The Gauntlet and the Burning Blade

In the second instalment of the Rotstorm series, heroine Floré must continue to fight back against the encroaching children of the storm – but now her daughter Marta is dying, too. Can Floré save her daughter, and her people, from threats familiar and new?Once a warrior of the Stormguard Commandos, Floré wrought horrors in the rotstorm to protect her people. She did her duty and swore to leave the bloodshed behind. But when her daughter, Marta, was kidnapped, Floré was forced to once again raise her gauntlet against the devils of Ferron to bring her home.Now Marta is dying from the skein-magic she inherited from her father, and the Protectorate is weakened by the absence of the whitestaffs. The mystical order of healers and sages fled to their island citadel when strange orbs cut through the night.Floré and her comrades must race to find a cure for Marta, to find the truth of the whitestaffs'' betrayal, and to fight back against the encroaching children of the storm. Floré has taken up her gauntlets and her sword to keep her people safe – but steel alone might not be enough...Praise for Ian Green: ''Excellent, vivid worldbuilding... A gripping story with cinematic detail'' British Fantasy Society

For 312 years the rotstorm has blighted the ruins of the Ferron Empire. Born of an unholy war between gods themselves, it scours the land with acid mists and deadly lightning, spawning twisted monstrosities from its nightmarish depths. On the Stormwall, the men and women of the Stormguard maintain their vigil — eyes sharp, blades sharper — defending the Undal Protectorate from the worst of the rotstorm’s corruption. But behind the stormfront, something is stirring, kindling the embers of an ancient conflict and a plan to kill a god. Will Stormguard steel be enough to meet the coming tempest?***As the children of the storm carve a bloody swathe across the Northern Marches, the whitestaffs — the Protectorate’s healers and sages — have fled, retreating to their island citadel of Riven. Their withdrawal has weakened the realm, and worse, their absence is a death sentence for Floré’s daughter Marta. Skein-sick, Marta wastes away from the terrible magic she has inherited from her father and only the whitestaffs have the knowledge that might save her. When Flore is dispatched to reason with the whitestaffs, to bring them back into the fold, she seizes the chance. Her mission could save both the protectorate and her child. But on the island of Iskander, caged and chained, she will only discover the worst betrayal.