Bloody Rose

Tam Hashford is tired of working at her local tavern, slinging drinks for world-weary mercenaries and listening to the bards sing of adventures she'll never have. So when the biggest mercenary band of them all — led by the infamous Bloody Rose — rolls into town, Tam jumps at the chance to sign on as their bard.

It's adventure she wants, and adventure she gets as the crew embark on a wild tour across the frozen north. There will be terrible monsters to slay, mountains of gold to plunder, and no shortage of glory to win. But the fame and fortune of a mercenary band comes at a deadly price, and as the shadow of an ancient enemy looms over them, Tam begins to wonder if her dreams of glory will lead them all to ruin.

The second novel in Nicholas Eames's The Band series, Bloody Rose is a rollicking, rock-and-roll-inflected epic fantasy about aging heroes, second acts, and the family you choose. Set a generation after Kings of the Wyld, it trades the old guard for a new generation of mercenaries chasing the same doomed, glorious dream.