Then the princess was moving behind him, one hand across his mouth even as the other brought the dagger up, close to his throat as she dragged him back. Chriani was startled, as much at being grabbed at all as he was at the strength in her arm. As he stumbled back, though, he felt instinct override any uncertainty. Her blade was a hand's-width from him, more than enough space to go for her wrist. No room to get a decent strike in with the other hand, but her flank was vulnerable and in easy reach, or the soft muscle of her thigh, one sharp blow that would drop her.
But even through the instinct, through all the memory of all the hand-to-hand training he’d done at Barien’s side, he knew he couldn’t do it.
No idea what any of this was about, but he couldn’t hurt her. Not anymore.
He went for the dagger, though. No point in having his throat slit even by accident. But even as his hand clamped around her wrist, Lauresa sang…
An apprentice guard in the royal household of Brandishear, Chriani is a capable young warrior held back from attaining his full potential by a lifetime of dark anger. Lauresa is a princess about to be set aside as heir and married off for the sake of treaty — and the only woman Chriani has ever loved. When his mentor is murdered preventing an assassination attempt within the palace, Chriani is forced to become Lauresa’s protector — the two reconciling a forbidden passion even as they find themselves caught up in a maelstrom of political intrigue, ancient racial hatred, a society living in mortal fear of sorcery, and a decades-old plot to plunge five nations into genocidal war.
Clearwater Dawn is a high-fantasy mystery/romance, available as a DRM-free* e-book (complete with an introductory sample including the full first chapter) from:
- Amazon*
- Smashwords*
- Barnes and Noble
- Kobo Books
- Apple's iBooks Store
- Diesel eBook Store
- And other e-book outlets. If it's not available yet at your e-book vendor of choice, please let us know.
Clearwater Dawn is the first novel set in the Endlands — a wide-ranging fictional shared world in which the energy and narrative wonder of epic fantasy collide with William Faulkner's human[oid]-heart-in-conflict-with-itself at high speed.
The novel is the first volume in a three-part series — "The Exile's Blade". However, though it establishes the groundwork for the following books, Clearwater Dawn is very much a self-contained story with a solid throughline and resolution. (Scott isn't a huge fan of series whose first books simply set up the next books, and so tries to avoid writing them whenever possible.)