Caterina shivered awake, wrapping her arms around herself to ward off the chilled air, and realized something was wrong; she was naked, and laying on a cold, stone floor! Her eyes fluttered open as she bolted upright. Her head throbbed from last night’s wine, as she looked about and wracked her brain for how she had gotten here. She sat in the middle of a bare cell. A single, bared window was set high on one wall, letting in a chilled breeze as well as the morning light. In one corner a round grate was set over a hole in the floor, and the stink that rose from it made its purpose clear. Opposite the window was an iron bond, heavy wood door with a bared window set at eye level and no handle. She shook her aching head to clear the fog of last night’s celebrating. It had been the Festival of the Sea King; the first day of spring, when Galeazzo was wed to Straasha, elemental king of the seas. She had been with her family in the flotilla that accompanied the senators to sea and then had joined the reverie that ranged all across the city. Every bridge, alley and courtyard was alive with people in their finest, and most provocative, dress; every one except the priests of Law, who had declared the ritual wedding of the city to the sea king a heresy. She remembered roaming form tavern to tavern with a group of fiends, and being approached by a strange woman. Although she favored men, she was instantly captivated by the stranger’s exotic beauty. “You are Caterina, daughter of the house of Dotta?” the stranger greeted her, as she slid herself up against her. “Yes,” she replied confused and a bit taken back by her forwardness. “Do I know you?” “No,” she purred in her ear. “My master sent me to find you. He has business with your house, and you are crucial to his plan.” Then she seized Caterina’s head in her hands and kissed her on the lips, but before she could protest, everything went black... Until she awoke here! The spoiled daughter of an Ilmioran noble house, Caterina was raised in Galeazzo by her widowed father Pieto. Pampered and doted upon, her perfect world of grand balls and wild reverie came to an end when she was kidnapped by the Mabden slaver Dregolath Xorn and held for ransom in his Bone Hill fortress. Although rescued, she returned with a broken spirit; little more then the pleasure slave Xorn would have made her. Caterina’s kidnapping was the catalyst for the adventure that first brought Dregolath Xorn and Daeron Syn into conflict; beginning a vendetta that would range across the whole of the Young Kingdoms… and beyond! The first image from the second "book" of Stormbringer characters' adventures. Thanks for looking... Hope you enjoy! Comments and suggestions alway welcome and appreciated!