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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

Either way, it needed to be cleaned, so she dabbed at the wound with the sad, misshapen sliver of lye that had been provided for her use. She absorbed the pain as she did with anything negative in her life. Pretended it didn’t exist, like a nightmare that could easily be woken up from. Satisfied she’d done all she could for it, she lathered the rest of her body and then closed her eyes and sank fully beneath the water, relishing the sensation. It didn’t matter that she knew a thousand and one ways to kill a man, she still longed for simple creature comforts the way a cat preferred taking its nap beside a crackling fireplace even after it had killed a mouse in cold blood.

She regretted not keeping the book Farrow had given her within reach. For her, nothing beat a good soak and a good book. She longed to delve into the world her favorite writer had built in her ongoing series of books about Elaine of Availing and her adventures. At the same time, she would be too scared to get it wet to truly enjoy it. Not to mention, tiptoeing and shivering across the cold floor to retrieve it wasn’t exactly appealing at the moment.

There were those who felt reading fiction was frivolous, even pointless. Why waste time on the imaginary when a thousand and one problems faced folks in the real world? But for Bryony, this was exactly the reason why she thought everyone should read a bit of fiction. It was a reprieve from it all, a chance to see the world through someone else’s eyes, to discover how a clever, strong princess would overcome the hardships placed in her way. And Elaine of Availing always did overcome, usually in the most spectacular and amusing ways.

She smiled, already planning on cracking open the book for at least a few minutes before exhaustion pummeled her into sleep. Outside her window, the raucous sounds of merrymaking rolled in like a series of waves. It had been a while since she’d been in Kestrel, but she’d never forgotten its plethora of sounds. A memory broke free from where it had been anchored, rising to the surface of her mind: