Elise Carlson

All roads lead to war. Tarlah's first nonbinary heir, Ruarnon, is determined to prove their worth to Tarlah's perfect King. But when Ruarnon's parents are abducted, they're left ruling Tarlah alone, in the shadow of impending war, with absent allies. Neighbouring King Kyura has no intention of invading. But his warmongering subjects long for the glory of expansion. When Kyura rejects their calls for war, assassins threaten his family and mutiny threatens his reign. Across the ocean, lost Aussie and feisty history-nerd Linh seizes her only chance to get home; sailing with Ruarnon's allies. Monsters at sea threaten everyone. Linh's learnings could save Kyura's people and clear her homeward path of them. If she risks her life aiding Ruarnon. But to secure peace with Kyura's unruly subjects, Ruarnon's ultimate test as heir risks betrayal and Tarlah's bloody defeat.

Secrets lie across the seas. Heir Ruarnon seeks allies to free their parents from unpredictable sorcerer-king Nartzeer. The reclusive Urai are not who they had in mind but can offer far more than Ruarnon anticipates. However, negotiations are interrupted when Nartzeer's murderous grey-hided damars are sighted sailing towards Tarlah. The damars' human handlers are lost Aussie Linh's chance to confirm that her gateway home —and sorcerers able (and hopefully willing) to operate it— lie in the dangerous West. When Linh sets sail to confront the handlers, she learns that magic is very much still wielded on Umarinaris. That some of the Sorcery War's deadliest weapons survived. And that Nartzeer somehow knows all of this, and has his own plans for those weapons. But is Nartzeer the villain everyone in the East believes? What do his fleets truly seek in the Eastern Seas? And why have the damars become so formidable that they threaten to sink Ruarnon's ship and overrun all of Ruarnon's potential allies?

Myth says the Guardians ended the Sorcery War by draining all sorcerers of their powers, or killing them. The Guardians then vanished without a trace —and so did magic. But the myths are wrong. Magic wielders lived on in hiding. Now Sorcerer King Nartzeer is recruiting them, in a world that hates and fears their power. Terrorised by Nartzeer’s pre-emptive strike, Ruarnon’s Guardian-descent-claiming allies set sail to annihilate Nartzeer. Heir Ruarnon hopes to free their family from Nartzeer’s clutches first, but Ruarnon’s uncle won’t abandon the army he commands to slavery. Lost Aussie Linh is killing two birds with one stone, using her role as Ruarnon’s envoy to potential allies to track down sorcerers to open her magic gateway home. She learns that Nartzeer is rallying a sorcery army while his neighbours mobilise against him, and sorcerers whose awesome power Nartzeer’s ideology undermines, the dreaded God Kings are stirring. With sorcerers on all fronts marching towards mutually assured destruction, Linh and Ruarnon race to reach Nartzeer with the truth of magical ancestry and allegiance, hoping to unite people who are not so different before they utterly destroy each other.