Great start to the Rune Song saga!

Hammer of Fate (The Rune Song Trilogy Book 1) by G.N. Gudgion  

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Adelais has been placed as a novice of the Ischyrian faith with the sisterhood house near Villebénie, a hundred leagues away from Vriesland where the old gods still held sway. Sent there by her family for lewd conduct with a priest.  

Adelais has been planning to escape but is thwarted by a wolf, and then by the arrival of the Anakritis-General, Ghislain Barthram, the Angel of Death, accompanied by his clerics (think the Inquisition), surrounding a prison wagon, escorted by the King’s soldiers. The wagon contains an important captured Guardian.

The anakritim are the pawns of the King. The Order of Guardian knights have been declared  heretics and have been hunted down. The anakritim are following rumours of a golden relic, The Hand. There are strong parallels with the Knights Templar. 

Five years previously, “before the arrests the Guardians were seen as exemplars, the Lions of Ischyros, beyond all taint. Knights who welcomed death in the service of the God.” Now they are persecuted.

Adelais‘ teachings as a child are loosely based on Norse shamanistic beliefs and rune magics. Throughout the novel warnings come from nature, the presence of a wolf, the unease of her horse, the warning flights of ravens. Not that Adelais takes much heed on the occasions when she really should.  Adelais becomes a target for the anakritis torturer Pateras Malory and flees persecution  with some Guardian knights, including Arnaud l’Armurier, and Guy the son of the prisoner of Anakritis-General.

Adelais is the granddaughter of a wise woman and she carries a rune carved by her nona Yrsa. In moments of danger she finds herself singing the songs taught her by Yrsa . Her grandmother warned her against this. She saw Adelais had power but needed more teaching in the ways of rune songs.

Still, armed with her knowledge Adelais goes forward with the Guardians, being chased by Pateras Malory. After a searing and difficult pursuit she’s captured and being taken to the Anakritis-General at Daija. Her destiny looks like being painfully terminated. But then a miracle happens, or confluences come together, to give Adelais a new chance. 

Compelling and complex, and far too brutal at times. Even so, I look forward to see where the next in the series takes us.

A Second Sky ARC via NetGalley.                                              

Many thanks to the author and publisher.

Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change