Sacred Band Series

Here are the iconic adventures of Tempus, the Riddler, and his Sacred Band seen through the eyes of Nikodemos, his right-side companion, as Niko seeks his spirit's balance on Bandara's misty isles. Five pivotal Sacred Band stories from the earliest adventures of the Stepsons in a world of thieves. Ride with Tempus and his Band once again, for the first time. PUBLISHER'S NOTE: Parts of this work have been published in substantially similar form in several volumes of the Shared Universe Series, Thieves World®.

Here is the new, revised and expanded Author’s Cut edition of BEYOND SANCTUARY, the first ever full-length novel to take you BEYOND the notorious Thieves World™ fantasy universe, where gods still stalk the land, warring with demons and human sorcerers and trampling unfortunate humanity underfoot.

If you like stories of bold brave knights employed in meritorious duty, or tales of ladies delicate and fair, be warned. Beyond Sanctuary, set at the foot of notorious Wizardwall, may be too much for your sensibilities. There wizards, bards, and maidens mingle with murderers and thieves, and the fight breaking out at the next table may be the one that ends your life.

The hero of BEYOND SANCTUARY is Tempus, leader of mercenaries and warrior-servant of Vashanka, god of storm and war. With Niko, Cime, and the Froth Daughter Jihan, Tempus faces the archmage Datan and his unholy followers – in a battle for the Rankan Empire’s survival and that of his very soul. BEYOND SANCTUARY is the first novel in Janet Morris’ BEYOND series, followed by BEYOND THE VEIL and BEYOND WIZARDWALL.

When a Rankan messenger is killed in Tyse, Randal, the Stepsons’ pet wizard, must read the dead man’s mind. What Randal learns brings Niko back from the Misty Isles of Bandara and forces Tempus and his Stepsons into an alliance unholy even by Tysian standards – with Cime the mage killer; Aškelon, lord of dreams; and the Rankan Third Commando, a fighting unit so cruel it gives even the Stepsons pause. Together with Tempus’ long-lost daughter, and his elemental lover, Jihan, they must venture beyond accursed Wizardwall itself to battle the Mygdonian Alliance and Roxane’s Nisibisi witchcraft.
The intrepid Band (whose central core is Tempus’ beloved Stepsons) must figure out who among the Tysian locals, Rankan soldiers, and Mygdonian defectors they can trust – before it’s too late. But in a world where a witch can turn a warrior into a flea, where gemstone frogs can rain from the sky, where no one is ever what he seems, where loyalties are ensured by curses, wizardry, and the favor of warring gods… only the immortal Tempus can guarantee an army’s success. And not even Tempus can tell the good guys from the bad in Tyse, where everyone plays both ends against the middle – or if the price of victory against Mygdonia will be his Stepsons’ souls in their battle BEYOND THE VEIL, sequel to BEYOND SANCTUARY.
Here is the second independent full-length novel in Janet Morris’ BEYOND series, far from notorious Thieves’ World™. Set in Tyse, a town so mean and magic-ridden as to make Sanctuary™ seem like a singles bar, BEYOND THE VEIL features Tempus – Thieves’ World most popular and misunderstood character – and introduces Kama, his warrior daughter, as well as Ranke’s deservedly infamous shock troops, the Third Commando.

JANET MORRIS’ BEYOND WIZARDWALL – the northern adventures of Tempus and his Stepsons come to their apocalyptic conclusion at the Festival of Man, where the games are not the scheduled ones of prowess in swordplay or chariot-racing, but games of assassination and treachery, with the Rankan emperor’s life and the honor of the Sacred Band at stake. When Niko quits the Stepsons, he finds that his troubles are just beginning: not only has Death’s Queen marshaled new forces to entrap him, but Rankan interests desirous of a change in emperors have singled him out as the perfect assassin. Randal, the Stepsons’ pet mage and Niko’s former partner, must unite Tempus, the Stepsons, and hellish aid from magical quarters in a desperate attempt to save the defenseless Niko from Death’s Queen – and himself. In imperial Ranke, Tempus finds himself torn between conflicting oaths and pitted against powers not even his supernal strength can vanquish – powers both mortal and immortal, magical and heavenly, so that, in the end, the god-ridden and accursed soldier must make pacts with his most hated enemies – not only Aškelon, the Lord of Dreams, but Death’s Queen herself – in order to save the souls of those he loves and the empire he’s served so long. And this time, Tempus’ own soul hangs in the balance, as primal forces and even Enlil, the most fearsome storm god of them all, haggle over his fate.

