Many Are the Dead

Ten years before the events of Blood Song, the world of the Raven's Shadow is already steeped in blood. Many Are the Dead follows Brother Sollis — the Sixth Order's most lethal swordsman — as a plague outbreak sends him and a small company into the frozen heights of Lonak territory to find a cure in an abandoned mountain fortress. What begins as a desperate errand becomes something darker and far more dangerous, forcing bitter enemies to fight side by side against a threat that belongs to no human faction. The stakes are intimate but the dread is ancient, and Ryan never lets you forget that survival is never guaranteed.

At 138 pages, this novella is a marvel of compression. Ryan strips away everything but forward momentum — no bloat, no unnecessary world-building detours — yet the characters feel fully inhabited and the setting bites with cold and menace. Sollis himself is a compelling study in duty over self, a man defined by his blade and his faith in ways that quietly complicate both. For readers already in the Raven's Shadow world, this is essential backstory delivered at a sprint; for newcomers, it's a lean, ruthless introduction to what Ryan does best.