PRE-ORDER Sword: Shadow’s Lament Book Two · Ryan Aussie Smith

Coming soon to Authortunities Press!

Thorn escaped death. Now the dead won’t leave him alone.

Reborn by the god Nemosyne and armed with the memories of fallen warriors, Thorn leaves the dying Infinity Forest behind with one goal: find Milia and rescue the Viridio taken from him.

But the world beyond the trees is already burning.

The village of Grasston has been slaughtered. The monks who might have answered Thorn’s questions are dead. Slavers, soldiers, spies, and assassins are moving pieces across a board Thorn does not yet understand and somehow, they already know to fear him.

When Thorn touches the final memories of a dying mill worker, he is overwhelmed by another man’s grief and rage. The result is bloody, brutal, and impossible to ignore. Now traveling under the name Hawthorn Hughes, Thorn must navigate a world of military secrets, political lies, bounty hunters, prison cells, and enemies who seem to know more about his past than he does.

His inherited memories make him dangerous.

His temper makes him reckless.

And his need to save Milia may make him easy to control.

As Thorn is pulled deeper into the conflict between New Avion and Pang Shoo, one thing becomes clear: he is not simply hunting the men who took his people. He is being hunted, too.

Dark, violent, strange, and sharply funny, Sword continues the Shadow’s Lament series with brutal action, dangerous magic, dead men’s memories, unlikely allies, and a hero learning that survival may require more than a blade.

You’ll love Sword if you enjoy:

• Dark fantasy with blood-soaked action, strange magic, and morally complicated stakes
• Heroes who are powerful, sarcastic, damaged, and still figuring out what they are
• Memory magic, reincarnation, divine manipulation, and dead warriors living on inside the protagonist
• Rescue quests that spiral into political intrigue, military secrets, and hidden bloodlines
• Brutal fight scenes balanced with sharp humor and oddball companions
• Fantasy worlds with slavers, assassins, prison escapes, suspicious generals, and dangerous cities
• Character-driven adventure where loyalty, rage, grief, and identity all collide
• A continuing series where each book expands the world, the mystery, and the danger