With the queen in pursuit of Menander, and Nostradamus aiming to destroy it, the terrible head still manages to prevent Sibille from marrying her love, Nicolas. Sibille and her aunt, the remarkable, independently wealthy Pauline Tournet, endeavor to rid themselves of Menander, with assistance from Nostradamus. Through a series of clever plot twists, Menander winds up in the hands of Sibille Artaud de La Roque, a gritty girl from the provinces, who refuses to make a wish, thereby halting Menander's destructive path. Anyone in possession of the sharp-tongued, mean-spirited and unpleasant head may have their wishes granted, selling their own soul in the process. This is a centuries-old box that contains the living head of Menander the Undying-a magus who sold his soul to the devil in exchange for eternal life. Driven nearly mad by jealousy, the queen, who is ""very fond of do-it-yourself magic,"" is frustrated with her sycophantic, possibly duplicitous court astrologer's ineffective powers, until he reveals his knowledge of the magical object called the Master of All Desires. In 1556 France, Queen Catherine de Medici spies on her husband, King Henri II, and his lover, Diane de Poitiers, in a vain attempt to learn how Poitiers has ensnared her husband's heart. Again mixing history and fantasy with lan, the author of The Oracle Glass and The Serpent Garden offers a tightly woven, suspenseful and fiendishly funny novel.
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