This story is set in the world of Larry Correia's high fantasy The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series. Larry Correia is an avid gun user and advocate, and shot on a competitive level for many years. Before becoming a full-time writer, he was a military contract accountant, and a small business accountant and manager. He is the creator of the Wall Street Journal and New York Times best-selling Monster Hunter series, with first entry Monster Hunter International, as well as urban fantasy hardboiled adventure saga the Grimnoir Chronicles, with first entry Hard Magic, and epic fantasy series The Saga of the Forgotten Warrior, with first entry Son of the Black Sword and latest entry, House of Assassins. Correia lives in Utah with his wife and family.

I have been called many things, like Ratul the Swift, or Ratul Without Mercy, and much later I was known as Ratul the Mad, or Ratul the Traitor. I have held many offices, most notably the rank of Master within the Protector Order, a title reserved for only the fiercest defenders of the Law. Yet that mighty office paled in importance to my illicit calling, when the Forgotten appointed me the Keeper of Names. I gave up one of the mightiest stations in the land to become a fugitive, and did so gladly, for I truly believe the gods are real.

Some say I am a fool, and all say that I am a criminal. Religion is illegal, preaching, as I have done, is punishable by death. My time will come. I embrace my fate, for they are the fools, not I. It is the world which has forgotten the truth. Soon they will be forced to remember, and it will be a most painful event.

Yes, I have been called a great many things, from heroic leader and master swordsman to fanatical rebel and despicable murderer, but young Ratul Memon dar Sarnobat was a kind-hearted child, nothing at all like the jaded killer I would become.

Whit Williams is a writer, a medic, and a protégé of the great Hank Reinhardt. His published work includes the short story "Lion Country" and the interim chapters of Hank Reinhardt's Book of Knives. Currently he is working on a new book, The Reinhardt Method of Rapier & Dagger, the first in a series of books about sword technique.

Larry Correia's high fantasy novel Son of the Black Sword is set in Lok, a mythical alternate world based on India and Southeast Asia. That world is one of the many features that go against the fantasy grain and set Larry Correia's epic apart. Despite that feature one classic theme of the genre, the magic sword, made the cut. This sword is Angruvadal, one of the Ancestor Blades of Lok that, like Excalibur, choose their bearer and endow the bearer with great skills. Setting magic aside however, Angruvadal stands in sharp contrast to the world it lives in.

This is the final entry in this series. Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3, are available. Tom Kratman’s latest entry in the Carerra series is November’s A Pillar of Fire by Night. Tom Kratman was a Regular Army infantryman much of his adult life. After the Gulf War, and with the bottom dropping completely out of the anti-communist market, Tom decided to become a lawyer. Every now and again, when the frustrations of legal life and having to deal with other lawyers got to be too much, Tom would rejoin the Army (or a somewhat similar group, say) for fun and frolic in other climes. He no longer practices law, but instead writes full time. His novels for Baen include A State of Disobedience, Caliphate, and the series consisting of A Desert Called Peace, Carnifex, The Lotus Eaters, The Amazon Legion, Come and Take Them, The Rods and the Axe, and A Pillar of Fire by Night, as well as three collaborations with John Ringo, Watch on the Rhine, Yellow Eyes, and The Tuloriad. Also for Baen, he has written the first three volumes of the modern-day military fiction Countdown series.

Carrera, of course, being a construct with all those abilities and understandings I deemed him to have, understood most of this. Most of it, too, shows up in the central instrument of his story, the Legiones del Cid.

Those, however, come into existence, and morph and modify, in several forms. Initially, there is no one and nothing except Carrera, his rage and hate, and a set of instincts. From that, a core organization is formed, led to war, expanded, expanded, takes over a country, is expanded some more . . .

In fact, there are at least five forms the Legions take.

Baen Books announces the sixth annual Baen Fantasy Adventure Award contest, a short story contest for best original unpublished fantasy short story of eight thousand words or less.

The awards will be given out at Spikecon in Layton, Utah this July. Visit https://www.baen.com/contest-faa for more information.

Baen Begins Selling Challenge Coins Through Baen.com