Thorn and Ash
The Thornwood is swallowing Ashenmark whole. Twisted blackthorn creeps closer to the border each season, strangling farmlands and swallowing roads, and the only thing standing between the encroaching dark and the kingdom's last outlying settlements is the Thornwatch , a ragged company of rangers and outcasts led by Captain Kestrel Brimwick. When a routine supply caravan is ambushed in the forest's narrow defile and a royal courier vanishes without a trace, Kestrel is summoned to the court of Queen Aerin Aldhaven, where the politics are more dangerous than anything hiding in the pines. Inside the palace, old loyalties collide with new ambitions. Lord Aldric Vane presses the queen for war against Empress Iskara Vornwyck across the eastern sea. Sera Thorne, a foreign envoy with secrets of her own, warns that the Thornwood's spread is no accident , and neither is the ambush. Kestrel's sister Mira insists the answers lie buried in their family's forbidden past, while Theon Graycastle and Court Minister Halrec maneuver in the shadows, each pursuing an agenda Kestrel cannot yet see. Court Attendant Voss is the only soul in the throne room she trusts, and even that trust is being tested. With the Thornwatch stretched thin, the royal coffers bleeding, and a foreign empress waiting for a single misstep, Kestrel must choose between the queen she has sworn to protect and the truth that could shatter the realm. The crown she never asked to serve may already be lost , and the question is no longer whether Ashenmark will fall, but who lights the match.