Glassbound

Every champion pays a toll. In the volcanic dark of the Emberlands, a grieving king has spent years forging an army out of fire, stone and his own blood. When a red flare climbs the southern sky, the Glasslands find out what he has been building, and that he has been keeping count of every king who said no. Qinn Valerius was raised to count before a battle: what you have, what the enemy has, what you are willing to lose. His father taught him that. Now his fathers hand wont stop shaking, and Aethon Valerius means to spend whatever he has left on one last ride north. Qinns road leads to the Serpents Ford, where champions of every realm cross black water under the eyes of the ash-wife. She has kept that crossing for twelve hundred years. She has never let anyone through for free. He goes with a spearman from the Sunken Jungle, a dwarf who wont let go of his axe, and the girl from the Northern Reach he last stood beside on a wall two years ago. In his pocket is a stone that holds a dead kings voice, reading names someone very powerful wants buried. His allies are lying. His enemy knows his name. And the ash-wife has already decided what Qinns crossing will cost. Build something worth the cost.