The Fox

by Sherwood Smith · 2007

Inda has always dreamed of serving at the King’s Military Academy, but his idealistic vision shatters when he is tasked with protecting the king’s second son. The assignment drags him into a ruthless web of noble intrigue, betrayals, and political machinations that threaten to tear his world apart. Forced to flee his homeland before his thirteenth birthday, Inda finds himself on the dangerous decks of a pirate ship, where his natural leadership and military training become his only lifelines. Over the next four years he rises to command his own mercenary marine company, defending merchant vessels from marauding pirates while his family, grieving the loss of his older brother, scrambles to locate the heir to Choraed Elgaer. In this richly woven tale of courtly politics, expansive world‑building, and high‑seas adventure, Inda must navigate the shifting tides of loyalty and destiny to claim the future he never imagined.