Join Tempus and Niko on the triple shores of land, sea, and eternity . . .
Where a young girl trembles between love and sorcerous obsession . . .
Where a prince's refusal to admit his flaws makes him a pawn of hell . . .
Where a city of immortals learn that Death has not forgotten it . . .
In the catacombs beneath a warlock's citadel, swords and courage face the jaws of demons -- with a girl's life and a god's vengeance resting on the outcome.

"An exciting and brilliantly colored sortie . . ." - David Drake

Is this the Lemuria of antiquity, or of times to come? Once you've ridden the storm clouds of heaven from the edge of time, anything is possible. Demonic hordes threaten to destroy the very fabric of time itself.

The fate of all humanity rests on the shoulders of Tempus the Black, Favorite of the Storm God. But even this hero of legend will encounter a challenge he has never faced before . . . present-day New York City.

Hot off the presses, the "lost" volume of the iconic Sacred Band series in an all-new Author's Cut edition. High adventure awaits in Storm Seed by Janet & Chris Morris: - Travel with the Sacred Band of Stepsons to a future undreamed. - Meet the changeling son of Tempus and the Froth Daughter. - Learn what it takes to become a dragon. - Bring gods to a godless realm. Tempus the Black, avatar of the Storm God, and his partner Niko reunite the Sacred Band for a mission to a dying world. And from there -- should the gods allow -- to mystical Lemuria.

Praise for the Sacred Band series: "Janet Morris, Tempus (1987), and, with Chris Morris, Tempus Unbound (1989), The Sacred Band (2010). "A fantasy series about the Sacred Band of Stepsons, an elite army modeled on the fourth-century B.C.E. Sacred Band of Thebes. The stories explore the fraught personal relationships of mixed hetero- and homosexual troops, only sometimes paired, as they fight for their commander, the immortal Tempus. Morris includes archaeological and historical details, from physical items to social practices, religion, and philosophy, to create a fantasy world that is, in many ways, more historically accurate than many popular accounts of antiquity." -- Robert W. Cape, Jr, in Classical Traditions in Science Fiction, Brett M. Rogers & Benjamin Eldon Stevens, eds., Oxford University Press

The Sacred Band of Thebes lives on, a world away, in this mythic epic of love in war in ancient times. In 338 BCE, during the Battle of Chaeronea that results in the massacre of the Sacred Band of Thebes, Tempus and his Stepson cavalry rescue twenty three pairs of Theban Sacred Banders, paired brothers and lovers, to fight on other days. These forty-six Thebans, whose bones will never lie in the mass grave that holds their two hundred and fifty-four brothers, join with the immortalized Tempus and his Sacred Band of Stepsons, consummate ancient cavalry fighters, to make new lives in a faraway land and fight the battle of their dreams where gods walk the earth, ghosts take the field, and the angry Fates demand their due.

After the Battle of Meridian, new blood and old warriors face unforeseen challenges as one war ends in triumph and another conflict looms. Stories you'll love to hear again and stories you will hear for the first time await in a stand-alone Sacred Band anthology that follows the Stepsons where they've never been before.

Tales of risk and glory, past, present and future, figure in the latest Sacred Band novelized anthology that includes the new title novella, The Fish the Fighters and the Song-girl. Tempus and his Sacred Band won the battle of their dreams, but now the time has come to count the cost and face consequences in fifteen tales, old and new, of the iconic Sacred Band of Stepsons. The collection is comprised of the last six classic Sacred Band stories from the million-selling shared universe, Thieves’ World®. Plus, here are nine new adventures available nowhere else.