The story is by Dorothy Dunnett. It starts in _Game of Kings_, but I was referring to something that doesn't really make sense for 4 or 5 books. If you like historical fiction and badly-hurt characters carrying on heroically in impossible situations, you might enjoy it. You need a good tolerance for unreliable narration and adjective overload, though.

If you tend to be overwhelmed in bad ways by disturbing scenes in books, I should warn you that Dunnett has several of them in different directions. (Though I thought she flinched from the really disturbing scenario at the end, after spending 6 books setting it up.) Let me know if you want more details.