It’s odd how the creative process works. When I wrote Warprize, I knew the tale would take three books to tell. When the trilogy was finished, I thought the story was told. I turned to new characters and new stories, set in the same world, of course, because it’s a good world with lots of room for adventures.

But, as with any journey, you don’t quite see what lies beyond the horizon until you travel for some time. And, if I can take this analogy a bit further, you somehow wind up back where you started, with familiar friends and places, seeing them with new eyes.

So imagine my surprise when Heath of Xy started to talk to me.

In the Kingdom of Xy, the tradition is that the heir to the throne must be born in the Castle of Water’s Fall, witnessed by the nobles and the clergy. Xylara, Warprize and Queen of Xy, has left the Plains with her Warlord to return to Xy for the birth of their child.

Heath of Xy travels with them, representing Xy’s interests on the Plains. But in truth, he has lost his heart to Atira of the Bear, warrior of the Plains.

Atira owes a debt to the Warprize. She wants nothing to do with Heath and his Xyian ways. Sharing of bodies is one thing. Sharing her heart? That is not to be thought of.

But all is not well in Water’s Fall. Growing tensions between the Xyians and those of the Plains simmer below the surface, threatening any who would blend the worlds together.

Guess I better get busy, eh? It seems I have more stories to tell.