Echoes of Betrayal Audiobook (Free)

The action continues fast and furious within this third installment of Elizabeth Moon’s celebrated return to the fantasy world from the paladin Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter. This award-winning writer has firsthand military encounter and an imagination that understands no bounds. Combine those qualities with an ability to build flesh-and-blood heroes, and the effect is the sort of speculative fiction that engages both center and mind.

All is not well in the 8 Kingdoms. In Lyonya, King Kieri is about about Echoes of Betrayal to celebrate relationship to his beloved, the half-elf Arian. But uncanny whispers through the spirits of his ancestors continue to alert of treachery and murder. A finger of suspicion has been directed toward his grandmother, the queen of the Ladysforest elves, and that suspicion has just intensified with time and the Lady’s inexplicable behavior. Obviously, she is hiding something. But what? And why?

On the other hand, in Tsaia, the youthful ruler Mikeli must grapple with unrest among his own nobility more than his controversial decision to give the name and estates of a traitorous magelord to a Verrakaien who all not only possesses the forbidden magic but is certainly a woman besides: Dorrin, once among Kieri’s most trusted captains. When renegade Verrakaien strike two of Dorrin’s squires, suspicion and prejudice combine to put Dorrin’s life in danger – and the king’s state to the throne in peril.

But sustained danger is looming. The wild offspring of a dragon are on the loose, sowing loss of life and devastation and upsetting the ancient balance of power between dragonkind, humans, elves, and gnomes. A collision appears inevitable. Yet when it comes, it’ll be utterly unforeseen – and even more devastating for this.