Dance of the Holy Fools

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“Who could be desperate enough to want help from you? With all due respect to your mother, you’re poor, from an obscure family; and what else? - A temple attendant in the most remote backwater in the kingdom; and you won’t even be that for much longer, if you can’t keep your hands off the village girls. And yet she’s chosen you. Why?”
Master Bo has a point. The visions that have been tormenting his worst pupil, visions in which a beautiful woman pleads with Isandur to help her in the face of approaching disaster, defy explanation, even as a young man’s fantasies.
The old priest advises Isandur to meditate on his visions in a tranquil setting. Isandur has other ideas, which take him from his mountain village to the royal capital of the ancient and powerful kingdom of Khitlan. Here, Queen Elbalet lies on her deathbed while around her, the ruling elite, corrupt descendants of nomad horsemen who conquered Khitlan generations ago, prepare to go to war over who will succeed to the throne.
Isandur is helped in his quest by Peren, a debauched young nobleman he meets in jail, and Madame Ogan, famous clairvoyant or charlatan, or both. Madame Ogan puts Isandur to work as a faith healer serving her clientele of wealthy dilettantes with a taste for the latest occult experience. Peren takes Isandur to visit Lady Alaren, who has been selected by a mysterious and disreputable sect, the holy fools, to be Khitlan’s next ruler even though she is young, friendless, and – the one point on which the strong men at court agree - the wrong sex.
While the Queen’s brothers, Duke Jumen and Duke Utair, plot to keep the throne to themselves, the sinister and enigmatic Count Axele recognises that Alaren has been endowed with a powerful destiny, and seeks to exploit it for his own purposes.
“Dance of the Holy Fools” tells the story of how Isandur and Alaren are swept by mysterious forces into the midst of a glittering, decadent world of soldiers, spies and ballet dancers, grandees, ecstatics and black shamans, where ruthless courtiers battle for control over the kingdom. The pair must face the dangers that assail them from all sides, come to terms with the attractions of sex and love, riches and power, and discover what exactly their joined destinies are asking of them.