The Ashes of the Shogun — Book I of The Ashes of Empire Trilogy

Japan, 1573.

The shogun has been driven from Kyoto. Oda Nobunaga’s power is spreading, and province by province, old loyalties are beginning to fracture.

Akitsune Mori was raised to serve one house, obey one lord, and understand exactly where his duty ended. But in a country where authority can change from one valley to the next, those certainties are beginning to disappear.

Sent west with Saburo to determine whether Morioka can keep its supply routes open, Akitsune enters a land marked by stolen rice, broken bridges, forced levies, burned villages, and men who no longer know under which banner they will wake the next morning.

Intervention can kill.

Obedience can kill.

And refusing to choose can be just as deadly.

As Nobunaga’s wars consume Tanba and Japan moves toward Honnō-ji and Yamazaki, Akitsune and Saburo are drawn into a conflict that will test their bodies, their friendship, and the meaning of loyalty itself.

The Ashes of the Shogun is the first volume of The Ashes of Empire Trilogy: a historical epic of samurai warfare, shifting allegiance, brotherhood, and survival in the final decades of the Sengoku period.