Valkyreon takes his paladin's oath believing that courage and a steady blade will be enough to protect the people who depend on him. His first years of service teach him how much a promise can cost.
Raised beneath the High Order's roof, he learns his duty on muddy roads, in crowded infirmaries, and beside people whose troubles cannot be answered with a sword. An unexpected friendship with Zane gives him someone to trust beyond the commandery walls. Through Zane, he comes to know Araysyn, a soldier whose fierce loyalty and determination to protect others earn Valkyreon's respect.
When travelers vanish along a frontier road, the three men follow the evidence toward an old sanctuary. Its keeper promises protection against the dangers gathering beyond its walls. Workers return from its chambers changed, families wait for people who never come home, and those who ask questions are silenced.
Carrying an ancestral blade he does not fully understand, Valkyreon must help bring the captives out before the sanctuary's hidden work consumes them. Every choice tests the oath he once thought would guide him clearly, while the men beside him become friends he cannot easily imagine raising a weapon against.
But the years ahead will bring a curse, a prophecy, and a war that places those friendships in the path of his duty.
The Oath Before the Hunt follows Valkyreon's journey from young paladin to hunter, revealing the bonds that will make his greatest task his most painful.
