Chains of the Heretic

Men are more easily broken than myths.

Emperor Cynead has usurped command of the MemoridonsTower-controlled memory witchesand consolidated his reign over the Syldoonian Empire. After escaping the capital city of Sunwrack, Captain Braylar Killcoin and his Jackal company evade pursuit across Urglovia, tasked with reaching deposed emperor Thumarr and helping him recapture the throne. Braylar’s sister, Soffjian, rejoins the Jackals and reveals that Commander Darzaak promised her freedom if she agreed to aid them in breaking Cynead’s grip on the other Memoridons and ousting him.

Imperial forces attempt to intercept Braylar’s company before they can reach Thumarr. The Jackals fight through Cynead’s battalions but find themselves trapped along the Godveil. Outmaneuvered and outnumbered, Braylar gambles on some obscure passages that Arki has translated and uses his cursed flail, Bloodsounder, to part the Godveil, leading the Jackals to the other side. There, they encounter the ruins of human civilization, but they also learn that the Deserters who abandoned humanity a millennium ago and created the Veil in their wake are still very much alive. But are they gods? Demons? Monsters?

What Braylar, Soffjian, Arki, and the Jackals discover beyond the Godveil will shake an empire, reshape a map, and irrevocably alter the course of history.

Jeff Salyards grew up in a small town north of Chicago, where he honed his writing skills, leaning toward stories that were loud, chaotic, and full of irrepressible characters. While his tastes have grown a bit darker and more mature over the years, he’s never lost his fascination for the fantastic. By day he’s a book editor for the American Bar Association, but he writes his own novels by night. Salyards resides in Chicago with his wife and three daughters, andChains of the Heretic is his third book.