Before

IT’S A BEAUTIFUL morning to be a human sacrifice, the girl thought bleakly, trying to get the shackle off her leg.
It was the right thought to be having. It was the obedient thought.
'The gods were not miserly when they gave us this island.'
That was what Brother Caid had said. Kneeling at her feet. Fastening the manacle tight enough to bruise.
'We owe them.'
Worm lips moving in his worm head.
'You owe them.'
A familiar catechism. She and Da had uttered much the same every evening as they dotted honey on their little shrine to Queen Anu. That was what obedience had meant, before Brother Caid had dragged her from her bed. The kiss of honey. A prayer with Da before going to sleep.
And in fairness, this place would put obedience on you, if you hadn’t it already. The mountain of Crom Dubh would have been spectacular even if it wasn’t sacred – a hoary old grandfather of a peak, all black granite and stubborn scabs of snow, soaring up from the heathery plain of Umhaill like a thorn from the stem of a rose.

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Publishing 15 January 2026

A proud culture oppressed for centuries. An island over-run by bestial gods. Croí is finally about to fight back.

For three hundred years the wild island of Croi? has been subject to the Empire of the Answering. Clans have been subjugated, their language outlawed, their religion reduced to the whisper of fugitive priests.

Until Croi?'s prayers are answered. The Gods return. Feral and majestic, they stride the land as colossi, throwing the Empire into chaos.

The dispossessed and the vengeful struggle for power. A ruthless priestess rallies the faithful, offering a simple choice - believe, or die - even as the empire's Queen makes the first moves in a long and dangerous game.

But for all their machinations, one woman will decide the fate of them all . . . Sister Wake, unwilling saint of the Goddess of Death.

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