The Sword in the Stone

A king who cannot be beaten meets the one man who can match him. What begins as a fight becomes a friendship, and the friendship becomes the reason he goes looking for a way to never die.

Nine years into a war he was promised would make him immortal, the best fighter in the world is sulking in his tent. The insult was small. The cost will not be.

A boy kills a hound and takes its place as guard dog. He is given a choice: a long life nobody remembers, or a short one they never stop singing about.

A herdsman boy nurses two mountain-spirit infants back to health. They offer him a wish. He asks for strength.

The younger brother. Faster, handsomer, quicker to laugh, and the one who rides out first.