Chapters (53)
- Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area- Western Half
- Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Eastern Half
- Map of Kingdom of Finfalla and Surrounding Area - Full Map
- Important Trigger Warning
- Prologue
- PART I
- One
- Two
- Three
- Four
- Five
- Six
- Seven
- Eight
- Nine
- Ten
- Eleven
- Twelve
- Interlude: The River of Life
- PART II
- Thirteen
- Fourteen
- Fifteen
- Sixteen
- Seventeen
- Eighteen
- Nineteen
- Interlude: Fallow Fields
- PART III
- Twenty
- Twenty-One
- Twenty-Two
- Twenty-Three
- Twenty-Four
- Twenty-Five
- Interlude: Of Man and Monster
- PART IV
- Twenty-Six
- Twenty-Seven
- Twenty-Eight
- Twenty-Nine
- Thirty
- Thirty-One
- Thirty-Two
- Thirty-Three
- Thirty-Four
- POSTLUDES
- Postlude 1: Lana Vica
- Postlude 2: Ludo Vica
- Postlude 3: Cainan
- Acknowledgments
- An excerpt from Heartsworn, Volume II in The Forsworn Oath, available for preorder now!
- PART I
He laughed and stabbed the dagger back into the map—and table—where it stood vertically like a newly planted fencepost. “It’s not my time yet, but one day I’ll do it, except I’ll also pin my final command to my heart: to mount my head above the door to Kerrigan Manor with a plaque that reads Killed by himself, Lord Olmstead, the finest hunter the world has ever known.”
“Have you ever hunted a dragon?” Orum found himself blurting out.
The man’s small eyes sharpened to fine points, magnified by the round plates of glass. “What did Lawton tell you? He’s a bloodthirsty lad, but rather lacking in intelligence, a contribution from his whore of a mother, no doubt.”
“Guard Lawton wasn’t very specific, actually. Just that you’d petitioned the king in a matter related to dragons already, which was why His Majesty rejected my own petition out of hand.”
“The king can be rather more short-sighted than me at times,” Lord Olmstead said with a sigh, his right hand’s thumb absentmindedly sliding along the length of one of the daggers. “Wait, did you say something about your petition? What petition?”
“I was hoping to lead an expedition into Lostwood to capture a dragon. But His Majesty wouldn’t even grant me an audience.”
“Why do you believe there’s a dragon in Lostwood?” The man had begun to circle the table, making his way around to Orum, smoke swirling from his pipe.
“Because I saw it with mine own eyes,” Orum said. “Not that anyone believes me. The creature almost killed me, but it also sort of…spoke to me…saved me in a way.”
The man didn’t seem interested in this particular revelation, but at least he seemed interested in what Orum had witnessed. “I knew it! Ever since I received the letter from that Orian woman I’ve had this…feeling. Deep in my bones, man. And yet the Huntsman hasn’t found a single shred of evidence yet.”
“What Huntsman? I thought you were the hunter? And what letter? And what is an Orian?” If Orum had stopped to think before speaking, he might’ve realized that asking so many questions at once was as rude as his host had been, but he hadn’t come this far just to stand mute for the entire conversation.