About Throne of Ashes: Prologue
Osnua, a kingdom where phoenix banners are aflame with the delusions of the conqueror, there are two princes cast long shadows. John the bastard son battles with the fury of a boy to understand that his blood is sword and curse. The other is his silent, ink-stained brother James deciphering maps like riddles mapping borders where the serpents of Croton move unseen. The king Julian sits upon the throne of fire and pride unaware that the corruption that festers beneath his gilded court and the queen that cradles it.Sansa, her green gowns as calculated as her smiles, gazes upon the stepson with cold eyes. She has planted the rumor: that Croton blood in John is a snake around the neck of Osnua. When there is fire during the night to incinerate the prince and the palace along with him, the kingdom is left to grieve bone and ash. But smoke conceals secrets. On the side of the mountain, a scarred boy wakes to serpent scars and a general’s whisper: “Kings are not born. They are forged.”
Years later, Osnua’s peace is a thin veneer. Julian is tormented by ghosts and shame, warring on shadows, his clemency reduced to cinders. James is a tactician now, the icy rationality of an accountant’s ledger. Vipers ensconced in silk are mapped by him. Croton’s spies haunt the edges of his maps. And to the north the storms are brewing. A warlord marches out, his warriors veiled by the echoes of the name of a fallen prince. But the greatest danger lies hidden within the Karakhan Pass where the caravans vanish and the ground remembers. Here a melted locket hums with unremembered vows, and a tollhouse is both key and casket. For crowns are fuelwood, and every throne is a funeral pyre waiting to be lit by the match that only brothers can strike.
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Author Bio:
I am a amateur author with a passion for writing and storytelling. I recently published my first short story in a short story series I am writing named WritersEdge. I hope it finds it’s way to you and you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed writing it. May it awaken an eagerness in you for the remainder of the series.