Archon’s Gambit: Hero of Saelmark

A last stand, a valiant defiance, and the heroic elves cut off from help.High Archon Teuma has already escaped the impossible—the vampire fortress of Mornathil, where he witnessed horrors no mortal should survive. But as the Black Moon grows bloated in the sky, pulsing with malevolent energy, his warning may have come too late. Saelmark burns. The ancient Yula tree falls. And Teuma finds himself cut off with only thirty elite warriors against an enemy that vastly outnumbers them.When vampire forces uncover ancient tunnels beneath the battlefield—passages that could bypass all of Saelmark’s defenses—Teuma makes a desperate choice. He leads his dwindling company into the darkness below, where they discover something worse than vampires awaits: the Mother’s firstborn children, ancient guardians who consider all intruders enemies of the binding that holds back oblivion.Trapped between vampire armies and arachnid horrors, with his companions falling one by one, Teuma must reach the binding node at the heart of the tunnel system. There, he will make his final stand—not for victory, but for a sacrifice that will deny the vampire lord Elria his prize. Even if it means Teuma’s name will be forgotten by the very world he dies to protect.Some victories aren’t measured by who remains standing, but by what remains buried forever.