King of the Firelands

King of the Firelands is the second volume of Canadian author Dave Duncan's trilogy A Tale of the King's Blades. In this world, the King's Blades—the elite bodyguards of King Ambrose—are trained from childhood at Ironhall, where they master unmatched swordsmanship and are bound for life to a ward by a magical Binding; should their ward be in danger, they must defend him with their lives. This volume centers on Wasp and his closest friend Raid (Red). After five hard years at Ironhall, the two finally reach their graduation ceremony, only to publicly refuse the Binding honor bestowed by King Ambrose himself—an act of defiance without precedent in the history of the Blades. Behind that refusal lies a deliberately buried past: more than twenty years earlier, Ambrose's cousin Charlotte was abducted and wed by the King of Baelmark, Red, sparking a long and brutal war; and Red's own identity is peculiar, tangled up with both fire and an old vendetta. Thus these two young men, regarded by every Blade as traitors to be killed on sight, can flee only to the "firelands" that everyone speaks of in whispers—the volcanic islands of the Baelmark people. There await Viking-style raiders, fire-demon monsters, vengeful spirits and half-human, half-demon beings, as well as blood kin, intrigue, and truth. On the islands the story unfolds into a revenge and succession struggle almost Hamlet-like, and its ending will reshape the fates of two nations and leave a startling setup for the third volume, Sky of Swords. Each volume of the trilogy can be read on its own; read together, the three threads converge.