DASHER

“We can’t let Richland fall,” Dasher said.

“It will fall, if the Alliance insists on having their way,” Venture said. “They’ll have to alter the Code of Laws to do it.” The key Crested families denied that the Alliance even existed, let alone that they were part of it. They said it was just a myth from ancient history. But Dasher had told him it was very real, very much still alive, and with a new, frightening mission. “The Code of Laws is what makes Richland what it is. Whether this place still has the same name or not, if they do that, it won’t be Richland anymore.”

“Just a shadow of this great nation,” Dasher conceded.

“The people are strong. They won’t stand for that,” Venture said.

And they both knew what that meant—war. The people divided. Richland at war with itself.

About the VENTURE Series:

Venture Delving is a bonded servant, a member of the lowest class in the world. Already fatherless, when he loses his mother, he veers from energetic to out of control. But when Venture's rage saves the life of Jade, his best friend and his master's daughter, Venture finds himself in the last place he ever expected—a center renowned for training young boys to be professional fighters.

When Venture realizes he's fallen in love with Jade, he knows that the only way he'll ever have her, the only way he'll ever be free to live the life he's meant to live, is to defy convention, common sense, the trust of those he cares about most—and sometimes the law—and become the best fighter in the world, the Champion of All Richland. Venture must battle not only rival fighters, but the ghosts of his past and the members of a privileged warrior class who stand between him and his dream.