Cirrus@Austlit

'Michael Sarapion, merchant and thief, returns to Byzantine Constantinople from which he fled the year before in fear of his life. In his company is Tobias, the dwarf brother of an icon thief and Ahmed, an Arab galley master with secrets.

'Michael is filled with grief and fury, intending vengeance for a treasure lost to him twelve years before. He must trust in priests, defy the empire and guard those dearest to him as he searches high and low because he understands that to restore what is rightfully his, he must kill . . . or be killed.

'In this final installment of The Triptych Chronicle trilogy, Michael, Tobias and the stalwarts of the House of Gisborne-ben Simon will slice a swathe through the Byzantine city, those who challenge them hard upon their heels.' (Publication summary)

'The Church – powerful and moneyed.

'The Heretics – zealous and poor.

'Lyon – a city that might claim to cast the seeds of reformed thinking upon the world.

'Guillaume of Anjou, formerly an archer fighting with other Angevins in the Third Crusade, is now the manager of a successful merchant house. In his new position, he unwittingly steps into and out of the shadowed world of trade and secrets in Lyon.

'Guillaume carries the weight of a book in his hands – a book that may well light the flame of the greatest philosophical and spiritual change Europe will experience so that word and sword will cut a swathe through the fabric of life in Lyon.

'But he has also made an enemy who wants nothing more than revenge.

'He will fight for his life…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

In this lovely story-within-a-story by Australian writer Prue Batten, a medieval troubadour tells his master's young son a legend of Occitan: A queen suspected of sorcery and shape-changing and how she was vindicated. The tale is illustrated with historiated initials drawn from medieval manuscripts. (Publication Summary)

'Once upon a time, a lady fell asleep in a sunny afternoon orchard, and woke up somewhere else . . .

Prue Batten returns to her fairy-land world of Eirie to tell a cautionary tale. Her unnamed heroine awakens in a great, mysterious house filled with dwellers in the Other world, some of whom hunt her, some of whom help her, and some of whom seem to be both enemy and friend. One by one, she eludes them or learns from them, until she is almost within the hunters' grasp . . .'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Byzantium stretches a weakening grip across Eastern Europe, trying in vain to hold onto all that has made it an empire. Tyrian purple, the unique dye that denotes its power, is held under close guard by the imperial house.

'However a Jewish merchant from Venice has sourced an illegal supply and Tobias the dwarf minstrel and his twin brother, Tomas, begin a dangerous journey to retrieve the purple and deliver it into the merchant’s eager hands.

'But is this supply as secret as they had hoped?

'Trade is cut throat, men are expendable, money is power and Constantinople provides the exotic backdrop during a time of scimitars and shadows.

'This is Tobias – the story of a minstrel and a broken life…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A short story by well-known historical novelist Prue Batten set in the High Middle Ages of Northern France. Trouvères were the northern equvilent of the Occitan troubadours, a school of aristocratic poets and singers who celebrated the idea of courtly love that was sweeping through Burgundy, Aquitaine, and Provence at the end of the eleventh century.

'In Batten's romantic and suspenseful tale, trouvère Flori de Mazamet is caught between the beauty embodied in his art and the common brutality beneath the courtly ideal. He attempts to aid a lady whose illicit love forces him to make a choice between love and pity.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In this final book of The Gisborne Saga, Gisborne, spymaster and valued knight of Richard Lionheart, is beguiled into a fierce duel in which his wife and son are thrust round the board in a brutal game of revenge.

'Is it the Knights Templar who seek to avenge their own? Or is it Eleanor of Aquitaine who claims Gisborne is a traitor to England? Or is it someone from Gisborne’s own cadre?

'Trust is the only commodity of any value at a time when life could end with the flight of an arrow, but can Gisborne be trusted enough and will his wife and son survive his obsession?'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Once Lady Ysabel Ce Courcey had thought that if she had been a trobairitz, she might have written a song about herself – her courage in the face of adversity that would have had the men and women in any noble hall sighing as they listened.

'Now, on the eve of the Third Crusade, the denouement of the ballad is beginning…

'Ysabel races across the waters of the Middle Sea to seek out Sir Guy of Gisborne because she has vital information that could save a king.

'But above all, she longs to tell the wronged knight she values him and will stand back to back with him in a vengeful battle that could threaten all their lives.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'After Australian novelist Prue Batten happened to mention that she had a black wombat on her farm in Tasmania, I challenged her to write a story about him. This sweet and simple children's story is the result.

'Nugget has a pretty good life, really. He has a snug burrow he dug himself and delicious roots and leaves to eat. If it weren't for the teasing and antics of the wallabies, cockatoos, and kookaburras, anyway. And he's a bit lonely. But there's a rumor of another wombat far up the bush track on the other side of the farm. . .'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'n a world where Others play with mortal lives, in a hidden province that survives on the backs of abducted slaves, Isabella, one of those kidnapped, sends a message woven into rare cloth made of paper and silk in the vain hope that her cousin will find it, decipher it and rescue her.

'For cousin Nicholas with whose life the Fates have been playing, only time will tell if he will find her and whether what makes a curse does indeed break a curse.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'In a story where status means power and survival depends on how the game is played, two people, one a squire wronged in life and one a noblewoman, are drawn together by lust and a lost inheritance in twelfth century England. Guy of Gisborne is a man with secrets, Ysabel of Moncrieff, a naïve and opinionated noblewoman whose world comes tumbling down like the stones of a mighty cathedral on the death of her mother.

'Gisborne is ordered to Aquitaine to escort the young woman home to attend to her grieving father and whilst travelling, she discovers Gisborne’s secrets are not just connected with his family but with the throne of England.

'And with revenge.

'Suddenly this overprotected woman is confronted with the fact that history can be shaped unconscionably by those in power and that she and Gisborne could lose their lives.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

A series of historical novels based around Guy of Gisbourne, best known as Robin Hood's antagonist.

'A short story by Australian novelist Prue Batten, about one of the Robin Hood legend's baddies, Guy of Gisborne. In the early ballads, Guy is Robin's main antagonist, and may once have a mythic story of his own that was incorporated into the Robin Hood story.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Two people … an extraordinary young woman and an embittered immortal man – both seeking the same life-shattering magick in different corners of their exotic world.

'In a quest through a world where Others lace their way in and out of the lives of mortals, this is a story of legend, love, and clashing ideals.

'A story of murder, regret and revenge … a story that journeys across a world too hauntingly like our own – the continuing story of The Chronicles of Eirie.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A short story by Prue Batten, set in her fantasy world of Eirie, that involves love at first sight, betrayal, beautiful costumes, tall dark strangers, and magic.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A secret story that is tragic and shocking in its scope – a story that glides along the canals of a place called Veniche where horror lurks behind the most silken masks.

'A story of revenge, of friendships lost, of love and the cruel machinations of enchanted Others who share a world of breathtaking and cruel beauty.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'A tragedy to rival Romeo and Juliet hidden beneath the embroidery of a rare gown.

'If the writer is discovered, she will be killed.

'In a world where enchanted Others weave through the weft of life, Adelina the Traveller condemns her gaoler to a death sentence as she stitches a bloody treasure hunt across a magnificent garment. No quarter given. None taken.

'This is the magick of The Stumpwork Robe…'

Source: Publisher's blurb.