The Ashbound Crown
Captain Sera Vane leads twenty Ashbound soldiers through the reeking Greyfen marshes, guarding a secret the crown would kill to bury, and a secret someone is already killing to claim. Bone-whisper fetish envoys crawl out of the peat to walk among her company, whispering of an old kingdom and an older debt. Back at court, Prince Caelum Aldenmoor has been taken in the night by forces loyal to his own blood, Lord Commander Davrin rides south with sealed orders to silence the march, and Princess Maren dispatches her mirror assassin to ensure no one, neither Sera nor her own brother, survives to dispute her claim to the throne. With Kestrel, the soldier who sees too much, and Archivist Myren, who remembers what the kingdom chose to forget, Sera must drag her company across cursed ground while Old Marrek's warnings grow louder and Iden Marsh's hunger for the relic turns desperate. Lady Veradis plays a quieter game from the court's edge, waiting to see which crown falls first. The ruin Sera carries is not merely a relic. It is the Ashbound Crown, the seat of a kingdom that refused to die, and every faction marching through the fog wants it worn, destroyed, or buried with its bearer. To reach King Aldric alive, Sera must choose what kind of queen she is willing to become, and whether the crown is a destiny to claim or a curse to leave for the marsh.