Hardening the Steel (Wandering Blacksmith) by Mark B Gilgam

To ordain the destruction of a whole people, Svalinir’s Spear was cast against the Kri, a nation of warriors—dangerous, cold-hearted sellswords threatening to bring down the Northern lands in a spiral of war. King Grimwolf of the Theusten leads the Northern host into Tridden Moor, where a generation of warriors perishes. All the Kri die there: men, women, and children, old and young, but for one boy. In the midst of this war and violence, a woman who has recently lost her two infants discovers the baby lying next to a dying swordsman. She decides to keep it for her own, despite the judgment against his vanquished people, and names him Kitt. A blacksmith helps her to keep the secret. Is it possible to teach healing to the last Kri and keep him from war? Blood will not be cheated; those are the words of a warrior dying in the Battle of the Bloodswamp. Kitt grows up on the island of Isenkliff in the grey northern Sea, where Brynnir’s forge stands. He works hard to become a master blacksmith, values books above gold, and has no doubt that he knows all about his parents, the smith Eckehart and the healer Aslaug. Warriors from many lands come to Isenkliff for the famous Aurora steel, and they teach Kitt to be a warrior. However, his mother wishes for Kitt to become a healer. Every now and then, he crosses the sea in an open boat to sail to the Dark Wood Murkowydir, where lost cities sleep and creatures that have died out elsewhere survive. Kitt faces Ice-Maidens and Ice-Giants, and once even a moonlight sword wielded by a silver woman. He runs for his life from the Feen Woodstalkers, feared for their stealth and cruelty. The young blacksmith turns in his masterpiece, and the code of the Red Lily Knights teaches Kitt to help, save, and serve.

Adult • Fantasy