The Red Knight

David Gemmell Morningstar Award nominee 2013.

Forget George and the Dragon.

Forget fancy knights and daring deeds.

This is for real.

This is bloody dirty work.

Twenty-eight florins a month is a huge price to pay, for a man to stand between you and the Wild.

Twenty-eight florins a month is nowhere near enough when a wyvern’s jaws snap shut on your helmet in the hot stink of battle, and the beast starts to rip your head from your shoulders. But if standing and fighting is hard, leading a company of men against the smart, deadly creatures of the Wild is even harder.

It requires all the advantages of birth, training, and the luck of the devil, to do it.

The Red Knight has all three, he has youth on his side, and he’s determined to turn a profit. So when he hires his company of mercenaries out to protect an Abbess and her nunnery it’s just another job. The abbey is rich, the nuns are pretty and the monster preying on them is nothing he can’t deal with.

Only it’s not just a job. It’s going to be a war...