Revenge of the Horseclans

The rebel army is marching to war, bent on destroying Thoheeks Bili, his kinsmen, and the power of Morguhn...

Call to Arms

Bili of Morguhn has been summoned home to claim his inheritance after years of soldiering in the Middle Kingdoms. But the Ehleen nobility and the priests of the Old Religion are planting the seeds of rebellion, swearing to wrest back from Bili and his fellow Horseclansmen the lands and wealth which once were theirs. And the stench of war rises once again over the land...

But what Bili does not know is that both his troops and those of his enemy are pawns in a larger game, a deadly game of bloody intrigue; and the stakes are as big as the survival of the Confederation—and the Horseclans themselves...

The stamp of hoof, the stroke of axe...

Bili mindspoke Mahvros, "Be ready to fight, brother!" The huge black horse quickened his gait in response to Bili’s command, raised his head and voiced a shrill, equine challenge, and then bore down on his promised victims.

The leading attacker held up his shield to fend off Bili's axe, while he aimed a hacking cut at Mahvros' thick neck. The stout target crumpled like wet paper and the axeblade bit completely through and deep into the arm beneath, the force of the buffet hurling the man down to a singularly messy death amid the stamping hooves.

But Bili failed to see the man who galloped in from his left, and then a hardflung throwingaxe caromed off Bili’s helm, nearly deafening him and filling his head full of a tight red-blackness shot with dazzling white stars...