The Black Throne of Ashvarn
When the bog armies of Warlord Rendyll rise from the marshes and overrun Greenmoor in a single bloody night, scout Maren Voss is the only survivor to carry word of what comes next. Rendyll does not want the high fortress of Ashvarn for its walls or its gold. He wants the black throne entombed beneath the keep , and the Iron Queen who waits on it, bound in iron and oath. The capital still has a king, but King Aldric the Younger is a boy with a borrowed crown, and his council fractures with every rumor from the front. Captain Drego, the scarred knight Talia Brenner, and the veteran Ser Aldric rally what defenders remain, while Sergeant Hulsten hunts the spies already inside the walls. Above them all looms Lord-Commander Caelan Durren, a man whose loyalty is whispered to belong to the Queen herself, and Vella, the Hearth Priestess whose old prayers may be the only seal that still holds. As the siege closes, the throne begins to wake, and Maren must choose whether to serve the crown that haunts her, the king who cannot hold it, or the warlord who would burn the world to sit upon it.