The Ashkeeper's Charge

By Torin Ashward

The Ember Road Covenant — Book 1

The ember keeps Hearthfold warm. The crown has come to take it.

At twenty-one, potter Tavin inherits a dying keeper's charge: protect the living ember that sustains his valley's boundary against the ash wind. He also inherits a chipped witness plate, an unfinished letter and a secret that challenges everything he has been taught about sharing its heat.

Collector Voss needs the ember for the eastern defense. Her orders promise relief, but her sealed transport chest may destroy the very source she intends to preserve. Tavin's only hope of disputing the claim lies at Lantern House, along a road whose dangers cannot be settled by decree.

Taking the ember could save it. Taking it also leaves his neighbors living on a dwindling reserve. With fellow travelers carrying burdens of their own, Tavin must discover what it means to keep something alive without treating it as his possession.

The Ashkeeper's Charge begins The Ember Road Covenant, an adventure fantasy about stewardship, grief and the difficult practice of shared responsibility.

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