and for her grandmothers, Gertrude and Nancy.

Krispos Rising and the second book in The Tale of Krispos, Krispos of Videssos, are set in the same universe as the four books of The Videssos Cycle: The Misplaced Legion, An Emperor for the Legion, The Legion of Videssos, and Swords of the Legion. The events described in The Tale of Krispos take place about five hundred years before those chronicled in The Videssos Cycle. Thus the map that precedes the text is different from the one in front of the books of The Videssos Cycle. So, too, are some of the customs that appear here: nations, even imaginary ones, do not stand still over five hundred years.

"The thunder of hoofbeats. Shouts in a harsh tongue.

Krispos opened one eye. It was still dark. It felt like the middle of the night. He shook his head. He did not like noise that woke him up when he should have been asleep. He closed the eye and snuggled down between his mother and father on the straw paillasse he and they and his little sister used for a bed.

His parents woke, too, just when he was trying to go back to sleep. Krispos felt their bodies stiffen on either side of him. His sister Evdokia slept on. Some people have all the luck, he thought, though he'd never thought of Evdokia as particularly lucky before. Not only was she three—half his age—she was a girl.

The shouts turned to screams. One of the screams had words: "The Kubratoi! The Kubratoi are in the village!"

His mother gasped. "Phos save us!" she said, her voice almost as shrill as the cries of terror in the darkness outside.

"The good god saves through what people do," his father said. The farmer sprang to his feet. That woke Evdokia, where nothing else had. She started to cry. "Keep her quiet, Tatze!" Krispos' father growled. His mother cuddled Evdokia, softly crooned to her.