An excerpt from The War in the North - Book One of the Chronicles of Sui-Denas, out 1 May.
A week ago, Captain Arder Tur Cide rode south out of the mountains with news no one in Valbena wanted to hear.
He had been counting men in the snow. Four thousand of them, under a general the Duchy had cast out and forgotten about, moving in the kind of order that did not happen by accident. He rode hard, killed two horses getting back, and laid it all out in front of the War Council.
A week later, the Council is still arguing.
Arder sat alone in the barracks common room, the Council's arguments still echoing in his head. The fire burned low, throwing long shadows across the stone floor. He poured himself a mug of coffee, the bitter steam curling into the silence.
Valbena was stirring like a hive struck with a stick, already the city bore the marks of war. Smithies rang through the night, sparks leaping into the winter air as hammers fell on iron. Wagons creaked along the cobbled streets, piled high with grain sacks and salted meat, bound for the castle stores. Families stood in doorways, watching sons and daughters march past in mismatched armour, banners snapping stiffly in the cold wind.
Rumours ran faster than the messengers. An army out of the north. Dren Hollow already doomed.
His company is a hundred miles north, holding a timber stockade at Dren Hollow under a sergeant named Hugo. Malrik is coming down out of the mountains on a schedule. And Arder, who has seen the enemy with his own eyes, is being kept in council chambers to lend weight to other men's arguments.
Then Liam Adair comes in from the frost with a different idea. Forty scouts. Quiet departure. No banners, no torches. Out of the city in small groups under the cover of dark, rendezvous at Ashmere, and from there north, hard, to find out what is left to find.
It is the first order given in The War in the North that the Council never hears about.
It will not be the last.
The War in the North - Book One of the Chronicles of Sui-Denas - releases 1 May 2026.
Cover reveal and pre-order links drop 17 April. Follow @sjparkerwrites on Instagram or check back here.