The Iron Tithe

Before the Spires rose.

Before the Songs fell silent.

Before the Grey Army marched without voices or reason.

Knight Commander Cedrik Theramond—the Steel Guardian, the King's Shield—had been the man the Realm trusted to never fail. He believed the Crown was justice itself—that loyalty to the King was loyalty to righteousness. All Alcians, he thought, owed their lives to the King and his benevolence.

And then the Magistrate ordered him to execute a sixteen-year-old boy for firing an arrow that never struck its mark.

The Law is not justice.

Loyalty is not innocence.

And even the strongest shield can be turned into a weapon.

This is the moment he began to question the Realm.

This is the blood that tomorrow will remember.