For five centuries, the Realm’s mightiest fortress has stood unconquered. Now it is the final bastion of a retreating northern army, and the culmination of the long-raging Diamond Wars. The warlord Belerod stands at the Dorah's doorstep with a southern horde at his back, set on testing the meaning of unbreakable with his war-golems.
Fourteen of Belerod’s creations waded into the Diamond Wars. Only eight remain. Their second-youngest, Task, has seen every bloody battle; every crippling defeat and valiant push. The attack on Malar Dorah is supposed to be the dawn of peace. But now, at the end, the soldiers whisper of a wizard hiding behind the Dorah's vast walls.
For the first and last time in the Diamond Wars, magic will fight magic.
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Shards is a short story set several centuries before the events of Ben Galley's award-winning standalone novel The Heart of Stone. Shards is a prequel tale of Task's beginnings in the Diamond Wars, and a fierce and action-packed look at a time when war-golems were not so rare.
Ben Galley is a British author of dark and epic fantasy books who currently hails from Vancouver, Canada. Since publishing his debut Emaneska Series, Ben has released the award-winning weird western Scarlet Star Trilogy and standalone The Heart of Stone, the critically-acclaimed Chasing Graves Trilogy, and the new Scalussen Chronicles.
When he isn’t conjuring up strange new stories or arguing the finer points of magic systems and dragon anatomy, Ben explores the Canadian wilds, sips Scotch single malts, and snowboards very, very badly. One day he hopes to haunt an epic treehouse in the mountains.