The Kaiserines Champion

THE ARENA

Where professional fighters battle to earn the coveted title of The Kaiserine's Champion. Everlasting fame and immeasurable wealth await the victor. Mutilation, and often death, await the losers.

FOR THE KAISERINE'S AMUSEMENT

He isn't interested in the title or the money. All Manfred wants is to ride out of town with his body, and his soul, intact. But Otto Thenck, head of the Ministry of State Security, has other plans. Like it or not, Manfred must fight for his life in the Arena—because tomorrow is the Kaiserine's birthday.

SECRET ENEMY

"...That means he's very old, very experienced, and the most dangerous adversary you're likely to meet. Which is why you must put your misplaced sense of honor to one side, Herr Manfred, at least until the contest is over and the vampyre lies dead at your feet. You have no way of knowing who he is, therefore you must kill everyone who is sent against you."

THE UNDEFEATABLE

"The Arena shifted around me and the sounds of the excited crowd receded until there was only silence. Time slowed for us, then stopped completely. It was his doing. He had exerted his inhuman will upon the universe and it had obeyed him."

MYSTERY WITHIN MYSTERY

"I thought about Ludwig the dwarf, and the one-handed girl in Thenck's headquarters, and the guards with reconstructed faces, and the red line across the Kaiserine's wrist—and then, thank Gott, I lost consciousness, because it hurt too much."

THE KAISERINE'S CHAMPION

"Vampyres! All I'd heard about since I'd arrived in this damned city was vampyres!"

**