We’re coming up on April 15, 2022, and the introduction to the world of The Cattlemen. The book is called Beacon, book one of Nation of Five. Peter Redfist, Jordai Stonefist, Aaron the Marked, and Gralton Clay, characters you’d know from the short story Land of Rott and Cur, found in the anthology Blackest Knights, and you’ll know them from The Madness Wars. These four characters find themselves in the nation of Corlene. Peter learned at the feet of Clark the First King in the Madness Wars and the years after, how to be a king. He left his home before the Madness Wars, for a treasure he called the wisdom of kings, the knowledge of how to lead a full nation. Well in this series, Peter has that wisdom, but he doesn’t trust it enough to go home and lead his people yet. So Peter goes to this nation, and it’s a nation in turmoil.
Corlene, years ago, had a king. It had an army. It was a united land, and their plan was to invade a nation to the south. The day before the invasion, a goddess came. And she stopped that invasion by killing the king and all his sons. This happens in the prologue. I’m not giving you guys anything you won’t have immediately when you open the book. If you want to consider this a spoiler, I would say to consider it half a day after its expiration date.
Well with no king, and an army already poised for battle, the nation breaks into many pieces. Warlords fight for the land itself. And hundreds of years later, Peter and his men are here. He’s looking for a king who can unite the nations, someone with the right level of dedication to the people and the citizens, someone of strength. And someone willing to learn. And he finds Mayloch Bull.
Mayloch Bull is an ex-gladiator. When he escaped the gladiator pits, he came home. He created a group called The Cattlemen, guardians of the people of the nation. There was suddenly a network of freedom fighters all over Corlene, led by one man, who helped the people against the tyranny of the warlords that had carved up the nation into city-states.
But Bull is a conflicted leader. He’s got his own demons, and he’s just not ready to be the king of anything, let alone such a divided country. So Peter must train the leader of The Cattlemen. He must prepare him for not only taking over the nation, but for leading it with a firm but kind hand tempered by justice, wisdom, and wits.
In this book is the return of a character from the book Song. His name is Medey, and he is a fierce warlord, whose family has spent centuries protecting their nation of Lorinth from the chaotic warlords of Corlene. Where we saw the supportive power of Medey in the book of Song, as he was a force for good in Lorinth, now we see him as a demanding warlord prepared to beat down any rise of power in a nation he considers dangerous. But Medey is not ready for the steady, even hand of Peter Redfist, and Medey is not ready to look at the nation that he and his family have spent centuries keeping in check, and instead look for a power to lead that nation in peace.
So Peter must prepare a king, help him conquer a nation, and appease a warlord dedicated to keeping that nation weak. But as he does this, there are rumors of the destruction of new land he should care about. And there are tales of his homeland being torn apart.
So what does Peter Redfist do? When his home is being destroyed, a nation of innocence is in turmoil, and in a distant land he has never known, people are calling out for the weapon that can save them, a vague power that they only know as the Redfist.
