The Red Sword- The Complete Trilogy

by Michael Wallace

  “But I did go through with it. It was my doing, Nathaliey. I spoke the words, and I rang the bell. Aristonia tore itself apart because of my actions.”

  “And because of that, we’re all still alive, and hundreds of Eriscobans, too. If you hadn’t, Chantmer would have, and he couldn’t have then protected those of us who survived.” She put a hand on his arm. “We won the war. It was a costly victory, but did you ever think that it would come easily?”

  “It was more than costly. We lost the library, lost the master, lost Jethro, lost acolytes. Two-thirds of the order was killed before it ended.”

  “And I thank the Brothers that you weren’t one of them.”

  Markal looked away.

  “I missed you,” Nathaliey continued. “When Jasmeen was torturing me, forcing me to drink that poison, I kept picturing you at the gardens. I imagined your crooked smile, the raised eyebrow you give me when you say something funny. When I was weakening, I imagined what you’d tell me so I’d hold on and fight a little longer. I didn’t turn into a dark acolyte because of you.”

  Markal turned to look at her. His throat felt tight. “Don’t stay in the sultanates forever. Get your father, get the princess, and bring our people back.”

  “Same to you. Don’t turn into a barbarian while you’re over there. Come back and help me rebuild.”

  “You won’t be rid of me that easily,” he said.

  “Good.”

  There was nothing left to say, so they drank their wine and looked at the distant campfire flickering on the Tothian Way. From behind came the murmured voices of their companions sitting around their own fire, waiting out their final night together, after which they would break apart to go their separate ways.

  They’d suffered their blows, and the cost of victory was terrible, but if that was the will of the gods, so be it. Tomorrow, they would begin to rebuild what had been lost.

  -end-

  Afterword

  Thank you for reading the Red Sword Trilogy. To receive notice when my next book is released, visit my web page to sign up for my new releases list.

  As you might have figured out by now, this trilogy has a tie-in with the Dark Citadel Series, which you can buy here in a single box set compilation, available also on Kindle Unlimited.

  Warning: read on from here only if you’ve already read the Dark Citadel series. There are spoilers below!

  In that earlier series, I allude to the events of the Red Sword numerous times, and I’d long planned to go back to the earlier war and write this story. How long? To give you an idea, I started writing The Dark Citadel nearly twenty years ago. It wasn’t the first book I ever wrote, but it’s the earliest work of mine that has been published.

  I wrote the first two books of that series, and then nothing happened. Publishers expressed interest, nibbled, and declined. The books sat in a dusty corner of my hard drive, and I doubted they’d ever see the light of day.

  When I finally revisited them in 2011, I saw that they were actually pretty good, albeit in need of some editing. I published the first two books of the series, and they found an audience, which encouraged me to finish the story. I want to give a special thanks to those readers who first started reading The Dark Citadel back in the day. Without you, this current series would have never been written.

  By the time I picked up The Dark Citadel again with the third book, I’d changed a lot as a writer, become more focused. Instead of trying to go in every possible direction, I kept an eye on bringing the war to a conclusion, answering questions about griffins, wizards, and dragons along the way. There was so much fantastical material in the first two books that I fought hard to keep from getting into the weeds and exploring it all, making a decision in favor of an active, engaging plot.

  Alert readers will note that some of the events mentioned in The Dark Citadel don’t always match 100% with what actually happens in The Red Sword. I’m happy if you tell yourself that this is because the details of the earlier war had become confused with the passage of time and generations, but I’ll be honest. It’s because I needed to stay out of the weeds.

  The history of Soultrup and Memnet is certainly there, and we see how the destruction of Syrmarria laid the foundation for Balsalom to rise from its ashes. I also answered the questions about the Desolation of Toth. Hopefully, that was satisfying, even as it was horrifying to witness.

  But as I started to think about Jethro the Martyr, I thought I would change these details. I also left off the cloud kingdoms because it was simply too much for this series, but that leaves plenty of ideas for a follow-up series to this one. I won’t give too much away on that score, apart from saying we don’t yet know how the cloud kingdoms were created, we have a lot of questions about the dragon wasps, and our order of wizards is in chaos.

  So yes, I’ve got another trilogy in mind. How quickly I start work depends in large part upon the sales of this one. I’m writing these lines exactly one week before the release of the first book in the series, so I really have no idea how well it will sell. But peering in my own orb of power, I can see ways in which this happens more quickly, and that rests in part on your shoulders.

  If you loved The Red Sword Trilogy, a review on Amazon really helps readers find the books, which speeds that process along. Just like those early readers of The Dark Citadel, you can do your part to bring about the books you love to read.

  Meanwhile, thanks again, and I hope you’ll check out some of my other books while you’re waiting. If you’ve already read The Dark Citadel series, and are willing to venture a little out of your comfort zone, the three overlapping series of The Starship Blackbeard universe give you thirteen full books of adventure and imagination to explore. You can get the first seven books in a single compilation here!