King of Thorns

King of Thorns is the second book in The Broken Empire trilogy, set in a post-apocalyptic world where the ruins of an advanced civilization, known as the Builders, lie scattered across a fragmented empire. A century-long conflict called the Hundred War rages among roughly a hundred kingdoms, each vying to place their ruler on the vacant empire throne. The narrative follows Jorg Ancrath, who took the throne of the Renar Highlands at 14 by seizing his stronghold, the Haunt, from Count Renar. Now 18, Jorg faces a massive invading army on the morning of his hastily arranged wedding.

The novel alternates between three threads: Jorg's present-day battle against the forces of the Prince of Arrow, ruler of a powerful rival kingdom; flashbacks to four years of wandering and scheming; and journal entries by Katherine Ap Scorron, the sister of Jorg's stepmother and the woman Jorg has obsessively desired for years.

The present-day thread opens with Jorg sitting before a thorn-patterned copper box that holds memories too terrible to keep. A ghost child urges him to open it, but he refuses. Outside, the Prince of Arrow's 20,000 soldiers fill three valleys. At dawn, Jorg insists on marrying Princess Miana of Wennith, a match arranged years earlier to secure cavalry from the Horse Coast. He discovers Miana is 12 years old. Father Gomst, the castle priest, performs a hasty ceremony. Miana immediately advises Jorg to attack before the enemy surrounds them, earning his respect.

The flashback thread begins three months into Jorg's reign, when Gog, an eight-year-old child infused with fire-magic, loses control of his power and nearly burns down the castle. Sir Makin of Trent, Jorg's closest companion, and Coddin, his chamberlain, urge him to kill the boy, but Jorg refuses. He owes debts to both Gog and Gorgoth, a massive leucrota (a creature mutated by Builder poisons) who helped him take the Haunt. Jorg resolves to take Gog to Heimrift, a volcanic region in the Danelands, to find a fire-mage. He assembles a small band of his Brothers, the outlaw companions who serve as his war-band.

On the road, they encounter Prince Orrin of Arrow, a charismatic warrior who declares he will become emperor through diplomacy and mercy. Jorg challenges him to a swordfight and is decisively beaten, realizing he needs a bigger army and better sword skills. At the cemetery of Perechaise near the Tall Castle, his father's seat in Ancrath, Jorg encounters Katherine. The memory of what happens next is sealed inside the copper box: An alchemist extracted unbearable memories from Jorg's mind and stored them in the container. Jorg wakes in the desert with no recollection, holding a box he cannot bring himself to open.

In the Danelands, Duke Alaric of Maladon receives them. Alaric's realm suffers under Ferrakind, a fire-mage who stirs the local volcanoes. On the dormant volcano Halradra, Jorg discovers trolls engineered for war; Gorgoth communicates with them telepathically. Jorg takes Gog and Gorgoth into the mountain to confront Ferrakind, a being more flame than man who demands to absorb Gog. Jorg's plan relies on ancient water tunnels beneath a frozen crater lake. Gog catches Ferrakind's fire and redirects it upward, melting a channel through the ice. Meltwater sweeps Ferrakind away, but the effort destroys Gog. His body shatters into burning fragments, and shards lodge in Jorg's face, scarring the left side and embedding fire-magic in his bones. Gorgoth chooses to remain with the trolls.

Heading south, the Brothers enter the swamps of Cantanlona, where the necromancer Chella rises from the mire with the reanimated corpses of Jorg's fallen Brothers. She serves a rising power called the Dead King. Cornered, Jorg reverses Chella's magic by summoning the burning ghosts of thousands who died when he destroyed the city of Gelleth with a Builder weapon. The spectral fire incinerates Chella's forces.

Jorg sends his Brothers home and sails alone to Castle Morrow on the Horse Coast, where his mother's family lives. Posing as a guard, he discovers a hidden Builder machine beneath the castle. A data echo of Fexler Brews, a holographic ghost projected from thousand-year-old recordings, explains that the Builders weakened the barriers between thought and matter, creating the conditions for the magic now seeping into the world. Jorg takes two artifacts: a view-ring that shows the world from above, and a handgun called a Colt 45.

After saving his grandfather's family from a poisoning plot, Jorg reveals his identity. Earl Hansa, his maternal grandfather, offers a military alliance sealed by marriage to Miana, the daughter of Kalam Dean, Lord of Wennith. Miana's dowry is a ruby containing stored fire-magic. Fexler discovers that necromancy and fire-magic are tearing Jorg apart and binds both forces through the copper box, warning him never to open it.

Katherine's journal entries trace a parallel arc. After Jorg strikes her with a vase, she is found unconscious by Friar Glen, a cleric at the Tall Castle, who rapes her while she lies senseless. The dream-witch Sageous, who manipulates events on behalf of hidden powers, alters Katherine's memories through implanted dreams, making her believe Jorg was her assailant. Sageous further implants a phantom pregnancy, driving Katherine to take an abortifacient that destroys her womb. Katherine marries Prince Orrin and teaches herself dream-magic from forgotten texts, becoming a formidable practitioner.

On the wedding day, Jorg triggers rockslides that bury thousands of Arrow's troops. Coddin takes a fatal arrow wound during the retreat. The copper box begins leaking memories: Jorg recalls infiltrating the Tall Castle, stabbing Friar Glen, and visiting the nursery where his infant half-brother Degran slept. Though he chose not to kill the baby, the necromancy in his fingers killed the child involuntarily. Sageous appeared and revealed he had orchestrated events stretching back to the ambush that killed Jorg's mother and younger brother. The ghost of Degran smiles at Jorg and fades. The truth shatters him.

Miana slaps Jorg back to awareness as the enemy breaches the gates. When Lord Jost of House Morrow, the commander of the cavalry contingent that arrived with Miana, refuses to commit his knights until the marriage is consummated, Jorg fakes the act and displays a bloodied sheet. Miana hurls her dowry ruby at the outer wall; the gem shatters, releasing its fire-magic in a catastrophic explosion that destroys the Haunt's front walls and kills thousands on both sides, including Lord Jost. Jorg's Uncle Robert arrives with the Horse Coast cavalry through the Runyard, while Gorgoth's trolls attack from tunnels beneath the ridge.

Jorg challenges the Prince of Arrow to single combat and reveals that the man before him is not Orrin but Prince Egan, Orrin's brother, who murdered Orrin to seize power. Jorg draws the hidden Colt 45 and shoots Egan, then forces the wounded prince to adopt him before Father Gomst, making Jorg legally the Prince of Arrow. Katherine, riding with Arrow's army, uses dream-magic to anchor Sageous in physical reality. Jorg destroys the dream-witch with fire-magic from the fragments of Gog in his bones. The fire-magic and necromancy within Jorg erupt outward, killing thousands before both forces burn each other out entirely.

Jorg rides from the ruins as the adopted Prince of Arrow, flanked by Makin and Uncle Robert, heading south to claim Arrow's lands. He names his sword Gog for the faint fire-echo on its blade. He has collected Katherine's scattered journal pages from the battlefield, her fate uncertain. Acknowledging that the Dead King is rising, Jorg claims the coming darkness as his own and vows to continue his march toward the empire throne.