One by one, the guilds of New Jerusalem fall to Shadrak the Unseen and his accomplice, the poisoner Albert. But as the battle for supremacy comes to a head, Shadrak is given a new order by the mysterious Archon: kill his closest living friend, the Nameless Dwarf. The philosopher Aristodeus persuades the Archon to stay his hand, proposing instead three quests that will free Nameless from the curse of the black axe that led him to slaughter his own people. But the plan has perils of its own: a visit to the fire giant’s lair at the heart of a volcano; a daring raid on the Liche Lord’s castle in darkest Verusia; and a confrontation with the son of the Demiurgos in the depths of the Abyss. Even with the incomparable partnership of Shadrak and Nameless, the quests seem doomed to failure, and so Aristodeus tries once more to entice Deacon Shader back to the fight. But Shader is a changed man, more given to drink than the sword, and if he should discover the secret Rhiannon and Aristodeus have kept from him these past four years, the quests are sure to come to a crashing halt before they even get off the ground. Friendship, scheming, and the worst horrors imaginable combine to test the companions to the limits, and despair dark enough to corrode even the most unwavering faith awaits those not destined to return.

For centuries, no one had heard a peep out of Verusia, the dark stain at the heart of the Templum’s empire. But when a messenger arrives in the Holy City of Aeterna, bearing news that the fortresses along the border have mysteriously been abandoned, and the three-hundred men of Trajinot’s garrison have been impaled outside the city walls, word is, the Lich Lord is on the move again. As an army of the dead waits within the shadow-black trees of the Schwarzwald, the Templum gathers its troops for war. Captain Deacon Shader leads the Seventh Horse, a heavy cavalry troop now deemed obsolete. One charge, one chance is their motto. Time it right, and the tide of any battle can be turned; get it wrong, and it could all be over. When the two forces face off outside the walls of Trajinot, it is not just the hordes of undeath the Templum must fight. Intangible terror poisons the air, driving seasoned warriors to panic. Only the Elect knights of the Seventh Horse have the discipline to stand their ground. Yet facing fear doesn’t mean it will do you no harm, and for Shader, there are worse things than wounds of the flesh.

When the dwarven civil war ended, the Nameless Dwarf lay cold upon the battlefield, his broken axe beside him. But death is not the end in a cosmos ruled by the Supernals, beings of pure sorcery with the power to create worlds. Nameless finds himself aboard a ship bound for the Feasting Hall of Witandos, but disappointment, rather than beer, awaits him, along with a mountain of unpaid penance. For the deeds performed in life have their consequences in the world to come, and an evil has taken root at the heart of the afterlife. An evil that seeks to turn the Supernal Realm into a second Abyss.

When Shadrak the Unseen steals a magical ring from one wizard on behalf of another, his life quickly goes from bad to worse. Before he can deliver the ring, an invisible thief snatches it from him, and flees to the city of Jeridium. Soon, everyone and his dog has designs on the ring, but its promise of power leads only to disillusionment and death, and the ring is revealed for what it really is: A snare for the unsuspecting. A lure that leads to the undead clutches of the Witch Queen of Tho-Agoth.

Too dark for science and too evil for theology, but some secrets refuse to stay hidden. Postgraduate student Harry Chesterton uncovers a trail of dark science that leads to the old monastery above the Welsh university town of Aberystwyth. With bodies beneath the cafe, residents oozing puss from puncture marks on their necks, and the disappearance of the University Chaplain, Chesterton’s research into post-mortem consciousness is about to leap off the page.

When a dwarf girl sleepwalks from her home in Arnoch and wanders barefoot into the Farfall Mountains, foul play is suspected. Reports come in of similar abductions all over Medryn-Tha, and the culprit is believed to be a bane of the Abyss, a monster known as the Lurker. Not wishing to place any more of his people at risk, Arnoch's king, the Nameless Dwarf, insists on going after the missing girl by himself. It is a decision he will live to regret... if he's lucky.

It takes a demon to hunt a demon... When a powerful demon crosses the Farfall Mountains, the task of tracking and slaying it falls to a man not expected to succeed: Jebediah Skayne, lothario, hustler, hunter of nightmares. Jeb follows the demon's "blood trail" to the fishing town of Portis, where it vanishes. All that remains are the demon's leftovers: corpses, half-dressed, killed in the throes of passion. Forced to rely on more mundane methods of investigation, Jeb uncovers a town rife with corruption, where a man will kill you for looking at a woman the wrong way. A town where his own inner demons can no longer hide. "Prior consistently writes high quality, layered, adult fantasy." (Melinda LeBaron)