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Alfred of St. Ruan's Abbey is a monk and a scholar, a religious man whose vocation is beyond question. But Alfred is also, without a doubt, one of the fair folk, for though he is more than seventy years old by the Abbey's records, he seems to be only a youth.

But Alfred is drawn from the haven of his monastery into his dangerous currents of politics when an ambassador from the kingdom of Rhiyana to Richard Coeur de Leon is wounded and Alfred himself is sent to complete the mission. There he encounters the Hounds of God, who believe that the fair folk have no souls, and must be purged from the Church and from the world.

Contents:

• 3 - The Isle of Glass - (1985)
• 235 - The Golden Horn - (1985)
• 452 - Author's Note (The Golden Horn) - essay
• 457 - The Hounds of God - (1986)

Alfred of St. Ruan's has lived his life in the seclusion of the monastery. But a badly wounded knight on a mission from the Elvenking, a beautiful and mysterious stranger who walks as both woman and beast, and a warrior king call him out of the cloister's walls into the wars and storms of the world. For he is neither mortal nor human, though he has long tried to live as both; and he can deny neither his nature nor his powerful magic.

The saga of Alfred of St. Ruan's comes to a tumultuous climax during the fall of the City of Cities, the Golden Horn: Constantinople. War is advancing through the Byzantine Empire. Its capital, Constantinople, is the richest city in the thirteenth century world. The crusaders from the West have turned aside from Jerusalem in order to plunder and conquer their fellow Christians instead. Alfred, pilgrim and healer, and Thea, friend an shapechanger, seek out Thea's family in that city, but they find her home empty and forgotten. In despair, Thea abandons Alfred, and he, in his despair, walks aimlessly until overcome by sunstroke. A Greek woman, Sophia, rescues him and brings him to her home in Constantinople. He remains there as a tutor to her Children and a friend to her and her husband. When well again, Alfred takes work in a house of healing, and though a man of the same race as the Crusaders, is accepted and valued by his Greek hosts.

In the magical kingdom of Rhiyana, peace reigns under the Elvenking. But terrible forces are stirring in the world beyond. The Hounds of God, the heretic-hunters and inquisitors of the Church of Rome, have come hunting. Their prey: the king and his immortal people. And their greatest weapon may be one of the king's own kin.