title: The Shadow of the Lion (Heirs of Alexandria)
author:  Mercedes Lackey 
description: The prolific Lackey (the Bardic Voices series, the Urban Faerie series, etc.) and cohorts Flint (1632) and Freer (The Forlorn) whip up a luscious bouillabaisse of politics, intrigue, love and black magic set in an "Other-worldly, New-Age Venice." Like the actual 16th-century city-state, the authors' Venice of the 1530s is a dangerous place, filled with as many illicit love affairs as murders. Garbage and occasional dead bodies float in the stinking canals. The city is also a target for would-be foreign conquerors: the Vatican, the Holy Roman Empire, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and Poland, and the small city-state of Ferrara, ruled by Enrico Dell'este, who surreptitiously watches his grandsons, Marco and Benito, the story's water-rat heroes. Around Benito, a thief, and Marco, a canal doctor, swirl a host of characters, major and minor: the men and women who ply the gondolas and rafts; the spy Caesare Aldanto, the boys' supporter; plus courtesans, whores, monks, priests, knights, shamans, undines and the demon Chernobog. Meanwhile, the winged lion of St. Mark's, symbol of Venice, is stirring, and its shadow falls on Marco as the city's future ruler. The authors' use of contemporary American vernacular "get real," "fat chance," etc. instead of pompous period speech keeps the pages turning fast, but the last-minute stampede of fantastic monsters that abruptly resolves the story's various conflicts makes for a clunky climax. In a book this fat the glossary at the end is essential. <br />Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
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  ## The Shadow of the Lion  
  
  
  by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint & Dave Freer
  
  
  
  
  
  This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this
  book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely
  coincidental.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Copyright (c) 2002 by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint & Dave Freer
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions
  thereof in any form.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  A Baen Books Original
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Baen Publishing Enterprises  
  
  
  P.O. Box 1403  
  
  
  Riverdale, NY 10471  
  
  
  www.baen.com
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ISBN: 0-7434-3523-0
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Cover art by Larry Dixon
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  First printing, March 2002
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Lackey, Mercedes.
  
  
  
  
  
  The shadow of the lion / Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint & Dave Freer.  
  
  
  p. cm.  
  
  
  ISBN 0-7434-3523-0  
  
  
  1\. Venice (Italy)—History—1508-1797—Fiction. 2. Brothers—Fiction.  
  
  
  3\. Monsters—Fiction. I. Flint, Er