Bøger af Matt Barron

The Redlander fleet has invaded the south and Duchess Amelia, with her Captain Prentice Ash, march to face them at the head of her White Lions, the toughest foot soldiers in the world. High King Chrostmer has summoned all the Grand Kingdom's knights and nobles to face the coming threat, and the Lions of the Reach are crucial to his strategy. At every turn though, intrigues and mysteries threaten the defenders' efforts from within and without. Prince Daven Marcus still conspires against the duchess, to avenge the shame and humiliation of his failed crusade in the west. The Redlanders plan their assault with beast soldiers, serpent priestesses, mantis warriors, and new terrible magicks. The Church hierarchy plot too, resentful of the success that Prentice, a condemned heretic, has found in the west. And over it all, the High King has his own schemes. The Golden Eagles-twin crests of the High King and the Prince of Rhales-may yet be a cry of victory or a mournful wail of defeat.

The Rats may have won back Dweltford, but now the Reach needs Lions.Duchess Amelia's cutthroat "rats" have saved her hometown, but the new crown prince of the Grand Kingdom, Daven Marcus, now drags her along in a vain winter crusade into the wilderness, seeking the origin of the mysterious invaders from the west. Surrounded by the prince's toadying lackeys and scheming nobility, Amelia has no allies. Her captain, Prentice Ash, is far away in the ruins of Fallenhill. With a handful of mercenaries, Prentice must train the convicts to be soldiers, turning a criminal rabble into a militia for the Duchess. In his dreams, he has a prophetic vision of rats becoming lions, but before the training can even begin, a traitorous baron traps the entire force in a siege. With murderous knights outside the walls, and hunger and winter's cold within, can Prentice somehow turn rats cowering in the ruins into roaring lions? If not, how can Duchess Amelia defend her lands from the venal prince who means to steal the Western Reach out from under her?

The sword does not fear the fire that forged it. Usurper Prince Daven Marcus has seized his father's throne and shattered the Grand Kingdom. Refugees are flooding over the mountains and even as Prentice Ash's White Lions seem just able to hold the chaos at bay, the Western Reach is overwhelmed with a new challenge no one could have foreseen-an unending drought that bakes the land dry. Even the mighty Dwelt River is reduced to a trickle, and Duchess Amelia fights to the limits of her strength just to keep her land and people from dying of thirst. There are whispers of a curse upon the land and, even, the duchess, while factions recently united behind their liege are muttering dissension. Rebellion threatens. Worse, a fresh enemy hounds the Reach and its people-horsemen of ghostly stealth who strike without warning. Using a new and unexpected form of warfare, they are unlike any knights or militia. Are they mere bandits or a new force of Redlanders? Or are they something altogether different? Assassins and spies; traitors and rebels; conspirators and opportunists; ancient curses and new enemies. The Western Reach has become a nest of serpents that threatens to devour everything Prentice and Amelia have striven to build. Yet neither will yield, not even to the blazing heat of the sun itself. After all, they have both already passed through flames to forge peace for their land. They are the Duchess and her Captain-steel, hard forged and well-tempered by suffering. They do not fear the fire.

Victory over the painted invaders was but a prelude to a new conflict that threatens the Western Reach. Led by convict-captain Prentice Ash, the Duchess's army has driven off the invaders from the west and Prentice has won his freedom. But the Reach is far from safe. There are rats lurking in the duchess's capital and they mean to destroy her. Merchants and noblemen plot to rob Amelia of her province's wealth while criminals and mercenaries prowl through the streets. Meanwhile, the new prince, Daven Marcus, comes west with foolish plans that threaten to rip the Reach out of Amelia's hands. Once again, she has no choice but to rely on Prentice and his ragtag group of former convicts. Soon, the vermin of Dweltford's shadows will learn that a new pack of rats has come to town, ones loyal to the rightful ruler and ready to kill and die in her name. The duchess's Rats of Dweltford.

Trained as a knight, condemned as a heretic, exiled as a convict, Prentice's every moment is a struggle just to survive. The Duke is dead and now Duchess Amelia, his young and inexperienced bride, must rule the Western Reach alone. But when an unknown enemy invades her lands, slaughtering all in their path, her knights are too eager for glory to see the danger. She must turn to Prentice, a convict, wise in the art of war and the only one she can trust despite the dishonor it brings. Thrust into the front lines, Prentice must fight to survive not only the violence of the enemy, but the inexperience and foolishness of his own commanders. In the midst of conflict, Prentice will earn the battle name Ash, for no matter how intense the fires of war, even if all burns away, Ash will still remain.