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Xlibris US - Paul Joseph Santoro Emerick

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226 pages

English

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A dark plot unfolds in the western lands of the Kingdom of Swordbane with the formation of an unholy alliance, deliberate spread of a deadly affliction, and a newly conspired war looming on the horizon after the Kingdom of Swordbane has just emerged victorious from a bitter twenty-year-long war with its eastern rival neighbor. Masterminding this dark plot built on social malaise from corruption and an espoused propaganda of revisionism, a former vassal of the kingdom emerges who seeks to claim the status of the ultimate dark lord and chosen vessel. In seeking to receive special divine powers, this aspiring dark lord will pave a bloody path of death and destruction in order to ultimately create a new prosperous social and political order inspired from the ashes of the once-great Lupercalian Empire. Only a group of unlikely but personally connected heroes seek to stand in the way and fight back to preserve what is left of the kingdom. Throughout their trials and hardships, both the heroes and this ambitious dark lord will reflect upon their past life events while seeking to move forward with the challenges they face ahead in the ultimate war of perceived good versus evil. Whoever wins in this struggle, one thing is certain among all of them: life will never be the same.

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Paul Emerick

Fiction

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Publié par	Xlibris US
Date de parution	17 août 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781669843191
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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SWORDBANE

Paul Joseph Santoro Emerick

Copyright © 2022 by Paul Joseph Santoro Emerick.
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022915294
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6698-4318-4

Softcover
978-1-6698-4320-7

eBook
978-1-6698-4319-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 08/16/2022

Xlibris
844-714-8691
www.Xlibris.com
844931
CONTENTS
Chapter 1 A Duel Among Legends
Chapter 2 A Near War’s End Dilemma
Chapter 3 Painful Memories on King’s Road
Chapter 4 Reconciliation from Past and Present
Chapter 5 Till Death Do Upon Rescue
Chapter 6 Unfinished Revenge
Chapter 7 A Father’s Love for His Daughter
Chapter 8 The Oath to Make War and Death One
Chapter 9 Vanity with Knighthood
Chapter 10 To Bring a New Era
Chapter 11 The Plot Unleashed
Chapter 12 Reminiscing and Intimacy
Chapter 13 A New War Unleashed
Chapter 14 Unforgiven Memories
Chapter 15 Love in Dark Places
Chapter 16 Finding Hope While in Despair
Chapter 17 Good and Bad Intentions to Pave the Road
Chapter 18 A Father’s Honor and Dignity
Chapter 19 The Road to Forgiveness
Chapter 20 Winning Hearts and Minds
Chapter 21 Tragic Timing of Triumphs and Plagues
Chapter 22 Sowing the Seeds of War and Death
Chapter 23 Sowing and Reaping War and Death
Chapter 24 The Dark Lord’s Arrival
Chapter 25 Raising Hell on Dire-Wolfback
Chapter 26 Honor Among Raiders and Looters
Chapter 27 Continuing to Pave the Road of Hell
Chapter 28 Discord, Division, and the Pursuit of Unity
Chapter 29 Tournament and Coming Full Circle
Chapter 30 To Finally Attain Divine Appeasement
Chapter 31 Chosen Vessel of War and Death
Chapter 32 Following the Tracks of Darkness
Chapter 33 Hoisted by His Own Lust for Loot
Chapter 34 Into the Wilderness of War
Chapter 35 Fortune Favors the Persistent
Chapter 36 A Love the Famous Will Never Receive
Chapter 37 Bride of the Dark Lord
Chapter 38 Birth of a New Omen
Chapter 39 New Revelation/Mark of the Dark Lord
Chapter 40 The Promised Reckoning
Chapter 41 Bracing the Reckoning
Chapter 42 Dark Passage to Hope
Chapter 43 To Lose a City or Not Fight Another Day
Chapter 44 Dark Victory
Chapter 45 Finding Ascendancy and Divine Blessings
Chapter 46 Divine Abode
Chapter 47 The Trial of Freedom and Nonattachment
Chapter 48 The Trial of Pursuit and Passion
Chapter 49 The Trial for Justice and Sacrifice
Chapter 50 Returning Home
Chapter 51 Breaking the Covenant
Chapter 52 Battle of the Chosen Vessels
Chapter 53 Dark Lord’s Second Coming
Chapter 54 A Widow’s Revenge
Chapter 55 To Mourn a Broken Victory
Chapter 56 Farewell to War and New Welcome to Peace
Chapter 57 Forging New Beginnings

