Kings of the Wyld

Kings of the Wyld is the first book in The Band Series, a projected fantasy trilogy by Nicholas Eames. Clay Cooper, now a husband and father but once a member of the legendary mercenary band Saga, is asked by the band’s former frontman, Gabriel, to rescue Gabe’s daughter from a horde of monsters besieging a faraway town. As the band reunites and sets out on an impossible quest, encountering unexpected obstacles and making new friends, Clay confronts the realities of aging, the allure of glory, and the ambiguous distinctions between monsters and men. The premise of comparing mercenary bands to rock stars allows Eames to blend humor and satire with a tone of high adventure and many allusions to popular music of the 1960s and 1970s. The second book, Bloody Rose, appeared in 2018 from Orbit Books, and the third book, Outlaw Empire, is anticipated.

This guide refers to the paperback edition of Kings of the Wyld published by Orbit in 2017.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of graphic violence, substance use, and death by suicide.

Plot Summary

In the village of Coverdale where he now lives, few people connect Clay Cooper with the legendary mercenary band called Saga. After a decade of fighting monsters and earning fame, Saga broke up, and in the last twenty years Clay has married, had a daughter named Tally, and taken a job as a Watchman on the village walls. When Saga’s old frontman and Clay’s friend, Gabriel, shows up and asks Clay’s help, he at first declines; his fighting days are over. But Gabe’s daughter, Rose, is under siege by a monstrous Horde in the town of Castia, and while the trek there involves crossing a thousand miles of the danger-ridden Heartwyld Forest, Clay agrees to help, realizing he’d want help rescuing his own daughter.

Their first move is to try to recover Gabriel’s sword, Vellichor, gifted to him by a druin named Vespian. Druins were once the rulers of a vast empire called the Dominion, but now there are few left in the realm. Vellichor is held by Saga’s old booker, Kallorek, who also stole Gabe’s wife, Valery. When Kallorek refuses to surrender the sword, Clay and Gabriel locate the band’s former wizard, Moog, who lives in his tower surrounded by creatures whom he is trying to cure of a disease called the rot. Moog agrees to help Clay and Gabriel try to rescue Rose, even though the task seems impossible.

When Kallorek and his men attack Moog’s tower, the three bandmates jump through a magic mirror and emerge in the bedchamber of Matrick Skulldrummer, a former member of the band who is now King of Agria. Matty introduces them to his cold wife, Lilith, and his five children. Matrick brings the others to the Council of Courts, at which representatives from the five kingdoms of Grandual have arranged to meet with the Duke of Endland, who is responsible for leading the Horde against the armies of the Republic—the army which was defeated and took refuge inside Castia’s walls. The Duke of Endland turns out to be Lastleaf, son of Vespian, who holds a grudge against Saga for killing his father and taking Vespian’s sword. Gabriel realizes he won’t be able to convince the other kings to make war on the Horde; Lastleaf is too powerful.

To help him escape Lilith, whom he believes is trying to kill him, the bandmates help Matrick fake his death. They then travel to the town of Fivecourt to locate Ganelon, the fifth member of their group and their fiercest fighter. Ganelon has been turned to stone and is currently being held prisoner by a gorgon who arranges for him to return to life if the newly reconstituted Saga will fight in the Maxithon, an enormous arena where spectators come to watch mercenaries battle monsters. Clay thinks fighting caged monsters is less honest than the way Saga used to operate, by hunting and killing monsters in the Wyld, but he agrees to the fight. The band is forced to fight a chimera, which they manage to kill. Members of a fellow band called Vanguard, who are flying a skyship, rescue them when their fight destroys the Maxithon.

Now fully reformed, the bandmates storm Kallorek’s palace, and Gabe takes Vellichor back. They fly Kallorek’s skyship across the Heartwyld toward Castia, but, in the middle of a storm, they are attacked by a bounty hunter named Larkspur, who is after Matrick. Larkspur, who can fly, pulls Matrick overboard, and the others land to look for him. They find Matrick and discover that Larkspur seems to have lost her memory of her bounty hunter days and refers to herself by her earlier name of Sabbatha. Together the group travels across the Heartwyld, meeting a healer named Taino who cures them of their various ailments. They also encounter a group of cannibals called the Ferals, and an ettin, a large humanoid creature with two heads. In an old ruin, they confront a lone druin named Shadow, who tries to steal Vellichor by creating shadow versions of each man, forcing the men to fight their shadow selves. Larkspur kills the druin, and the band resumes their trek.

As they are traveling the Cold Road over the mountains, Larkspur reveals that her memory has returned and that she intends to kidnap Matrick. When Clay defends his friend, Larkspur cuts off his hand, and he falls off the bridge. Clay is protected in his fall by his impenetrable armor and decides to try on his own to rescue Matrick. He’s aided by the return of Vanguard, who is traveling to the aid of those under siege in Castia. Vanguard’s medic regrows Clay’s hand, and once they locate the remaining members of the band, the quest is again underway.

Since the enormous Horde will be impossible to defeat by themselves, Moog devises a plan. Matrick steals a keystone from a dragon’s horde, gaining access to a threshold that allows people to travel great distances. Gabe and Clay travel to the War Fair, an event at which all the mercenary bands gather, and there they recruit an army for their cause, promising glory. They use the Threshold to transport the armies to Castia. The bandmates of Saga realize they are facing their final battle and share a moment reflecting what their bond has meant to each of them. Then they attack.

The battle is gruesome, and Gabe and Lastleaf fight for a time with their respective magical swords. While fighting a minotaur, Clay accidentally causes Lastleaf to fall into a lava pit. The Horde fights on, rallied by an enormous demon called an Infernal. When Rose and the last of the Republic’s army come out of Castia to join the fight, Clay uses his shield, Blackheart, to carve a path for Gabe through the melee. Gabe kills the Infernal, which causes the Horde to disperse, and Rose is rescued. Glad to have survived a battle about which many songs will be sung, Clay returns to Coverdale and is reunited with his family.