Queen Terestere returns, plotting her vengeance. (Remember this is a chapter from the first draft prior to edits and thus, may change.)

Atop Danalyn’s great bulwark, Terestere watched King Ainslen leave the safety of the castle. Five Blades and one wiseman followed him, their horses cantering across the field toward the ranks of enemy soldiers in gleaming armor. A Blade carried a pennant flying the king’s Hand of Soul, the scaled fingers and pale blue depiction of so...