Epic of Athene: Book Two - Blades of Ambition

The Warmaster has taken every blooded warrior of the Jak-Arrak to another world, and left his daughter to hold the one they came from. Lor'zel is a priest who was raised as a warrior, and neither training prepared her for High Priest Ul'tanis, who has decided that a homeworld without an army is a homeworld in need of an inquisition. On Al'Jurad, the imperial expedition has ended in ruin, and Adjunct Tybis is left commanding the survivors of a company he was never meant to care about. He has a captain to keep alive, a legion to hold together, and orders from the men who made him that have nothing to do with either. Somewhere in the outpost, a coup is being arranged in the Emperor's name. And in the jungle beyond the ruins, a mage who abandoned his soldiers to die has met an old man in silk robes, who has lived for thousands of years, and who has offered to teach him how to become a god. Three ambitions. Three blades. Every one of them will find what it is looking for. Book Two of the Epic of Athene, a multi-POV military fantasy for fans of Malazan Book of the Fallen and The First Law. New readers should begin with Book One: The Ashen Crossing.