Blood For Wages by Joe Coates

SPFBO8

Exiled and grieving, Fia McCrae has spent the past eleven years wandering the island nation of Fallaros, with its numerous seperate tribelands, trying to atone for a mistake that has come to define her life. Raised in privilege. Fallen into disgrace. She rides the lands trying to redress those small wrongs that she can, using her innate ability to find that which is lost.

Torsten Gunn is the most infamous outlaw to ride the roads, valleys and hills of Fallaros. Unencumbered by the notion of law, and accompanied by his loyal crew of bloodthirsty longriders, he has made it his merciless mission to make the lives of any Counts and Countesses that ride the roads of Fallaros a living hell.

Chafing impatiently as he waits for his mother, who sits the High Seat of Fallaros, to die, Redmond Marr plots on how he will be the first man to subjugate all five tribelands. It is a feat that has never been attempted before, but to accomplish it the ambitious Marr has made a deal with an unknown power from across the sea. A power who has more than the dominion of a single island nation in mind.

As Fallaros falls into chaos, witches are burned in the streets, longriders roam the roads, and dissent amongst the peasantry begins to boil over. As the threat of war from across the seas draws nearer, an unwilling Fia soon finds herself coerced back into a life she'd thought she'd left behind. What starts as a simple hunt for a wanted man quickly escalates as hidden truths start to emerge. Before long, Fia is confronted by a revelation that might bring her to her knees, even as the people of Fallaros need her to stand and fight.

Adult • Fantasy/Dark • Horror