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
Tomas had forgotten about the game entirely, but now made the move he’d been setting up this entire time, finishing off the last of his father’s light infantry with his cavalry and moving into siege position on the enemy fortress. “Do you surrender?” he asked, already knowing the answer. His father never surrendered, always preferring to fight to the last man. It annoyed him to no end; one needed to know when to submit and when to fight on.
His father met his eyes, and he was surprised to find a twinkle in them, along with several cataracts. “No, do you?” With that, he moved his mage from where she had been still the entire game—as she always was when he had a game with his father—to an undefended position directly in front of Tomas’s fortress. “I believe the game is mine, but that might just be my age-addled brain’s wishful thinking.”
Tomas blinked, reassessing the board, searching for some way out, refusing to accept that he’d been bested, and by his father of all people. He blinked again when he realized he had no choice but to accept just that. “How did you…”
“Sometimes you must play the long game, Son. A war isn’t won from a single battle. And if you commit too many of your forces to a single gambit, you leave yourself vulnerable in other places.”
He slumped back in his chair. “All those easy victories…,” he murmured. Had his father really been playing him this whole time, setting himself up for this one game?
“A ploy,” his father confirmed. “Nothing more. Never underestimate your opponent. Never, do you understand? I might be an old man, but that only means I have more to teach you than I have time left in this world.”
“Yes, Father. I will…learn from this.”
“I know you will. Now, forget all about what happened earlier.”
“I don’t understand, Father.”
“There is something else you must do.”
Tomas couldn’t fathom what could be more important than bringing a murderer who’d infiltrated the palace to justice. “Like what?”
“Go see your mother.”
“I have no mother.”
“Whatever she’s done since, she carried you for nine long months inside her own body. I think she earned the title.”
“She abandoned us.”
“I won’t go around in circles with you again on this topic, Tomas. You’re going to Drouin if I must have you bound and carried there by a retinue of palace guardsmen.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Try me.”