The Iron Path: The Tale of Ronan (The Age of Ash Book 1)

Four hundred years ago, a knight fought a dragon on a burning roof. They killed each other. The sword he carried is still out there. Now dark forces are moving in the known lands. Goblins are massing, driven down from the mountains into the forests. Across Meridia, people feel it coming — and the company that will rise against it hasn't been gathered yet. This is the story of the barbarian who will lead it. He just doesn't know it. Neither does anyone else. Ronan's father is the greatest warrior in the village. Everyone expects Ronan to be the same. He isn't. When the raid comes, he hides behind a woodpile and does nothing. Six days later the Trial begins — the walk into the mountains that turns boys into men — and he fails it in an afternoon. He runs from a stray dog. He falls down a hillside. He wakes up lost and hurt in ruins where the stone is burned black and the walls were smashed from outside by something enormous. Under the roots of a dead tree, he finds the sword. He can barely lift it. He takes it anyway. What comes next isn't glory. It's a hard old knight and the same three movements until his arms give out. Decision. Commitment. Recovery. Then the goblins come out of the treeline — and this time Ronan doesn't run. Whatever is waking in the forest is pushing things south. They're moving fast, and they're heading for his village. The blade in his hands was forged to fight it. He isn't ready. It isn't waiting. The Iron Path is the first book of The Age of Ash — a six-book epic fantasy saga for readers of David Gemmell and John Gwynne. Real battles, real losses — no profanity, no explicit content. A hero isn't born in this book. He's made — one cold morning at a time, in a forest at the edge of the world.