John M. Ford The Dragon Waiting

From a snowbound inn, high in the Alps, four unlikely allies will turn against the might of Byzantium to secure the English throne for Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and make him Richard III. A noble Byzantine mercenary. A female Florentine physician. An ageless Welsh wizard. And Sforza, an uncanny duke. Together, they will alter the fate of millions . . . Available for the first time in nearly two decades, with a new introduction by New York Times -bestselling author Scott Lynch, The Dragon Waiting is a masterpiece of blood and magic. * * * * * * * * * 'Had [John M. Ford] taken The Dragon Waiting and written a sequence of five books based in that world, with that power, he would've been George R.R. Martin' Neil Gaiman 'The best mingling of histroy with historical magic that I have ever seen' Gene Wolfe