Today’s the day! T. Kingfisher is dropping a companion novel to the delightful Swordheart, and folks? It’s incredible.
The first entry in this series, the aforementioned Swordheart, is the story of a widow named Halla who comes into the possession of a sword that contains a person who is bound to serve the master of the blade itself. Draw the sword and the soldier, a mercenary leader named Sarkis, appears to protect and aid the owner of the enchanted sword. During the adventures that Halla and Sarkis have together, he mentions other members of his company who were subjected to the same fate. Today, we get to properly meet the first of those other mercenaries, the Dervish.
At the outset of our adventure this time around, we meet Learned Edmund, a dedicate of the Church of the Many-Armed God. Edmund is tired of being a priest, though, and has found a way out of his commitments. He agrees to a transportation mission to a distant city, carrying books and a single artifact to a scholar at another temple some distance away. All he needs to do to be free once and for all is to complete the transfer and never go back (though he does feel somewhat guilty about the idea of not returning Sweetness, the mule, who will be accompanying him on his journey and carrying the books).
Learned Edmund’s plans are quickly thrown into disarray when he’s accosted by bandits on the road. In a desperate attempt to protect the artifact he’s carrying (an old sword that had long been in the protection of his church), Edmund accidentally removes the blade from its sheath. Suddenly, a knife-wielding man appears next to him in a flash of silver and kills the bandits as Edmund himself slips into unconsciousness.
When Edmund awakens under the less-than-stellar medical care of the mysterious man, he learns that the man is none other than the Dervish, cursed to defend the owner of the sword that killed him countless decades in the past. While Edmund is fascinated by the concept of the magic used to seal the Dervish in the blade, he’s also equally appalled by the terrible things that the swordsmith who cursed the Dervish and many of his previous masters have subjected him to. Eventually, a plan is reached for the Dervish to help Edmund reach a scholar who may be able to help them both to break the curse. There are many obstacles in their way, however, not the least among them being the fact that each man is somewhat infatuated with the other. Edmund is kind and considerate of the Dervish’s desires, unlike any master the Dervish has ever had before. The Dervish is handsome, quick-witted, and more caring than Edmund believes a mercenary should be. But if they break the curse, what will become of the Dervish? What fate can await Edmund as a no-longer-priest in a world where his only real goal is to share his knowledge? What happens when the inn only has one bed?
Daggerbound is an absolutely delightful romance adventure, filled with lots of violence, interesting new friends, and a slow burn love story. T. Kingfisher remains one of my all time favorite writers for many reasons, and this book contains most of them. Like Swordheart before it, Daggerbound takes place in the world of the White Rat, so fans of other T. Kingfisher books may see some familiar names and faces again.
Daggerbound is out today, August 25th, 2026. Go get yourself a copy and fall in love with these characters for yourself. My utmost thanks, as always, to NetGalley and to Tor Bramble for an eARC in exchange for a fair review.
The Swords of the Ancients 