The Rust Crown (Ashfyre Book 3)
About
In the Thinlands, brutality and whispers strain against each other to undo the forces of man. Following Ashfyre II: A Knife in Every Promise, we begin The Rust Crown, an epic fantasy story mixed with elements of grimdark, romance, and dark fantasy.
Fleeing a brutal past, Selka never expected her path to cross with magic, let alone be consumed by it. But when a chance encounter with the enigmatic magus Talwyn pulls her into a hidden world of ancient power, and arcane truths, survival takes on an entirely new meaning. She and Talwyn are forced deeper into a conflict far older than kingdoms and crowns. Alongside a strange and unlikely band of companions, they travel dangerous roads in search of allies, all while preparing to stand against Tal, a tyrant whose reach continues to grow.
The brothers Bolson plunge into separate wars. Cerric marches on Tolven. A master of war, he leads a campaign built on discipline and inevitability. Yet victory demands more than strategy. It demands sacrifice, and Cerric is a man willing to pay any cost… even if it leaves nothing of himself behind. In Isen, Sadisar stands as a warrior, not a general, he is thrust into command of an army already outmatched and untested. Outnumbered, outmaneuvered, and surrounded by expectations he cannot meet, Sadisar must hold a city that cannot be saved by strength alone.
Laldun is a quiet nation. A peninsula of fishermen and sailors and forty years of good governance under a queen who is running out of time. It has no enemies worth naming until a body turns up in the north, a brother who went looking for treasure and found something far older instead. Now Roan Laldun, Lord Marshall of the Queen's Finest, finds himself building a host for a war most of his people cannot yet name, working alongside a woman who has spent six years in a basement keeping secrets the crown has funded for two hundred years.
But beyond war and politics, something darker stirs. Demons whisper at the edges of the world, unseen but not unfelt, and the fragile balance between realms begins to strain. Set against them is the dour Order of the Ashes, and Colm, a young Ashwalker who has awakened powers within the Ashfyre. With each step forward, all who stand against them must learn what it truly means to wield power, and what it will cost them to use it.