A March of Kings

Rice, Morgan. A March of Kings. Book 2 of the Sorcerer’s Ring series. 2013. 232 p. ISBN 9781939416018. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Thrown in the dungeon for his clumsy attempt at saving King MacGil in A Quest of Heroes, Thor is facing death. However, Thor’s vision comes true, and the King is in fact assassinated. Unaware of this, Thor manages to escape the dungeon, but once back with Reece, he finds out that his vision realized despite his best efforts. The two of them head to the King’s room, and the King, sliding down towards death, apologizes for Thor, confessing that he was wrong and that Thor had in fact had the King’s interest at heart. Sending everyone out, he tells Thor that he is destined to greater things.

Gareth, meanwhile, becomes King following his father and the successful assassination attempt he had orchestrated through his sycophant lover. Now sitting on the throne, he plans on eliminating his siblings, starting with the former King’s eldest bastard son. This edges the kingdom towards civil war.

On the western border, the MacCloud muster their forces, ready to pounce on the other half of the Ring. With a possible alliance with the Empire, King MacCloud feels strong enough to attack MacGil while the succession is in disarray.

Finally, Thor manages to patch things up with Gwendolyn, but now the Legion is shipping out to the Isle of Mist for their Hundred Days of training, a dangerous time where only the brave and true survive. With the Kingdom in turmoil, civil war looming and his love left behind, and a vision from Gwendolyn that Thor will not come back, will the Kingdom’s savior even make it to the island?

The story continues in A Feast of Dragons.