Revised paperback edition 2013
Edited by Kim Mercer
Copyright © 2013 Greg T Meyers
All rights reserved.
This document contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.
Self-published by the author in the USA
ISBN: 1493656752
ISBN-13: 978-1493656752
For Shelley,
my Veronica. Thank you for saving me.
Acknowledgements
i
Maps
Lord Guiscard’s Journey
ii
Toprak World
iii
England
iv
The Battle of the Thames
v
1
Chapter 1
1
2
Chapter 2
13
3
Chapter 3
29
4
Chapter 4
45
5
Chapter 5
63
6
Chapter 6
79
7
Chapter 7
95
8
Chapter 8
113
9
Chapter 9
129
10
Chapter 10
149
11
Chapter 11
165
12
Chapter 12
179
13
Chapter 13
197
14
Chapter 14
213
15
Chapter 15
229
16
Chapter 16
253
17
Chapter 17
267
18
Chapter 18
285
19
Chapter 19
303
20
Chapter 20
323
21
Chapter 21
345
22
Chapter 22
369
23
Chapter 23
391
24
Chapter 24
417
25
Chapter 25
433
26
Chapter 26
445
27
Chapter 27
457
28
Chapter 28
469
29
Chapter 29
485
30
Chapter 30
495
Book Club Discussion
515
About the Author
519
Character Glossary
521
Special thanks to all those who have gone before and left such great anecdotes of living both in the positive and the negative. The rich history of all of our ancestors who toiled through centuries of hardship, disease, war and evil. Their examples of piety and honor are perhaps never more needed for us to remember than today. May we be as courageous and selfless as they in the next hundred years.
Jacob Abbott for his volumes on English and European history that have greatly added to the historical accuracy and color of my work. I am especially grateful for his moral judgment and commentary on the histories he wrote, an asset that is painfully missing from many historical works.
Special thanks to Kim Mercer and her hours of pouring over this manuscript and who provided valuable direction when my storytelling was not completely converted from my imagination to paper.
Stanley and Diane Blackett for their support and excitement, love of my story and the characters I created. It was because of them that General Clancy was brought back to life which made for an interesting twist in Gus's abilities and his future.
My wife Shelley, the love of my life who was my inspiration for Veronica—sweet, kind, colorfully audacious and dangerously beautiful. I am a lucky man.
For England and letting me live with her for a time and her rich history of survival and moral right—peppered with terribleness.