"We do not kill children; we do not commit rape; we do not take pleasure in torment."
Dorac Kingsbrother was one of the King's Thirty in the kingdom of Marod. That was before he was found guilty of the murder of Lord Gahran's three children. Though Gahran was a traitor, his children were innocent. The code of the King's Thirty leaves no room for such a barbaric act, and for this heinous crime Dorac faces a life in exile.
The shame of such a sentence is something that Dorac can't brook, and so he sets off on a journey to the Old Stones, the place where those that seek death meet their end. Followed by Gormad, a child in search of adventure, Dorac is not alone on his final journey.
But not everyone believes that Dorac is guilty. Gemara Kingsister, head of the Six, investigates the murder of Gahran's children; though there is more at stake than the life of a lone warrior in this, the first of the Tales from Ragaris.
Penelope Wallace has lived in St Andrews, Oxford, Aberdeen and Nottingham. She is a pedantic bibliophile, a sometime lawyer, a not-completely-orthodox Christian, a wishy-washy socialist, a quiet feminist and a compulsive maker of lists. She has practised law in England and Scotland, in the fields of employment, conveyancing, and marine insurance litigation. Her favourite authors include Jane Austen, Robin Hobb, Agatha Christie, Nancy Mitford, George RR Martin, JRR Tolkien, Marilynne Robinson, JK Rowling and the Anglo-Catholic Victorian Charlotte M Yonge. She invented a world where the buildings and manners are medieval, but the sexes are equal. To find out more about Penelope Wallace's work please visit: www.penelopewallace.com and www.mightierthanthesworduk.com or connect via facebook: www.facebook.com/swordswithoutmisogyny or www.facebook.com/mightierthanthesworduk