The Pyromancer’s Scroll - A clean serialized epic fantasy novel

This is the final chapter I’ll be releasing for free on my website and serialized podcast. Thank you for joining me on this journey! It has been a joy to share this book piece by piece over the last 9 months. If you have been intrigued by the story and want to read the last 28 chapters, the whole book is available in ebook, audiobook, paperback, and hardcover options on Amazon , my website , and v...

Twigly and her crew struck halfway through the second watch. Their cloudship dropped through the night sky, their fire pan covered to let the air in their balloon cool and shrink. Twigly leaned over the side, gauging the distance between them and the palace lights below. Two hundred yards. One hundred and seventy. One hundred and fifty. “Steady!” she barked. Line uncovered the fire pan, letting he...

[Where we last left off, the pyromancer Durrin Rendhart confronted his conniving employer, Salidar Aram, and rejected Salidar’s cause and the kidnapping he had hired Durrin to perform. Durrin then strode into the woods, intent to ride to the capital city of Saven and raise the alarm about Salidar’s pending attack.] Later that day. A bell tinkled as the door to the Dozy Donkey swung open. The red-h...

Author’s note: The audiobook is nearing completion! Just a few more chapters to go. My wife is looking forward to getting our microphone and sound-proofing mattresses out of our recording studio closet :) Back to our regular programming . . . “A pox upon this rain,” Twigly muttered. She struck her flint and steel together again, but the sparks failed to ignite the wet grass she was using for kindl...

Author’s note: Thank you to the many readers who have sent me typos! I’ll be correcting all of these in the next printing in about a week, so send me any more that you find! So far, I believe the record is held by Austin M. from Atlanta, Georgia, who found 12 typos. Where we last left off in chapter 23 . . . In the entrance to the vault stood a figure, bathed in light, hands stretched high. The fi...

Author’s Note #1: Today, the podcast Featured Fantasy Reads released Part 2 (of 2) of my short story, “ The Aquamancer’s Secret ”! Listen to it narrated by Karyne Norton on FindingFantasyReads.com , on Apple Podcasts , on Spotify , on Pandora , or on YouTube . Author’s Note #2: My friend and fellow author of clean, epic, wholesome fantasy, C. Ryan Crockett, just launched a Kickstarter for his firs...

Flames. Flames in the palace. They haunted the hearth of Adara’s bedchamber, crackling, spitting, hissing, a mosaic of reds and golds. She contemplated them. They were angry but subdued. Adara ascended a stairwell. Daylight flooded her. She stood at the pinnacle of the palace, as if at the top of the world. She turned in a circle, taking in the city she had grown to love. The shops. The houses. Th...

Summer was surrendering to autumn. Trees were turning to fire. Wheat and corn lay heavy on the stalk. Flocks of birds passed daily over Volthorn’s army as they flew southwest, fleeing colder climes to the north and east. Although Queen Adara had failed to negotiate an official armistice, Volthorn had secured a temporary settlement with Calamar’s front-line commander, General Grimbold. Volthorn all...

We last left off with Commander Volthorn excitedly exclaiming on the battlefield, “We’ve won! We’ve won! We’ve won!!” * * * * * Sir Firewing disagreed. “You have not, quote, ‘won,’ Your Majesty,” he quipped. The Calamarvan ambassador was back in Adara’s throne room the next afternoon. News of Volthorn’s momentous victory had arrived by griffin messenger that morning, sweeping like wildfire through...

The gap in the shield wall was about thirty feet wide. Several ranks of soldiers had been killed, knocked down, or thrown clear. Jagged spars of stone protruded from the ground, radiating out from the blast’s origin. And in the epicenter, wreathed in residual smoke, towered a warrior in full bronzium plate armor: a master terramancer. And behind him, a fresh company of heavy infantry, ready to cha...

There was a benefit to the last three weeks of constant maneuvering: it had honed Volthorn’s army into a well-oiled machine. Even in the dense blanket of fog, each battalion formed up with near flawless procedure. Soon, under Volthorn’s orders, all three divisions were marching west, away from the river. They left their camp behind. Tents and cooking pots could be replaced. Lives could not. Before...

PART 2: THE FLAME OF TRUTH “Let’s practice it one more time,” Lady Luviana suggested. “Which part?” said Adara. “The initial proposition.” The two of them were waiting in the throne room, moments away from a crucial negotiation. Adara’s epistles to Emperor Stoneclaw had received no answer, so they had instead written to Calamar’s commanding officer at the front. Their letter had been answered, and...

