The Stricken Field (A Handful of Men, Part 3)

The end of the millennium was turning out to be every bit as bad as the prophecies had foretold... The paranoid dwarf Zinixo had overthrown the Impire proclaiming himself almighty. With legions of sorcerers bound to his will, his preposterous claim was scarcely open to doubt. Ruthlessly he trampled all resistance. Armies - both magic and mundane - swept across the lands. Everywhere, lives were disrupted - or worse. The "forces" opposing the tyrant were paltry, their leaders few: Imperor Emshandar V, deposed the very day he ascended the fabled Opal Throne; the dwarf Raspnex, Zinixo's warlock uncle, who alone knew the depths of his kinsman's madness; and Rap, the stableboy who had become the most puissant sorcerer in all Pandemia - and then left that power behind to rule a tiny kingdom with Inos, the woman he loved. Together they set out to enlist whatever magic-users were not yet enslaved to Zinixo. But free sorcerers were scarce as hen's teeth: Shandie, Rap, and Raspnex were forced to separate, each carrying the hope of freedom to a different corner of their troubled world. Shandie rode north - into disaster. Raspnex pursued his own secret plans. And Rap toiled through steaming jungles in search of the troll-witch Grunth. He prayed that his wife and children were safe, protected by their icebound kingdom's remoteness and by the spells that guarded the tiny realm. But the end of the age was wracking every land, and Inos and the twins Kadie and Gath were far indeed from home, and further yet from any hope of safety....