The Testimony of the Traitor Ratul. A new free short story in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior

I have a new free short story available now on the Baen website. https://www.baen.com/

The Testimony of the Traitor Ratul is set during the events of Son of the Black Sword, and gives the backstory of one of the pivotal supporting characters.  Here is a direct link: https://www.baen.com/testimonytraitorratul

Book 2 in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior, House of Assassins, comes out in a couple weeks. And Baen.com always likes to have a non-fiction article to go along with their free fiction, so as a happy bonus this month, there is an article by Whit Williams (my sword fighting technical adviser for the series) about The Swords of Lok https://www.baen.com/swordsoflok

I hope you enjoy.

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28 thoughts on “The Testimony of the Traitor Ratul. A new free short story in the Saga of the Forgotten Warrior”

  1. Spoilers.. kinda.

    (quote removed)

    Brilliant. Sent a shiver thru me.

    Larry, you let us down Brah. We were hoping you’d post up the Gencon shenanigans from your SW game. Bob the orc is having a sad. 🙂

    1. I never had a chance sadly. That was a great game.

      I appreciate the compliment, but I am gonna delete that spoiler, just because I love that line. 🙂

        1. Lil’ Joe is sad too, but we understand that getting paid is the first priority. Occasionally I still feel bad about what we put that poor trucker through…

  2. Is House of Assassins going to be on Audible at release? I’ve been waiting for it to show up available for pre-order but so far no joy.

  3. I loved Son of the Black Sword. I’m looking forward to the sequel. Any plans for a short story anthology with multiple authors like you did for Monster Hunter set in the world of the Forgotten Warrior? Because that would be awesome.

    1. Not currently. To do an antho set in a particular world you usually need to wait until there are more books out to make it viable.

  4. This is a truly fine story. I don’t know why, but there seems to something about writing in this world that really elevates your wordsmithing.
    Just curious – did you set out to write the story, or did it grow out of notes or exercises that were part of the worldbuilding you did for this series?

    1. All that back story existed already for the world building, there just hadn’t been a place to put it into a book. Toni asked me for a stand alone short story, and this was about the right size. So I wrote this story last week. 🙂

      1. So you’re not doing the Niven/Pournelle method of writing out ALL of the background universe in a big encyclopedia and then write the story based on the encyclopedia?

  5. The people here at work are looking around trying to figure what alarm went off.

    Fortunately, I’m a big and manly enough dude that they won’t realize it was just me Squeeeeeeing like a deranged fan-girl.

    Baen site says it will be out 2/5/2019. I wonder if the eardrums of the woman in the cubicle next door will last that long. LOL!!!

  6. That was a masterful piece of writing. I could hear it in Ratul’s voice, and felt as if we were sitting round a camp fire or at a table in some somewhat decrepit hostelry somewhere.

    Time to re-read Son of the Black Sword in preparation.

  7. Great backstory on an interesting character. Thanks for providing this! Pre-ordered HoA and am really looking forward to it.

  8. I do not see House of Assains availible on audible !? Not even as a pre order 🙁 when do you think that will happen? I need one of your books 🙂 !

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