Ch3
The fire had burned low, orange embers pulsing like a dying heartbeat, when the footsteps approached. Wylan heard them long before Darien would have—heavy, measured, the tread of a man who walked with purpose and expected the world to move aside. He tensed, hand drifting toward his sword, but something in the rhythm of those steps made him wait.
Lord Haskal emerged from the darkness like a man carved from the night itself. No armor tonight—just a simple tunic and
There are three more: Lloyd (Val's Squire, a grumbling ball of complaining that everyone loves) Julian (Lord Haskal's Squire and Wylan's best friend) and Bran (Wylan's dog as promised to @drpaladin ) (Stephen who comes along much later is more a character for the second book, but one more member of this little found family)
Chapter Ten: The Costa Coffee Crusade
The garden gate creaked behind them like a guilty conscience.
Taine led the way, Charlie at his shoulder, Matt and Simon/Lynix bringing up the rear. The street was eerily quiet—not the peaceful quiet of a sleeping town, but the held-breath quiet of somewhere waiting to explode. The pink dome pulsed overhead, casting everything in a rosy glow that made the familiar suburban street look like a fever dream. Every shadow seemed to move, ever
The King is... entertaining. Everyone is so terrified of him, that they accept his will without question.
Ser Val has no real desire to be a man, but the King has decreed it... and she quite enjoys being a Knight ergo she is a Knight. The Church is not best pleased but they aren't in a position to argue with the King.
i am deliberately vague as to where and what country King Radoslav's host is from. Since this is not our world, I created a host and an implied country that is "Northern" To Frankia (France) it gives me a host of soldiers to play with and room to maneuver inside the quasi-historical backdrop.
Darien set to learn more about the people around him, the war, and the depths of magic than he ever cared to before, and grumble about every moment of it... especially the socked foot in his face every morning.
CH2
The road to Port Taye became the road to King Radoslav's war camp, and the road to King Radoslav's war camp became a special circle of hell that Darien was certain he'd done nothing to deserve.
They rode through the outskirts of the camp as evening fell, past picket lines of horses and cook fires and clusters of men playing dice on barrel tops. The sheer scale of it pressed in on all sides—hundreds of tents, thousands of men, a small city of canvas and mud stretching tow
CH1
The morning started with a squire-shaped hole where his squire should be.
Sir Darien stood in the middle of the muddy yard, fists on his hips, staring at the empty space beside the dead fire where a lazy, useless, utterly replaceable boy had been sleeping not six hours earlier. The boy's blanket was still there, crumpled in a heap. His pack was gone. So was the girl from the inn, the one with the gap teeth and the laugh like a startled hen.
Darien had seen her making e
A grumpy hedge knight desperate for a squire buys a blind stable boy for three years' wages. He expected useless. He got a boy who can hear lies in a man's voice, calm any horse with a touch, and navigate by sounds others miss. Now they're marching to crusade, surrounded by enemies who'd destroy them—if the magic rising in the East doesn't kill them first.