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In Oath of Fealty, book one of Paladin's Legacy, two neighboring realms each get a new king--and both kings face personal danger and social unrest. An estranged daughter must take over her family's realm and send her evil adult relatives to prison--or face a charge of treason. And a former mercenary captain inherits the entire company. Assassinations, conspiracies, brigands, wars and rumors of war...will it never end?

March, 2010

Kings Of the North
"Uneasy lies the head..." Young King Mikeli of Tsaia, having survived several attempts on his life, now faces potential dangers from abroad as well as continued threats within his own kingdom. Though he has granted Dorrin Verrakai the title of Duke, everything in his past warns him not to trust a Verrakai magelord...and yet she is the only lord with military experience. The mysterious crown she brought him as a gift may instead be a curse. King Kieri of Lyonya, older and more experienced in war, is pressured to find a wife and produce an heir, while his subjects ignore what he sees as greater problems--the relationship between elves and humans, in this dual-ruled kingdom, had worsened and his own elven grandmother will not help him heal it, the economy is failing, and across the great river looms Pargun, a constant threat. King Torfinn of Pargun is beset by both traitorous relatives who want to usurp his throne and a rebellious daughter who wants to escape the duties of a princess. And now Lyonya--which he has not perceived as a threat before--has as its new king the duke who had fought and defeated Pargunese troops in Tsaia. With enemies on two sides, west and south, as well as conspiracies and treason within, what can he do to protect his people?

March, 2011

Echoes of Betrayal
When Paksenarrion told the Thieves' Guild enforcer that perhaps Gird had a plan for him and the Thieves Guild, Arvid Semminson thought it was a joke. He took on leadership of the Guildhouse in Vérella and--in the previous book--at least pretended to be turning over a new leaf, in order--he told himself--to protect the thieves who had survived the winnowing. But he had old enemies there and elsewhere who found a way to sabotage him. Only by Gird's help can he survive--and those who ask for help will not only receive it, but must pay the price. Exactly what Gird's plan for Arvid might be, he doesn't know--but he will begin to find out what the price is.

King Kieri knows that Lyonya is no longer in danger of scathefire, the unquenchable fire of dragonspawn, and his elven grandmother, the Lady of the Ladysforest, has given her approval for him to marry. If he can defeat the Pargunese invaders--surely only human troops--Lyonya will be safe. But on Midwinter Night, he is lured from the royal ossuary and confronted with ancient treachery that may keep him from fulfilling his destiny.

Dorrin Duke Verrakai, meanwhile, in her role as Constable of Tsaia, faces her severest challenge yet when a member of the royal succession manifests the one talent Tsaian law will not tolerate while under her guardianship. The royal family itself harbors a source of treason no one has suspected yet.

February, 2012

Limits of Power
The unthinkable has occurred in the kingdom of Lyonya. The queen of the Elves--known as the Lady--is dead, murdered by former elves twisted by dark powers. Now the Lady's half-elven grandson must heal the mistrust between elf and human before their enemies strike again. Yet as he struggles to make ready for an attack, an even greater threat looms across the Eight Kingdoms.

Throughout the north, magic is reappearing after centuries of absence, emerging without warning in family after family--rich and poor alike. In some areas, the religious strictures against magery remain in place, and fanatical followers are stamping out magery by killing whoever displays the merest sign of it--even children. And as unrest spreads, one very determined traitor works to undo any effort at peace--no matter how many lives it costs. With the future hanging in the balance, it is only the dedication of a few resolute heroes who can turn the tides... if they can survive.

June, 2013

Crown of Renewal
In this final volume of Paladin's Legacy, overlapping crises beset realm after realm.

The resurgence of magery among those with no family history of it exposes the weaknesses of the Fellowship of Gird in Fintha and Tsaia and leads to civil war in Fintha. No one understands why magery is appearing now--what caused it, who is responsible, how it can be stopped--or how society can change to live with it. Invasions of iynisin, those ancient elven traitors, has led the lord of the western elves to demand that someone--someone human--wake the enchanted magelords in Kolobia and remove them, so that Dragon can remake the stone and once more imprison the iynisin. He insists the person who enchanted them is alive now--but how could a human live for centuries?

In the South, the Duke of Immer plans another campaign year of terror, sure of his power to rule over all with the aid of a powerful secret ally. Iynisin attack the very court of Tsaia, intent on stealing the royal regalia Dorrin Verrakai found and gave to the king--with disastrous results for the king's own family. And in Lyonya, the remnants of the Ladysforest elves include a traitor determined to destroy King Kieri and his family.

Over all the lands, north and south, an unusual drought begins what may be the same doom that fell upon Old Aare, turning a once green and fertile land into a desert of rock and sand. Who will survive these crises, and what sacrifices will be demanded?

May 2014

Paksenarrion
Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter, headstrong daughter of a sheep farmer on the north edge of the kingdom, dreams of being a hero out of legend, of fame and magic swords and great deeds. When her father tells her she must marry the neighbor's son, she runs away from home to join the mercenary company her cousin told her about. But military life and warfare aren't anything like her daydreams...yet she holds to both her duty and her dreams. In the end, she pays the price that heroism demands and becomes the paladin who saves a kingdom...but the journey is longer and darker than she ever imagined. She has to confront and overcome her strengths as well as her weaknesses...and her triumph redeems more than herself.

Originally written as one long story, it was broken into three for practical reasons when first published. Sheepfarmer's Daughter takes her from the farm through three fighting seasons as a mercenary in Duke Phelan's Company. Divided Allegiance describes her departure from Phelan and her training to become a paladin of Gird....a journey that ends in disaster. Oath of Gold finishes her story of recovery and redemption.

Sheepfarmer's Daughter was the 1989 Compton Crook Award winner.

The Legacy of Gird - Baen Books
A Legacy of Honour - Orbit UK
Gird, the patron saint of warriors in The Deed of Paksenarrion, was once a man around whom legends grew. Poverty, hunger, fear, and anger shaped this future leader, whose weakness for drink almost ended his cause--and his life. But his love for "his" people and his innate hunger for justice make him worthy of the legends.

Two books, Surrender None and Liar's Oath, chronicle the life of the founder of the Fellowship of Gird--the dominant religion in Tsaia and Fintha in Paksenarrion's day, and the early days of that fellowship.

Surrender None
The hero-saint Gird, patron of the Fellowship of Gird, was known only through scattered texts and traditions by Paksenarrion's day. In those stories, Gird was an honest, brave, kind, hardworking peasant who had stood up to cruel magelords and freed his people from oppression. He had written the Code of Gird, eliminating injustice, and had given up his life for his people by fighting off a magical monster, dying even as it died. The real Gird was indeed a peasant who led his people to freedom from oppression--but he was also a fallible and complicated man whose great virtues were paired with great weaknesses.

Liar's Oath
During the war, Gird took in a refugee who soon became known as "Gird's luap" (luap being the word for assistant, or an army officer who was not in the chain of command.) Luap, as he was finally called, was in fact the bastard son of a former king. Though he had been cast aside when his father sired a legitimate heir, Luap believed that he had inherited the ability to rule...if not his father's kingdom, then one of his own, somewhere. But his essential dishonesty, his inability to face the truth about himself, doomed him and his followers, and set the Fellowship of Gird on a path very different from that Gird would have chosen.