The Jikaida Cycle

Book excerpt: Four hundred light years from Earth, Kregen is a marvelous world, peopled by wonderful beings, filled with light and clamor and furor of life lived to the hilt. But Kregen has its darker side, where horror and terror bind innocent people, where sorceries rend reason, where injustice denies light. Here, in the unforgiving yet rewarding world of Kregen, struggling through disaster and triumph, Dray Prescot has made his home. He has acquired a number of titles and estates but now the people of the island empire of Vallia, which has been ripped to shreds by ambitious and mercenary invaders, have called on him to lead them to freedom as their emperor. Reluctant to accept the imperium, he shoulders the burden because, rightly or wrongly, he sees this as the lesser evil... A Life for Kregen: Prescot is the unwilling battle arm of the mysterious Star Lords who contend for that planet with the powerful Savanti. Yet Prescot's ambitions are his own, for he has inherited the remnant of a shattered empire and must fight to bring hope and freedom to all its peoples. By his side stands his princess, Delia of the Blue Mountains, and a band of stalwart companions of many races and species. But arrayed against him are flying armadas, armed hordes, the wizardry of a super scientist, and, most shocking of all, the fury and steel claws of his own daughter, Dayra! A Sword for Kregen: The most popular game among the many peoples of Kregen is one that resembles chess, called Jikaida. Jikaida is a battle of wits and war game pieces that suits well the tension charged atmosphere that envelops Dray Prescot. Because reconquering Vallia is assuming the aspect of such a game, move versus countermove, horde against horde! But Dray Prescot finds himself no longer in control of the game when he becomes a living chessman on a real-life board at the dreaded arena of Jikaida City. There every move is accompanied by bloodshed and behind every game might hang the fate of a city, an island, or even a nation! A Fortune for Kregen: Fame and fortune may await the winners of the life and death game called Jikaida, but for Dray Prescot his triumphs seem to bring only infamy and misfortune. Prescot needs to find a way out of his Jikaida City exile, for his homeland needs him in its hour of danger. But it seems that fate will place him in an even more terrifying game: a treasure hunt played out in the illusion webbed catacombs of a haunted valley where desperate men come to find fortunes at the risk of their followers lives and their own sanity. A Victory for Kregen: The ending of Prescot's stark adventures as a living chess piece in the city of blood games was to be as terrifying as the perils that had gone before. Because now that transposed Earthman has to fight his way back to his embattled Vallian homeland across a sky full of danger and a sea full of death. And when he returns he will find the combat joined, his son at doom's door, his troops up against superior odds, and a battle he must personally fight that would be two battles in two different places at the same time! This edition contains a glossary to the Jikaida cycle.