Paladin's Hope

The third installment in the Saint of Steel series is set in the city-state of Archenhold, a world where multiple gods grant powers to their chosen servants and where remnants of a vanished ancient civilization, including indestructible ivory-like constructs called wonder engines, still shape daily life. Five years before the story begins, the god known as the Saint of Steel died without explanation, leaving his paladins, holy warriors whose berserker battle-rages had been leashed by the god's will, broken and adrift. Some went mad and slaughtered those around them. The survivors were taken in by the Temple of the White Rat, a god devoted to justice and law, where they serve under the guidance of Bishop Beartongue, the temple's sharp-minded leader.

Doctor Piper is a lich-doctor, a forensic physician who determines causes of death for the courts. He works alone in an underground morgue and guards a secret: he is a minor wonderworker who, upon touching a corpse with bare skin, experiences the person's final seconds of sensation. The ability makes him extraordinarily good at his job but deepens his emotional exhaustion, which years ago drove him away from treating living patients. When called to the banks of the Elkinslough River to examine a corpse with an enormous hole punched through its chest, Piper meets Galen, a red-haired paladin formerly of the Saint of Steel who now serves the White Rat. Also present are Captain Mallory of the city guard and Constable Earstripe, one of the gnoles, a short, stripe-faced badger people who share the city with humans. Earstripe notes that the corpse's leather-soled indoor boots match those of two earlier decapitated bodies that washed up from upstream and suspects the deaths are linked, but Mallory dismisses his theory. Piper is drawn to Galen immediately.

Two days later, a fourth body surfaces. Piper secretly uses his ability and sees a flash of the victim's last moments: a pale corridor lit by candlelight, etched lines on the walls, then a sudden lethal blow. The vision suggests the killings are happening indoors, likely in one of the wealthy but largely unoccupied chateaus upstream. Earstripe, dismissed from the guard for pursuing the investigation against Mallory's wishes, asks Piper and Galen to travel upriver with him. Piper agrees, motivated by the puzzle, by Earstripe's determination, and by his growing feelings for Galen.

The party, joined by Brindle, an older gnole wagon-driver from Earstripe's extended family, travels upstream by ox cart. They investigate a fishing village without success, then visit decaying chateaus along the river. At a dilapidated estate, an owlish man named Thomas greets them warmly, mistaking them for a clerk he has advertised to hire. His housekeeper, Missus Hardy, mouths a silent warning to leave, but Thomas leads the group into the cellar before anyone can act: He has discovered an underground complex built by the ancients, with corridors and doors made of the same indestructible ivory material as the wonder engines.

Thomas demonstrates several trap rooms, each triggered on a timer after entry. In one, an enormous blade falls from the ceiling. In another, angled blades force occupants into corners. Pressed against Galen in the second room, Piper recognizes the setting from his vision and whispers that this is where the river victims died. Before they can escape, Thomas traps them in a sealed room and reveals his purpose: He has been luring clerks to the estate with job advertisements and sending them into the maze to map the traps. He claims an exit lies at the far end and leaves them locked inside with supplies.

Piper reveals his secret ability to his companions. Earstripe proposes that if they find bodies ahead, Piper's touch could reveal where the traps strike and where it is safe to stand. They push forward through harrowing rooms: a pit trap with razor-edged collapsing tiles, horizontal blades at neck height concealing a second set, and corridors strewn with dead clerks. Galen enters each room first, risking his life to find the safe path. During a rest, Galen has a screaming nightmare, and Piper, ignoring Earstripe's warning, reaches out to comfort him. Galen hurls Piper across the room, draws his sword, and enters a berserker state. They flee into the next room, where the floor tilts toward a razor-edged pit. Still in the grip of the rage, Galen instinctively grabs Piper while Earstripe bites onto the paladin's boot. Galen holds all three of them suspended for six agonizing minutes until the floor resets and the state recedes.

Afterward, Galen is consumed with guilt, confessing that he and his fellow paladins slaughtered people in uncontrolled rages after the god's death at a place called Hallowbind. Piper furiously presses Galen's hands to his own throat, proving that the waking Galen poses no danger. The tension breaks when Galen kisses Piper for the first time. Piper then formulates a crucial insight: The maze is an obstacle course designed for small ancient machines, not humans, meaning every room has a survivable path. Earstripe devises a method of rolling apples into rooms to identify where blades fall, allowing them to map several more traps. During the long hours of navigating the maze, Galen and Piper grow closer and become sexually intimate.

The final room contains a damaged but functional scorpion-like machine. Galen fights it with broken ivory pieces, destroying its legs and severing its bladed tail. The far door opens onto the cellar. Thomas waits at the top of the stairs with a crossbow. When Piper charges him, Earstripe shoves the doctor aside and takes the bolt in his thigh, shattering the bone. Galen strangles Thomas while Hardy, kept prisoner in leg shackles throughout, strikes Thomas with a poker. Piper performs emergency surgery on Earstripe by candlelight.

Brindle, who escaped earlier on Hardy's warning, returns with reinforcements. They rush Earstripe downriver to a gnole warren, where Piper delivers him to Skull-of-Ice, a high-caste gnole healer. The two healers agree to an unprecedented exchange of medical knowledge across species. Watching Piper's skillful, humble interaction with the gnole doctor, Galen realizes he is in love.

Yet outside Piper's apartment, Galen tells Piper they should stop seeing each other, insisting he is too broken and dangerous. Piper, shaking with hurt, asks him to leave. In the days that follow, both men struggle. Piper has flashbacks to the ivory corridors, and Kaylin, a war veteran who guards the morgue entrance, teaches him breathing exercises to manage the episodes. Galen confides in his fellow paladin Stephen, who tells him bluntly that he is in love.

When the city guard arrests Earstripe on fabricated vigilantism charges, Galen rushes to Piper for help. Piper dons his formal court robes and, flanked by both paladins, confronts Captain Mallory and then Commander Tamsin. In a display of cold authority, Piper dismantles the fraudulent charges point by point, invoking the collective weight of the lich-doctors and the testimony of multiple temples. Tamsin orders Earstripe's release. On the headquarters steps, Galen kisses Piper and declares himself a fool, acknowledging that Piper is far from fragile. Piper accepts him back.

That night, they declare their love. Galen acknowledges he will make mistakes, and Piper acknowledges they can never share a bed for sleeping. Both are willing to try. In an epilogue set six months later, the couple is married; Galen proposed on one knee in the morgue while Piper held a bonesaw. The seven surviving paladins travel to the ruins of their god's burned temple in Anuket City for a final vigil. Galen is among the last to rise, and Piper gently calls him back. Alone at the altar afterward, Piper silently thanks the dead Saint of Steel for making Galen the man he is, reaches out, and touches the sun-warmed stone with bare fingertips. In that instant, he knows what it felt like when a god died.