Through Fire: 2 Kardakan

Having escaped from a Magd slave camp, Rakvir Stagarnik and his companions flee south to Kardakan, where they are taken up by the Governor of Bulgand, a wise man.
Rakvir's career advances in the Kardakan army through his strategic ability and skirmishes with the Magd.
His love for Arhilka is put to the test by the Governor's daughter, Ruhqshana. Military success takes him to Arukand, capital of Kardakan were he must remain sure-footed amid the shifting sands of the venal and vindictive court of Saldjaran Jafzim.
Various teachers expand his understanding of how he should lead his life But is he the hunter or the hunted?

The second volume in the epic "Through Fire", "Kardakan", is set in a distant planet, not too dissimilar from our own. Richard Hernaman Allen, a former Commissioner of HM Customs & Excise, wrote "Through Fire" over a period of thirty years.