the Queen’s Gambit: A Novel from World of Mortal Guard (The Tanilor Archives, Book 1)

Long before his fate became entwined with the Mortal Guard, Fenris was a thirteen-year-old boy who had never been allowed to choose his own life.The secluded elven city of Vorna was built upon bloodlines, obedience, and carefully preserved history. Fenris has spent his childhood learning which questions should never be asked-and slipping beyond the city's walls whenever those answers are not enough.Then he meets Mësha.She can alter her body, pass through solid matter, and wield abilities she barely understands. To the Scribes of Navarin, she is an unknown construction that must be contained. To their powerful leader, Godwit, she is a discovery worth any cost. But Fenris sees what none of them will acknowledge: a frightened girl struggling to claim the one thing Vorna has always denied him as well-the right to choose.Trapped inside a forgotten fortress with Godwit's Scribes closing around them, Fenris must rely on forbidden history, a collection of dangerous one-use spells, and a plan no sensible adult would trust. Every escape reveals another lie. Every act of resistance gives Godwit another reason to tighten his control.To save Mësha, Fenris will have to outwit a mage who can rewrite the world around them-and sacrifice more than either child knows how to lose.Set in the world of the Mortal Guard, The Queen's Gambit is a dark coming-of-age fantasy about buried history, chosen family, and the moment a frightened boy decides that doing what is right matters more than surviving unchanged.