Design of Darkness

The shadow of the great usurper, King Fogosombre, has kept the East in darkness for twelve long years. Made paranoid by a foretelling of his downfall, the king’s indiscriminate violence reaches a new zenith, leaving twins Arsenio and Mariana orphaned and homeless, their village burnt to the ground.

Now, as the dying embers of their rebellion fade into the night, the twins make a promise to find aide for their people in foreign lands. To get out from under the king’s reach, they must venture across the Great Ocean into a world they had only dreamt about through travelers’ stories. From their perilous quest arises a tale of emperors and queens, marauders and mysticism, fortitude and forbidden love.

Meanwhile, King Fogosombre conducts profane rituals driven by his lust for indomitability. Toiling with malign magic that may yield dire consequences for all the known world, he seeks a pact with the shadows, a plan to cement his reign indefinitely: a design of darkness.

RD Pires has found that there's always a story to tell, and so he spends his time scrambling to write them all down. A multi-genre author, he is under constant attack by his next novel, especially when there aren't enough hours in the day.His written works include The Tides That Reign saga, Of Chaos and Eternal Night, and A Vast, Untethered Ocean.He lives in California with his husband and their daughter.