Lord Salidar was flanked by two underlings. One was Yorid, his ever-frowning steward, now carrying a recurve bow over his shoulder and a quiver of arrows at his waist. The other, whom Durrin didn’t recognize, was a korrik with an impressive array of knives and brass knuckles tucked into his belt and vest. He was probably one of Salidar’s bodyguards. “This is a surprise,” Durrin said, his mind stil...

Saven may have changed. Halorn may have changed. The whole world may have changed in the last seven years. But Durrin, at least, finally felt like his old self again. Upon returning from Caradell, he spent another day shopping in Imperium’s finest markets. After spending a good portion of the silver Lord Salidar had given him, Durrin was as fully equipped as he’d been in his best days in the past....

Pirates! Cutlass-wielding, swash-buckling, trouble-making terrors, they roamed the trade routes, preying on lone vessels or the stragglers in caravans. Merchants feared them, militaries fought them, and rulers despised them. Lord Salidar Aram prided himself on belonging firmly in that third category. He had dealt with many pirates in his day. Before his political career, he had served as an admira...

Before Durrin and Halorn left the circle of farm buildings, Halorn ducked inside a barn and emerged with two strange-looking implements: wooden poles, about as long as quarterstaves, with rectangular pieces of metal mounted on one end. “What are these?” Durrin said, taking one and examining it. “Some sort of weapon?” Halorn raised an eyebrow. “You mean you’ve never seen a hoe before?” “Hoe?” “It’s...

Two days later, Durrin rode through the streets of Caradell—or more specifically, the street of Caradell. There was a smithy, a mill, a cooper, and a carpentry shop. That was it. There wasn’t even a tavern. Everything else in the area was farms. Durrin made some inquiries for Halorn. At first, the villagers only looked at him, a hooded city-dweller, with suspicion. He had expected as much, but it...

Eleven hundred miles away in Imperium, Durrin couldn’t sleep. It was the day after his meeting with Salidar. He had spent the morning shopping for supplies and gear, before a wave of exhaustion hit him in the afternoon—the cumulative weariness of three weeks of travel. Intent on catching up on much-needed sleep, Durrin bunked down early. But though his whole body felt exhausted, sleep eluded him....

Adara had often imagined what ruling a kingdom would be like. Before her father died, she had seen mainly the ceremonial aspects: Parades. Feasts. Cheering crowds. After his death, Adara had spent most of her time at a royal sanctuary tucked away in the hills, far from the capital. The mountain clime and the idealism of her tutors had given her a somewhat romanticized vision of ruling: Signing dec...

Red banners greeted Durrin on the other side of Wyvern Way. He had forgotten just how much he missed seeing that color. Red—the color of strength and courage. The color of Calamar. The color of home. At the foothills of the mountain pass, he came to a Calamarvan outpost, its red banners snapping proudly above a wooden stockade. The soldiers were initially suspicious, and rightfully so: Who was thi...

Two days later. Volthorn had lied to Queen Adara. He hadn’t meant to. At the time, sitting inside Saven’s mighty walls and riding the euphoria of the coronation, Volthorn had felt aglow with confidence. It was with that confidence that he had assured the queen and her counselors that he and his army could pull off the impossible. But now, back at the front after a long week of riding, he saw thing...

A shadow fell over Durrin’s horse. Durrin leapt from the saddle, landing in a crouch on the ground, scanning the skies. Nothing. Just a small cloud, skirting its way across the rising Sun. His horse looked at him and snorted, then continued plodding up the mountain trail. Durrin scanned the skies again, then caught up to his mount. “Don’t be amused,” he said, grabbing the reins. “You won’t be laug...

Alone at last, Durrin thought. He stood in a glade, surrounded by oaks and maples. The nearest road lay a half mile away, much too far for any sight or sound from this spot to reach there. Even the eyes of griffins would fail to pierce the canopy above him. He let out a deep sigh. He felt truly alone for the first time since before his imprisonment. His horse roamed at the edge of the glade, looki...

Volthorn’s eyes were getting tired. His gaze shifted from face to face in the crowd, zeroing in on every human male. He ruled out one after another. Not him. Not him. Not Rendhart. Once, he thought he saw something—a distant face, half visible behind the throngs—but in a moment it passed, leaving Volthorn searching in vain. Had it been just an invention of his nerves? After the longest half hour o...

Princess Adara Everborn, Queen Elect of Elandria, began her coronation with an hour of silence. She spent the hour alone, sitting cross-legged in a chamber deep within the palace. The room, a perfect circle of stone, held no windows to let in the hubbub from the outside world. The only light came from a flickering candle. Breathe . She let the thought fill her mind, mirroring the air in her lungs....