A Song of Passing

by David Carrico

         Caemon, son of Cindras, High Lord of the Alflina, has been studying at a monastery in the nearby kingdom of Luint. He receives an urgent message from his father, calling him home. When he arrives, he finds that a dragon has attacked and destroyed the hold and all of its people have disappeared, including his father and mother.

         He searches the hold but finds nothing other than a relic of his father's, which provides Caemon with the Gift of Mal, a form of intuitive magic. He returns to the monastery and consults with the monastery head, Eldest Brother Ifram. The two of them and a few of the monks at the monastery are all that remain of the alflina, an old race who have a history of occasionally producing leaders who wield the Gift of Mal.

         Caemon decides that he should go to Luint's king to seek support for his campaign against the dragon. But when he arrives in the capital, he discovers that Baron Hiel has usurped most of Loryn's authority, and Caemon will first have to restore the king’s power before he can hunt the dragon. So now a civil war looks to be in his future as well. 

 

345 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 15, 2020

About the author

David Carrico is best known for the novels 1636: The Devil’s Opera and The Span of Empire (both written in collaboration with Eric Flint). His most recent book, 1636: Flight of the Nightingale, will be released in November 2019 by Baen Books. David began his writing career publishing stories in The Grantville Gazette e-magazine in 2004, and to date his stories have appeared in The Grantville Gazette, the Ring of Fire anthologies from Baen Books, in Jim Baen’s Universe e-magazine, and in Baen.com’s monthly free story offerings.

Reviews

[Cindy Curry · Rating 4 out of 5]

An Engaging Novel

This book was a worthy effort of a relatively new author. I purchased it because I enjoyed his stories in Eric Flint's 1632 universe. The world is interesting. The characters are a weakness. They are either really noble or really evil. Real people have shades of grey. The story started a bit slowly, but did pick up speed later in the book. I will be reading the next volume in the story.