The Return of Fitzroy Angursell (The Red Company Reformed, #1)

Artorin Damara is the Last Emperor of Astandalas and present Lord Magus of Zunidh. He is respected as a great mage, revered as a living god, regarded as the embodiment of power and wealth and majesty. Few have seen him in anything but the most resplendent garments; fewer still have ever looked him in the eyes. He is possibly the last person you would expect to find breaking into the tomb of the first Emperor of Astandalas. He could, after all, have entered it legitimately. But Artorin Damara has a great secret, which he has kept hidden since before he ascended to the throne, and part of it is that he knows perfectly well how to set about on an adventure. Another part of it is that his true name is not actually the one that everyone knows him by ... Fitzroy Angursell is a folk hero out of recent legend, but out of legend nonetheless. In his songs, he told of how he and his friends of the Red Company adventured around the Empire of Astandalas and far afield. He claimed to have romanced the Moon and stolen from the Sun, to have hunted the White Stag across the length and breadth of Fairyland, to have crashed a party in the very heart of the Palace of Stars and thumbed his nose at the Emperor of Astandalas. People remember him for his songs and his wit, for his magic and his friendships, and those who had the fortune to meet him are always waiting for the catch. For Fitzroy Angursell was by all accounts a conman extraordinaire. But there never was a con. When he said he was a son of a great family, caught under a grievous enchantment, descendant of myths and magi, heir of the Prince of the White Forest and of the Emperor-Mage Aurelius Magnus and all the rest, he was telling the exact and utter truth. And now, thirty or more years after his inexplicable disappearance, he's back.