by Suresh Kumar
They said the heir of Dravengard ran. At midday the rumour reaches the palace: he showed his back and was cut down from behind. Vaira is nine months pregnant. Her husband is dead at a ford that was sold. Her brother is dead in the same water. The great houses have done their arithmetic and found her not worth a single spear. She tells nobody. She takes a sword and walks alone into a river meadow where nine thousand men are lying. She will turn every one of them over. She has only one question left in the world: front or back? Book One is complete at 21 chapters. A grimdark fantasy built on 2000-year-old Tamil battlefield poetry - the flowers men wear to declare what kind of killing they have come for.
