The Ballad of the Grey Swan - Chronicles of Taeliana, #1

The Reluctant Ruler

Jeyreme Corbeau is the put-upon, overworked third son of the perpetually disinterested Baron Stefan Corbeau. While the Baron busies himself with drinking, Jeyreme is the invisible hand that actually keeps the Barony running, managing every tedious ledger, trade negotiation, and administrative chore his father deems beneath him. He is the loyal, if exhausted, workhorse of the family—at least on the surface.

The Grey Swan's Secret

This fragile order is shattered when a brazen highwaywoman calling herself the Grey Swan begins targeting merchants along the Barony's vital trade road. Finally roused from his stupor, the Baron is enraged. He issues a single, impatient command: Jeyreme is to hunt down and capture the thief immediately.

What Baron Corbeau doesn't know is that his seemingly dutiful third son is actually a transgender woman —and the woman behind the mask of the Grey Swan.

Jey has been meticulously planning her escape. Every coin stolen funds her desperate dream: to flee the constraints of her life, embrace her true self, and run away with her lover, Maisie, the spirited daughter of the local innkeeper. The Gray Swan's robberies are the illicit means to her personal liberation.

The Reckoning

Jey's double life is a ticking clock, and it accelerates when the impatient Baron makes a rash, catastrophic decision that gravely jeopardizes the safety and stability of the entire Barony.

Now, Jey must choose: obey her father and forget her dreams, or protect the secret that could grant her freedom. She must find a way to navigate a deadly, impossible course, stay true to herself, and survive the trials ahead. Add to this volatile situation the watching, otherworldly eyes of beings who have taken an unsettling interest in their fate, and Jey and Maisie might just make it out alive—but they will certainly not emerge unchanged.