The Warrior’s Tale

Captain Rali Emilie Antero came from an illustrious and wealthy trading family whose members included a wizard, long dead, and a famous adventurer, Amalric – very much alive and regaling rapt audiences with tales of his quest to the legendary Far Kingdoms. Much was expected of an Antero… But Rali cared little for magic and magicians, and even less for journeying, particularly on the ocean. She was a soldier, committed to defending Orissa, the city of her birth, and to winning respect for her command, the elite, all-women Maranon Guard. Winning battles was no problem for the Guard; but there were too many jealous men who wanted the women warriors out of the way. So just when Rali should have been at home, resting on the laurels of her latest victory, she found herself assigned to lead a suicide mission: a seagoing odyssey in search of an evil master wizard – the last Archon of Lycanth – who had fled with a doomsday spell, a secret that could destroy all of civilization. And so Rali Antero and her Maranon warriors set out to sea, with the wizard Gamelan, on an epic hunt for Orissa’s most deadly enemy. It would be Rali’s greatest challenge: a desperate pursuit, raging across the great Western Sea, past the barbaric caravan port of Jeypur, past Tiger Bay and the Lemon Coast, past even the Jasmine Islands, to the great fire reefs that marked the end of the world – and beyond, to places unmarked even in legend.