The Bard of Seven Oaks: Book 1
By H. L. Fowler
The people need a champion of the light. They get a bard.
Chouncey of Seven Oaks is many things—a bard, an alcoholic, an unapologetically queer man, and a liar—but to the feared Warchief of the Byrian Isles, Irminric the Black, he’s an escaped slave.
When a long-suffering cleric pulls Chouncey and his magical mandolin from a ditch, saying her sun god sent her, he can only assume she's come to collect him. After all, he's Irminric's most prized possession, the gem of his hoard, the sc...
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The people need a champion of the light. They get a bard.
Chouncey of Seven Oaks is many things—a bard, an alcoholic, an unapologetically queer man, and a liar—but to the feared Warchief of the Byrian Isles, Irminric the Black, he’s an escaped slave.
When a long-suffering cleric pulls Chouncey and his magical mandolin from a ditch, saying her sun god sent her, he can only assume she's come to collect him. After all, he's Irminric's most prized possession, the gem of his hoard, the scop who was supposed to sing his story. It's only a matter of time before Chouncey faces a horrific and public death as punishment for escaping. He might as well keep his flask filled until Irminric catches him.
But that doesn't help the slaves still trapped under Irminric's claw on the Byrian Isles. With the cleric's stubborn persistence and the admiration of an unlikely bounty-hunter-turned-friend, Chouncey realizes freedom just involves killing a few slavers—and he's good at that. Except that the humor is real, and so are the churning, black waters beneath it.
And as for this god who’s suddenly interested in his quest for vengeance? He owes Chouncey an apology. And he offers something irresistible to the bard who refuses to be saved quietly: maybe spreading the light and breaking chains could make Chouncey not another forgotten bard, but a legend.
For fans of Kings of the Wyld, Orconomics, and TTRPG-inspired fantasy: meet the Bard of Seven Oaks and hear how he became unforgettable.
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