R. H. OATHWELL

Ten Thousand Hands

Book One

King Herrold of Oromund has never lost a battle. Swords snap on him and arrows splinter on his cheek, because more than a million people have lent him their hands by oath. When a soldier falls, the priests teach, his strength goes to the crown. The fallen stand behind the king.

In a long hall of shelves in the capital, Piran Sedge, a careful clerk who loves his rolls, clears a backlog of death notices from the war across the strait. His sum will not come out the way the cathedral’s does. Beside the old figures he finds a note in a younger hand: the old king bled in the year his Count stood highest. His sum goes up the chain of office, and comes back down as a posting to Esk Varrow, the border city the Sarn Marshal is about to besiege.

Outside the walls, a farmer who only wants to be home for the harvest sees the king bleed for the first time. Across the lines, Sarai Corvel, who has never lost either, counts what each win has cost her. And on Candle Row, Oona Bracken has four children, one loaf, and a font at the end of her street.

Nobody is a villain. Nobody is a fool. Ten Thousand Hands is the first book of a war epic about a king, a city, and the strength the many lend the few.

Coming to Amazon in paperback and Kindle.