Closing Epigraphs
CHAPTER ONE
A Duel Among Legends
Throngs of chants and loud shouts drown out any simple ambient noise that could be heard at the seaport capital city amphitheater of Citadella Neapola. The amphitheater was as impressive and massive as the cosmopolitan city itself, not to mention nearly as old, over 1,500 years. Both the city and amphitheater were heavily built using innovative ingenuity and concrete dating prior to the establishment of the United Kingdom of Swordbane, and during the epic age of the once great and fabled Lupercalian Empire. It was during that time the founders of that city, the werewolf species or race (also known as Lupercalians), used the amphitheater as both an entertainment spectacle and a means to dispense justice for violent offenders.
Though their empire mysteriously had withered and eventually disappeared along with the ruling Lupercalian species itself during the waves of barbarian invasions from the Nordlands north of their empire, much of their edifices including those of Citadella Neapola remained in use, and many of their former subjects also still remained in the very unchanged cosmopolitan environment while adding additional buildings in the city, reflecting their diverse backgrounds, including humans from both the Nordland immigrant descendants and the local indigenous humans, Citadellans (who still adopted their Lupercalian predecessors’ architecture), dwarves, elves, and the occasional other small folk consisting of gnomes and halflings.
Despite the fall of the Lupercalian Empire, the city and much of the former empire’s domain was a testament unto itself of withstanding the test of time after the Lupercalians’ presence had faded from their former controlled lands while bringing various peoples together, led by an enthusiastic and inspiring Nordling king of the constitutional-monarchy successor state, which became known as the United Kingdom of Swordbane.
It was a kingdom that not only brought together the different aforementioned races into the original Lupercalian and human Citadellan built cities but also possessed over a thousand square miles with hundreds of settlements bearing separate distinction of human Nordland, elvish, dwarven, and other small-folk architecture in various terrains including temperate coasts and valleys, grass plains, heavy forests, snow-covered mountain ranges, and hot deserts including those bordering the Eastern Marjawan Kingdom.
Despite the golden age of the Lupercalian Empire passing, many of the kingdom’s inhabitants considered the time they lived in, while not perfect, as still acceptable, with moderate satisfaction.
If there was ever a sign to exemplify that mood of content or even surpass it, it was to be found in the United Kingdom’s capital arena or amphitheater. Thousands of spectators stood from their seats, excited and cheering on what would become the epic ensuing fight and one that could be considered the most legendary of spectacles in the both city and kingdom’s history. Within the center of the arena stood at four ends, four combatants ready to duel. An elf from the woodlands, of moderate height though slender in stature, had raven-black hair short with the exception of the upper portion, which was tied back in the form of a topknot. This elf had sharp brown eyes and was wearing a combination of brown leather armor cuirass that came in the form of the elven linothorax design. He also had gloves along with decorative elven-mail boots and pauldrons. He was armed with an exotic elven composite bow in hand and a quiver full of exotic silver-tipped arrows. He also carried a scabbard hanging and slung to his back, carrying an exotic elven-made long sword that had a slight curve and it could be wielded with either one or two hands. Additionally, he also had a useful utility belt with a side holster holding a grapple throwing hook with detachable magnetic prongs, and an additional side-waist holster that was empty but able to hold additional objects. This wood elf named Linitus was a ranger who had just been distinguished three months prior for saving the very same person he would be fighting.
Opposite to the elven ranger was a knight clad in combination of segments of half-plate mail in vital areas including the cuirass, faulds, pauldrons, vambraces, and greaves, all overlapping an underlayer of hauberk chain mail. Her armor stood out with a transition violet-azure dye tint and bore an emblem on the center of the breastplate with a silver sigil of a dragon, the same sigil that matched her small round shield also made of plate mail tinted with a violet dye. This knight and her armor were both unique symbols of royalty. She was Princess Marin, also known informally as the Princess Knight for being the only female knight in the kingdom of Swordbane, not to mention being one of royalty. She was of near-equal stature as the elven ranger though slightly taller and noticeably more muscular though also of somewhat slender build. She had golden-brown hair that some might consider bronze hair, light warm white skin, blue eyes with a gaze of determination and sheer conviction of the chivalric sort.
Her posture, though different from her dueling adversary Linitus’s, still showed a readiness of anticipation and versatility to let the opponent decide to strike first or for her to unleash a quick and powerful lash with a long sword that she wielded in her right hand opposite to her left hand bearing her dragon-sigil shield. Her long sword was unique in that it possessed an unnatural ability to ignite with a light burning glow of flame surrounding the blade. This blade, though no