The Starslayers Chronicle: Ashen Queen, Phoenix King.
The Queen of Mahersland lays smouldering in a tomb. An ashen horror, she burned in bed at night without explanation but freakish tragedy… or blood magic.
After a life spent climbing the steps of power, Khorial rises to become king. No sacrifice is too grave or bloody for him. In a land rife with corruption, the new king promises everyone their rights. He’ll cast judgement on the slavers, and unify the shattered survivors of war under the effort to rebuild. But behind black doors, he’ll wield every strategem and deception to divide his rivals.
Khorial scrambles for leverage over the island nations, sending his Mahersguard to disrupt the leaders and sunder their alliances in darkness. At dawn, crowds gather to hear his golden voice. He must ignite their devotion, lest the brewing war boils over. Even as cheering swells, the rotted remnants of the druid rebellion, the hideously hungry draysks, devour any who cannot hide behind stone walls.
With guidance from the traitouros druid Summer, Khorial learns the secret art of blood magic. After a string of sacrifices, Khorial and Summer call down a being from a higher dimension. Nym appears as a red star among clustered constellations. It burns brighter when fed, growing swollen and ruddy, and hungry with desires.
Nym’s rite ignites brutal burnings. The rite of fire is strong enough to finish battles before they begin. But only blood sacrifice can fuel this new weapon. Not even the king knows the irrevocable chaos the rite shall spread. Only a few scattered druids understand the apocalypse their world now faces.
Helena is more comfortable among wild beasts than with other people. Dedicated to her druid master, the Guardian, she’s tempted to stray from his strange instructions when she begins piecing together the wicked work of her lost sister, Summer. As the monstrous remains of Summer’s betrayals are revealed, black hatred reignites. Together with Giri, a village boy driven by dreams of monster-slaying, he and Helena will run to face the red star, and be the first to wound it, if they can.
The Starslayers Chronicle: Ashen Dawn
After Khorial and Layla’s shared ritual, Nym has vanished from the sky. Ken, Okairon, and Master Heart have been tasked with securing Mahersland. As Ken executes a secret mission in Tyr, Okairon works in the home of the Jackels, Fraycore, while Adelaide is prepared for rule. Gifting the Black Book to the nomad leader, Barbon Clerry, Summer entrusts him with her revenge.
Blay and Aleena struggle with trust in Corintyn, but warn the leaders and form a resistance, freeing the city of Mahersguard and standing against the king.
Clerry’s experiments succeed, and a new Nym dawns, as bright as the sun while the nomads create their Fire Warriors and advance on Blackdaggar.
As Khorial’s victory seems imminent, he recieves word that Blackdaggar has fallen. Confused, he sets forth to conquer Corintyn, questioning himself and placing his hope in Addie.
Adelaide is set to be the lady of Fraecore, but her journey is almost fatal. She is saved by Giri, and Summer is lost, trusting her hopes of revenge to a hastily scrawled letter and a rider.
Khorial thinks about uniting with Blay to defeat Nym together, and turning against Summer. He sends his cruellest Masters on a death mission, to battle the nomads and slay the Clerry clan.
The Starslayers Chronicle: Smouldering Web
The rebels set out to reclaim Stoney Mill, and join together with a rogue Fraycorian captain and her fleet. But they’re attacked by a massive draysk swarm, made by Heart finishing the preparation of Summer. After finishing his mission in Tyr, Ken is saved by the star and tasked with retaking Corintyn from within, by the king. Heart used the same swarm to defeat the nomads. Maherat sacrifices himself to defeat the swarm, and Aleena becomes the Guardian. Khorial has seen enough death, and fearing the power of Nym decides to go to Blay and his people in Stoneymill, and ask for a truce, but Aleena uses her powers to kill him before he can, adhering to a master plan shown to her by the spider Guardian which first sought to catch Nym, devised the ritual of flesh, wrote the black book, and sought to kill Nym using its own desire against it. Ken succeeds, and recieves the plan from Summer to kidnap Aleena and bring her away to Ankhara, setting the ritual of flesh in motion. Finding chaos and fighting, the rebels manage to retake their city and put Ken in a dungeon. During the battle led by Heart, Aleena fights to exhaustion. Ken manages to escape, and she lets him kidnap her, reminding Blay to trust her. Blay, feeling sick and poisoned, rides after Aleena and finds a trap set. The ritual of flesh commences, as Heart knows the plan well, and has been granted control of the ashen by Nym. Finally, the ritual takes place but Nym is caught in the Guardian’s web and dies, slain by the poison fed over weeks to Blay and activated by the heat within his body. Khorial and Aleena stay with him, as Blay is tempted and tricked by Nym. He must use his will and all of the abilities he’s learned to stop Nym from healing itself, and surrender to oblivion so that the web can close and the spider’s venom work. At last, Nym is defeated. Adelaide joins the rebels, and according to Blay’s wishes they follower her, as Khorial convinced him of her claim. Finally, Aleena, Khorial, and Blay are dead, but together with Giri and Corretta, Queen Adelaide and the rebels defeat Master Heart, with help from Ankhara and Tyr. Then, Adelaide is crowned and finishes what Khorial began, reforming Mahersland into unified nation with individual rights, courts of law, and freedom. She secured her victory by promising the Tyrish to fully lift the Unforgiven Sins, and allow them to develop technologies using chemistry, granting open trade with the rest of Mahersland.