Rivers and Blood

The Mississippi River, 1541. Sardina is still alive. He's not sure that's a good thing.

Broken by the desert, he follows the river south, looking for something he can't name. What he finds is Hernando de Soto — his old comrade from Peru, now leading his own expedition down the Mississippi, and just as ruthless as ever.

De Soto wants gold. De Soto wants glory. De Soto doesn't care what he destroys to get it. The tribes and kingdoms of La Florida — Cofitachequi, Coosa, Tuscaloosa — stand in his path, and he burns through them without looking back.

Sardina watches. Sardina remembers. This is the same game he's been playing since Peru, and he knows now what it costs. The question is whether knowing is enough to change anything — or whether he's already too deep in the blood to find his way out.

Rivers and Blood is the final book in the Conquistadors Trilogy — a reckoning with everything Sardina has done, seen, and survived. The pursuit of gold ends here. What's left is the question of the soul.

Concludes the trilogy begun in Brothers & Kings and Devils of the Desert. Reads well on its own.