THE SHADOW OF CROWN

The hardest blade to swing is the one aimed at your own certainty. An army marches behind Miraleth toward Aldenmoor, certain they follow a queen who will tear down the tyrant who burned her home. Only she knows the secret folded against her chest: a dead spy's letter, cut off before it could name the truth. The king did not give the order. Someone else forged the royal seal and sent the vanguard to slaughter her family. Someone with the authority to command it. Someone, perhaps, riding at her side. As she nears the throne she has hated her whole life, Miraleth must face the possibility that her war is built on a lie, and that the real enemy has been beside her all along. The Shadow of the Crown is Book Three of The Ironhold Chronicles: a saga of betrayal, buried truth, and the courage to doubt your own certainty. High fantasy in the Gaelic-Scots highland tradition, for readers of Robin Hobb, John Gwynne, and Anthony Ryan.