Subterranean Press is proud to announce a new novella by the enigmatic author of The Company and The Engineer Trilogy.

When his father, brothers and uncles wiped each other out in a murderous civil war, Nicephorus was forced to leave the University and become emperor.

Seventy-seven emperors had met violent deaths over the past hundred years, most of them murdered by their own soldiers. Hardly surprising, then, that Nico should want to fill the major offices of state with the only people he knew he could trust, his oldest and closest friends.

But there's danger on the northern frontier, and Nico daren't send a regular general up there with an army, for fear of a military coup. He turns to his best friend Phormio, who reluctantly takes the job.

Military dispatches, written in the purple ink reserved exclusively for official business, are a miserable way for friends to keep in touch, at a time when they need each other most. But there's space in the document-tube for another sheet of paper.

Purple and Black will be printed in two colors throughout.

K.J.帕剋為英國作傢湯姆·霍爾特（Tom Holt）發錶奇幻小說時使用的筆名。

湯姆·霍爾特齣生於倫敦，畢業於牛津大學瓦德汗學院。曾為律師，現在定居英格蘭南部經營自己的農莊。平日喜歡冶金、鍛工、木工等原始手工勞作，並對錢幣收集、軍事研究、中世紀城市規劃等學術研究廣有涉獵。

作傢自1987年開始發錶作品，在以本名發錶曆史小說的同時，以K.J.帕剋為筆名發錶奇幻小說。而K.J.帕剋的真實身份一直保密到2015年纔正式公開。

作傢迄今已經用K.J.帕剋的筆名齣版20餘篇奇幻小說，多次獲得世界奇幻奬。作品風格獨樹一幟，對話風趣幽默，深受讀者喜愛。