The Assassins of Harmony Series

The wheel of time keeps turning. It stops for no one.   Only heretics question the holy history—they question the presence of the ash.   Like Vlod's father. The Mother Metropolitan had no choice but to execute him. The laws of the Inland Empire and the Holy Oregon demanded it. She burned him to ash for questioning the ash's very presence.   And she will have no choice but to send her assassins after nine-year-old Vlod.   He could not prevent his father's death. But Vlod will learn to fight so he can continue his father's work.   Because the question remains: Where is the sacred ash?   The Turning of the Wheel, The Assassins of Harmony, Book 1, weaves a dystopian tale, set several centuries in the future, in which belief and necessity collide like unstoppable tidal waves.

What if heresy proves the only way to avoid a holy war?   Such a war threatens the Inland Empire and the Holy Oregon. It stalks the Mother Metropolitan, as confident of its success as a Malheur Cobra hunting a barn rat.   Only the unification of two powerful clans offers any chance of escape. But the proposed bride despises the thought of marriage, and the groom might carry a genetic weakness that will doom the effort entirely.   The situation appears hopeless, and the auguries speak of annihilation and the wrath of the Goddess and the God.   As the clans prepare for war, Vlod, magus to the bride's clan, Clan Iredale, works to reinvent an invincible weapon.   A fine precaution. A secret ray of hope.   But the weapon embodies an ancient and malignant heresy. Its use might save Clan Iredale, but its very existence will drown the clans in a river of heresy and blood.   Ulricka's Gambit, The Assassins of Harmony, Book 2, weaves a dystopian tale, set several centuries in the future, in which the forces of orthodoxy and heresy break loose, threatening to obliterate everything before them.

War comes knocking on Clan Iredale's front door.   As diplomacy fails, one chieftain's choice will decide the fate of his clan. One magus's heroism will decide the fate of the Inland Empire and the Holy Oregon. Edmund, chieftain of Clan Iredale, has struggled valiantly to avoid the outbreak of war. But now, his efforts backfire with shattering results. The Mother Metropolitan declares a holy crusade against Clan Iredale. The forces marshaling to attack stagger the imagination. Only Edmund's complete surrender can prevent his people's annihilation.   While Edmund bravely prepares to fight a hideous war he cannot win, Vlod, his personal magus, embarks on a much lonelier and much more perilous course of action. Against his chieftain's express orders, Vlod secretly works to develop a weapon that will shift the balance of power in Edmund's favor—a weapon that threatens to wipe out the religion of the Goddess and the God.   Vlod's heresy might prove Clan Iredale's only hope for survival—but it might also endanger the clans of the Inland Empire and the Holy Oregon greater than any war.   The Heretic's Son, The Assassins of Harmony, Book 3, weaves a heroic tale, set in a dystopian future, in which physical survival and spiritual belief threaten to obliterate each other…and humanity.  

The Chosen of the Generations The Assassins of Harmony, Book 4   The Wheel of Time turns, and The Generations choose. There is no appeal. Only the choice…   Vernon, chieftain and ruler of Clan Innes-Martin fears not his death but his succession. He dismisses the cancer eating him alive and instead seeks guidance about his sons, his heirs.   One son, Gregory, secures his alliance with Clan Iredale and the promise of a son to inherit the rule of both clans. The other son, Bevan, offers no sign of successful rule. But the auguries portend disaster should Gregory succeed Vernon. So much blood, so many sacrifices, all to the same disastrous choice. As the Goddess and the God make their choice clear, Vernon must set plans into motion that could save his people…or lead to their ultimate destruction.   The Chosen of the Generations, The Assassins of Harmony, Book 4, weaves a heartbreaking tale, set in a dystopian future, in which the fates of men prove immutable to the turning of the Wheel of Time.

The wheel of time keeps turning. It stops for no one. It cannot be escaped. As the flames of the funeral pyre consume Clan Iredale's dead, Dagna, the chieftain's second daughter, chants a single name over and over, so the Gods will remember. It is a name of her own choosing: Zachary. The clan must honor its dead, but Edmund, the chieftain of Clan Iredale, must focus his thoughts on the days ahead. The Iredales must return to their ships. They have business with Seldon, the chieftain of Clan Sauvie, business that cannot wait. They must make haste. No matter the cost, the Iredales' grief will have its due. In Seldon's Hall, The Assassins of Harmony, Book 5, spins a dystopian tale, set several centuries in the future, in which ambition and defiance explode like barrels of hot pitch thrown into the cauterizing flames of a funeral pyre.

Vernon's eyes were the eyes of the dancer. She had journeyed with Vernon, chieftain of Clan Sauvie, up from the Land of the Five rivers. She had traveled in her rosewood case, but now she had put off its splendid luxury. She must bear witness to the realization of her visions. She watches as Edmund, her gracious lord Vernon's rival for power,stalks into the tent. Edmund's drawn sword drips with fresh blood. She has seen this before. She danced the whole of it. She died for it. Grief must have its due, the wheel must turn, and the mighty river must run red with blood. The Return of the Vision Dancer, The Assassins of Harmony, Book 6,presents a tale of assassination and revenge, of grief and the struggle for faith.