melt and all at once he was his usual devil-may-care self. 'Hello Sean,' he offered his hand. 'Welcome to our world. I'm sincerely glad you are here. We need someone like you.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡooQK6GTFhJ
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'Thank you.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpbev7rSZ7o
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'This is exciting news. I feel hope again. And you know what? I think most of the people of the town would too, knowing the old King Carlos has gone...' Figus gave the Sorceress a rueful expression, as though apologising in advance for what he was about to say. 'You might consider telling them all. Especially if the goddess approves.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡW7O4APoYaK
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'It's too soon. He's doing well but we need to come on a lot more before we can risk a collapse in authority. I think his popularity has to be able to take a much bigger drop than it currently can.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡmN4XFfXk5g
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'I might be able to help with that.' Figus grinned and turned to me. 'If I have permission not to depart until morning.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTi7MolZjo6
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'Permission granted.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4x5nhC3xdH
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'In that case,' he stood up and bowed to us both. 'I'll take my leave and make my preparations.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ1dHMZz39eV
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When he had left, I looked over at Carlena. 'I like him.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ02InyOn936
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'I am a difficult person, Sean, because I'm uncompromising. Figus was at King Carlos's right hand most of the time. I understand that he had to play the lackey to avoid punishment. But still, he used his skills to mock other people for the king's entertainment.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡX14mC7xPnf
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'I see. Including yourself, no doubt. But you can still work with him in our joint enterprise?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZts8pQtMH2
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'Of course.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡTFBNJHMzwd
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'What's the Moon Day event he's planning for?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡQzz0X2p06t
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Carlena looked tired at the thought. 'The town has burghers.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0CnWa45Jzl
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'Burgers?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ0ZI2GnNqA0
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'Yes. Each guild has a representative: the chief baker, the chief butcher, the supervisor of the mines and so on…. These are the burghers of the town, they have a committee to govern all matters in Carrick that are outside of your menus, such as holding court on property disputes, and they have the right to a seating with the king on Moon Day.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡfgYvZFBAXR
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'A seating?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡXjmIKUN9FJ
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'They come to a grim and dull evening meal in the castle. Where you sit at the top of the table, hear any complaints they have and resist the urge to hang the lot of them. At least, that's what I think King Carlos usually does, to judge from his expressions.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡsz6Ed8pUI9
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'I see.' I didn't really but I could manage to sit at the table and listen. It might even be useful, teaching me something about the way in which the orders I made through the menus resulted in changes in the town.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡt4sBhT3ysF
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'Carlena.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡRCpTTG5ded
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'Yes?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡIPNJmg6cSw
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'Are you happy?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdjSzwl1jac
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'Happy? Of course not. We are on the cusp of destruction. I'm a Sorceress with the minimum number of spells and few prospects to change that…' she shot me a penetrating glance. 'Worse, this is a miserable kingdom with a cultural level not much higher than that of the barbarians outside the walls. My existence is incredibly boring.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYLqmW9FDpq
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'What would make you happy?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz4nXYlfRJO
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'I'll be honest with you Sean, although many would feel revulsion at my answer. It's power. Power over magic. Power over the other kingdoms. Power not for the sake of it, but to live free from the fear of capture or death.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡz22A8l8MxX
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'I understand.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡYI4xRe4vj7
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'Do you though?' Again that appraising look. 'I think you do, Sean. I think you understand everything.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ9YXDZEg6f8
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There was a weight on the word everything that was important, as though she were letting me in on a conspiracy. I couldn't grasp her meaning though, nor did I want to reveal my ignorance by asking.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ4QXQs5pY1n
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'What about you Sean, are you happy?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡipsTcmrrCV
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'Very. Before you summoned me, I needed a purpose to my life. A cause. And that moment when I thundered down on the enemy as a rhino?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkWo9sNNLwE
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'Yes?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzQroXJDzYK
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'I've never been happier in my life.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ7qOTIPgDkX
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Carlena laughed. 'I think you share something with the old King Carlos then. He would have been content to live his whole life as a rhino.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡAjOct1xYD9
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***528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqQXIK4HKfH
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That afternoon I'd made sure to keep on top of all my town management choices, namely, assigning the completed steel pickaxes to the mines and deciding what to build, now that hunting lodge 3 had been completed.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtK9y0isjWe
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Barracks 2 had its appeal, as it unlocked ballista crew training, and with just one more ballista on the large tower (therefore covering the bridge at the same time as the first ballista stopped groups of archers from congregating under the tower), I could hold Three Ways even against much larger armies. A scriptorium was attractive too. When I had stood before the Vikings and made my bluff about Fireball, it had really struck home to me how disproportionately important was magic here. If we had a research option that led to the discovery of more spells and really did obtain Fireball, Carlena would make our army ten times more threatening.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡB9lrWbos68
