The Everlands Cycle

Sellsword Des is traveling alone in a dry and dusty southern land after a spectacular bust-up with her best friend. She’s running low on coin, so when a former client, Karina, offers her a job leading her caravan’s security through brigand country, it feels like a gift. Des has done the route before, but she isn’t sure about leading solo. She recommends Cap, a rugged old mercenary, to head up the crew. Maybe she’ll even learn a thing or two about how to lead in between the delightful distraction of Karina’s flirtations and keeping the marauders at bay.

Smart, sassy, and sanguine. Des Mildue is a traveling sellsword in Rescalin, a dry and dusty kingdom full of rogues, opportunists, and thieves. She keeps her nose clean, brazens it out with a blade when she can’t, and keeps others at arm’s length where they can’t mess up her plans. That is until a sword fight gone wrong leaves her tied by blood to the first dragon hatched in centuries. Suddenly, Des has to contend with a new voice in her head: haughty, willful Esquidamelion. Des wants to leave Squid by the roadside, but the blood bond has other ideas.

The sellsword has been betrayed yet again by her ex-lover and separated from her dragon, Squid. And now she’s been turfed out of her last sanctuary. Lost without her dragon, her only comfort lies at the bottom of a glass of ale. Or nine. But as much as she might long for it, her death would only give the Emperor what he wants: the opportunity to bond with her dragon and use its power to become immortal. To mount a rescue, Des must cross a militarised border. When her oldest friend appears carrying permission to travel to Ascelin, she knows she’ll do whatever it takes to get her dragon back.