JW WARNER
The Kotidore Chronicles
Death Walks Beside Her
Takael's childhood abruptly ends when bandits murder her family. The Kotidor, warriors who keep order on the Empire's frontier, give the orphaned girl a home where she begins training to join their ranks. When her training ends, she finds herself reunited with her sister novices on a mission to a remote river valley where an armed uprising has begun. The girls face the possibility one of their own may have incited the violence.
Can they discover and stop the betrayal?
Death Walks Beside Her is the first in a series of stories about a group of girls becoming fierce warriors--and lifelong friends.
Her Hair Like Flames
After being abandoned in the woods by her stepfather and told never to come back home or he would kill her mother, Sa’ana dreams of revenge. When she takes refuge with The Kotidor, warriors who keep order on the frontier of the Empire, vengeance fuels her training with sword and bow.
However, superiors have other ideas. Sa’ana first becomes a bodyguard to the royal family, a duty that turns out more dangerous than she ever expected. Then she is sent to a remote river valley to hunt for a Bandit Queen, who dares wear the tunic of a defeated Kotidor. As Sa’ana and her companions pursue the brigand, it becomes clear their target will do whatever it takes to stop them. Will Sa’ana and the other Kotidor survive to deliver Justice?
Book Two of The Kotidor Chronicles, Her Hair Like Flames is the story of the girl called "Spitfire" as a novice; her friendship with the other girls in training; and how a child of the city becomes a warrior capable of battling men and beasts.
Of Fog, Fire, and Ice
Aqqa runs away from her family's village to escape an arranged marriage while she is still a child. She only has one plan and that is to get to the Kotidor that she saw with her brother on a trading trip. Struggling against the harsh climate of the region, the only thing that gets her through is sheer force of will. Once she manages to get to them, they take her in and begin her training to keep order along the empire's frontier.
Her duty brings her back to her family home in the Far North and all she left behind, including her best friend and first love. However, the consequences of her betrayal are not the only things she must face on this journey as she squares off with dangerous people, animals, and even the harsh weather. Can she survive in a place where her sword cannot help her battle the ice and snow?
WITH A STROKE OF HER SWORD
Despite years of training and living together, Ashari's fellow novices never knew much about her childhood, other than it left her angry.
Now, in the fourth novel of The Kotidor Chronicles, With A Stroke of Her Sword, readers will finally learn the harrowing truth about Ashari's girlhood--kidnapped, forced to work in a silver mine, and driven to robbery to try to escape her captor.
Like her friends, Ashari begins training to become a warrior. Unlike them, if she fails, she might wind up in prison. Ultimately, she earns her sword and goes forth to enforce the laws of the Empire. When her duty returns her to her hometown, will Ashari find the birth family she never knew?
JW Warner graduated from Rutgers College with a degree in English. After a long career as a federal investigator & overcoming cancer, he traded in writing reports & training materials for fantasy novels. He lives in New Jersey near New York City with his wife & three dogs.
death walks beside her, the first installment in his ya fantasy quadrilogy, The Kotidor Chronicles, was released in march 2021.
he can be found on Twitter @jackwarner16, & on Instagram @ru77jw