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Upgrading the mine to level 3 would work as well. Given how important iron was becoming to our trading and diplomatic negotiations, I obviously couldn't have too much of it. Also, the description of the level 3 mine said that I would have a chance at discovering seams of silver and gold. Yet while I certainly would push up mining production as a priority, I'd run into the problem that I had no unassigned people after putting the last into the new hunting lodge.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡxl90sIyaMs
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It was during my investigation of the question of how quickly new people would become available that I discovered to my dismay that this was proportional to the realm's happiness score. Greyland's happiness had to be above 25 to even attract one new adult a week.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡCZde72TJTA
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Which is why I used 110 planks of wood to set about the upgrade of the church. A bigger, more noteable church increased overall happiness, improved healing rates and attracted a new cleric to the town. Then too, it strengthened Miya, our goddess, and even though I wasn't sure how to quantify this, it was surely an important consideration? The timer on the upgrade was 2 days and 14 hours.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ8eRtP0jTpn
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During the afternoon, I'd also worked on my core muscles, although training wasn't at all the same on my own as when Carradock had been present. In the evening, I'd bathed and, on dressing for dinner, had been provided with furs and impressive jewelled rings to wear for the Moon Day dinner.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡyWfyHb353X
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The castle hall looked splendid, with silver places laid out for a dozen guests, glittering in the light of candles and a huge open fire. Banners and tapestries covered large areas of the stone walls and again I saw one of a white rhino on a green background. The people present included the chief carpenter, to whom I had promised the role of shipbuilder, and a dozen other men and women, wearing their finest clothes and bronze chains of office clasping emblems with the symbols of their guilds. These were middle-aged people; there was a dull emptiness in their eyes that made me wonder at first whether they were fully human or some kind of limited NPC.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡdlr2eOosH9
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It soon became clear to me that the dullness of their faces was a reflection of their interests rather than their intellect. Insofar as it was fair to generalise across them all, the issue was that their horizons were narrow. One after the other, they made the same kind of speech when their opportunity came to address me: the need to upgrade their factories or premises or equipment.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡcsT8HIRJOB
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The 'factor' of the hunters, as she called herself, was rather less given to whinging, after all, she'd had two upgrades recently and twelve new hunters to lead. But even she wanted upgraded bows and knives.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZoMsCOhj5O
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I couldn't ask directly about how my choices in the menu options affected their work: it would reveal me to be an imposter. But I did get the impression from their remarks that they had free will, that they had ambition, rivalry, and passion even, somewhere beneath their solid exteriors. It also became clear that my instructions appeared to them as menus that the office holders could open and close, albeit that they couldn't make any amendments. Once or twice the burghers expressed thanks to our goddess, Miya, in a way that indicated that the divine power of the gods lay behind the menu system.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡjWQHfsOqc3
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One question I thought would not be entirely out of character was that of reallocating workers. 'Ladies' – the baker, the brewer, the huntress, the seamstress and the scholar were female – 'and gentlemen. Today, we reached the maximum capacity of workforce in our town. Until such time as we attract new residents or the young come of age, I can only reassign workers. Tell me, is there any penalty for doing so?'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ17iBz1WnK5
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All their faces were turned towards me, orange tinted in the light of the large fire. Then factor of the hunters spoke. 'I believe sire, that while the gods allow this and the workers will immediately know the relevant skill, those reassigned are very likely to be discontented and that will reflect in the overall happiness score for our community.'528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡzrHXqHBoLz
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Something to be avoided then. Raising the population had become a problem almost as urgent as that of the food supply.528Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡARhOFnFLUE
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When the meal was done and all the goblets refilled, Figus took the floor. His dress, as always, was smart. Tonight a leather waistcoat lay on a silk shirt, unbuttoned at the neck, that appeared purple in the candlelight but which may well have been blue by day...
I've published Summoned! To an RPG World on Amazon. And I've enrolled it with their Kindle Unlimited. One of the terms of the KU scheme is that I can only make public 10% of the book. So my apologies if you've been enjoying the story, I can't go any further with it here. I hope you understand.
I'm currently writing two other stories you might like and which are free to read.
Summoned! To Grimworld is another isekai LitRPG.
Planet Earth's greatest - but unrecognised - artist, Marcus Korol, is mind swapped into a crashing spacecraft. Ejected to the surface of Grimworld, a planet with a base-building system, Marcus has to master the system in order to survive and prosper. Even if he can cope with the monsters and environmental dangers, there are warlike tribes to consider, twenty of them, in a complex arrangements of alliances. Staying alive, let alone prospering, is a daunting challenge that even a battle-hardened general would find daunting. Yet Marcus treats the situation with relish.
Marcus's one companion is another person summoned from Earth, a former princess, Duchess Sina Koskina: Sina is a young woman who has never done a serious day's work in her life. Having previously had servants for every task, Sina has no idea of her real abilities or talents, but she is keen to find out.
Marcus and Sina must find a way to work together, build a settlement, and master the strange system of the planet. If they can do so, they might even find and solve the Ultima quest that Grimworld is reputed to be host to.
The White Dragon is a metaphor for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It is the year 472 and the Roman empire is still strong in an alternative Earth where magic exists. The Roman authorities hate and suppress the use of magic, which by its nature is wild and uncontrollable.
Unknown to the empress and her brother, rulers of the mighty empire, they have an enemy, one that is inexorable; destructive; remorseless; a conduit for elemental forces. By driving magic away, the Romans did not make it weaker, only wilder and darker. And now the White Dragon is back, the empire is at her mercy.
From a remote village in north Wales comes Arthyr, a beautiful young man of nineteen, who is the antithesis of Roman values. Yet the empress and her officers need his power over magic to assist their armies and face the White Dragon.
Sent to train in Roman boot camp, Arthyr is the most difficult, insubordinate recruit the Roman sergeant-majors have ever had to deal with.
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