Beware the Thorns: Vol. 1 of The Soul of the Blade

Some blades have a soul. Thornblades. There are several of the ancient blades known to exist, and all of their kind are outlawed by both Church and Crown. With a will of their own, and the ability to siphon blood in exchange for arcane effect, the weapons are immensely deadly, and not only to those cut by them--the wielder, if they are not careful, can lose themselves in the rapture of power, allowing their soul be drained and merged with that of the weapon. In "Beware the Thorns," a group of villagers is returning from a typical late-autumn hunt, but find that some of their number have gone missing--and one of those is Rhett's only son, Nial. With the unnatural Shroud not far from rising, Rhett chooses to go off looking for the others, his closest friend going with him. As dangerous as the highlands they live in can be, Rhett only hopes to find his son alive. But when he finds his boy has discovered a thornblade, things can only end in blood. Ahldir is a gritty world of kingdoms and empires in the midst of their industrial revolution, where civilization huddles--mostly--in densely packed cities, for nightly the lands are covered by an unnatural fog known as the “Shroud.” Though the short tale that I tell here takes place away from these cramped and bustling metropolises, giving the reader a glimpse into the lives of those who dare to settle in the Shroudlands.

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