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Back Forsworn
Chapters (53)
  1. Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area- Western Half
  2. Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Eastern Half
  3. Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Full Map
  4. Important Trigger Warning
  5. Prologue
  6. PART I
  7. One
  8. Two
  9. Three
  10. Four
  11. Five
  12. Six
  13. Seven
  14. Eight
  15. Nine
  16. Ten
  17. Eleven
  18. Twelve
  19. Interlude: The River of Life
  20. PART II
  21. Thirteen
  22. Fourteen
  23. Fifteen
  24. Sixteen
  25. Seventeen
  26. Eighteen
  27. Nineteen
  28. Interlude: Fallow Fields
  29. PART III
  30. Twenty
  31. Twenty-One
  32. Twenty-Two
  33. Twenty-Three
  34. Twenty-Four
  35. Twenty-Five
  36. Interlude: Of Man and Monster
  37. PART IV
  38. Twenty-Six
  39. Twenty-Seven
  40. Twenty-Eight
  41. Twenty-Nine
  42. Thirty
  43. Thirty-One
  44. Thirty-Two
  45. Thirty-Three
  46. Thirty-Four
  47. POSTLUDES
  48. Postlude 1: Lana Vica
  49. Postlude 2: Ludo Vica
  50. Postlude 3: Cainan
  51. Acknowledgments
  52. An excerpt from Heartsworn, Volume II in The Forsworn Oath, available for preorder now!
  53. PART I

And then: “GO! RUTTING GO!” the man shouted, dragging him up by the scruff of his collar like a mother lion carrying her cub in her mouth. Rather than in a straight line, the assassin jerked him left and then yanked him back to the right, cutting a riotous, drunken path across the cliffs while arrows sliced the air into ribbons.

“And down again!”

He groaned as he was slammed back to the ground, more arrows rocketing overhead. Tomas thought he understood what it meant to be a child’s ragdoll, unable to control its own body while being subject to its owners every will and whim. At the same time, he wondered why the assassin kept telling him what to do if he was only going to make him do it anyway. He might as well have saved his breath.

“I can’t…I can’t…,” he panted.

“You can and you will. Now!”

Again, he felt himself being hauled upwards, his legs like rubber as he struggled to get them under him. His companion made up the difference with sheer strength and will, once more dictating his every move. Then, with the same superhuman speed with which he seemed to do everything, he thrust Tomas behind him, ripped his belt from around his waist and transformed it into a sword, and then hacked an arrow in half. The two pieces fell harmlessly past them at either side.

Tomas finally got his first glimpse of their pursuers, who were rapidly gaining, able to charge directly ahead while their prey was forced to dodge and dance to avoid being skewered. Every so often, they would drop to one knee and loose an arrow or ten. Like right now, for example, when a dozen arrowheads were aimed in their direction.

Tomas expected to be shoved to the ground again or pulled into another drunken run. Instead, his protector was apparently tired of their little game. He slapped his sword against his hip where it reformed into a belt and snaked around his waist, and then recovered two small throwing knives from somewhere inside his cloak. Simultaneously, with little more than a flick of his wrists, he threw them.

They spun end over end at speed, a series of lights flashing as the sun glinted off their blades, and then struck true.

One soldier toppled over, clutching his neck, while another was felled by the blade in his chest. Those remaining dove to each side, as if they expected another ten knives to come spinning toward them. Only two managed to get off their own shots, but they were wayward, arcing well clear of their targets.

Before Tomas could process the battle prowess he’d just witnessed, he was manhandled once more, this time right toward—oh gods, what is he doing!?—

The cliff’s edge slid toward them at speed.