In the tiers of Ellegeance, the elite Influencers’ Guild holds the power to manipulate emotions. Love and fear, pain and pleasure, healing and death mark the extremes of their sway, but it’s the subtle blends that hook their victims’ hearts. They hide behind oaths of loyalty and rule the world. A child born in the grim warrens beneath the city, Catling rues the rose birthmark encircling her eye. Yet, it grants her the ability to disrupt the influencers’ sway. Established methods of civil control disintegrate before her. She’s a weapon desired by those who reign and those who rebel. To the Influencer’s Guild, she’s an aberration, a threat. They order her death and thus the betrayals begin. One woman protects and trains her, plotting to use her shield to further imperial goals. No longer a helpless child, Catling has other plans. As chaos shakes the foundations of order and rule, will she become the realm’s savior? Or its executioner? The Rose Shield Tetralogy – a blend of science fiction and fantasy. Welcome to a world of three moons, a sentient landscape, rivers of light, and tier cities that rise from the swamps like otherworld flowers. A planet of waterdragons, where humans are the aliens living among three-fingered natives with spotted skin. Where a half-blood converses with the fog and the goddess plans her final reckoning. Follow Catling’s journey as she grows from childhood into the deadly force that shapes the future. She is the realm’s shield, an influencer, assassin, healer, mother, and avenger. And all she wants is to go home.

Catling, an aspirant of the Influencers’ Guild, learns to wield the power of the garden carved into her skin. Friends are fewer than enemies, and those who wished her dead now plot her failure. Sworn to the young queen, she enters the world of Elan-Sia where the powerful maneuver for control of the throne. Amidst rising unrest in the south and increasing pressure from the seafaring Cull Tarr, the high wards of the tiers plot rebellion. Gannon stirs the warrens, and Whitt marches with the warriors of Guardian. Propelled by revenge, Catling journeys to Mur-Vallis. Her mission—to assassinate the man who stole her past, a task that will define her future.

Immune to influence, the Cull Tarr infiltrate the tier cities, and the Shiplord plies the queen for a bond that will cede her realm. Catling’s daughter, Rose, becomes collateral in a game of power, and the only way to save her is to lose her. Oathbreaker and lawbreaker, Catling rebels, and her power grows more deadly. In the frozen lands of the Far Wolds, treaties collapse. Forced to choose sides, Whitt betrays his oath. Fugitives, he and young Rose traverse the realm and enter the rebel world of the Farlanders. The brief tranquility of their lives crumbles as Ellegean aggression escalates. Sent by the queen to broker a lasting peace, Gannon proposes a risky strategy—to win the battle for the Far Wolds, Whitt and the people he loves must lose the war.

The epic adventure concludes as the Shiplord vies for what he desires—the throne of Ellegeance. Their power in jeopardy, influencers surrender their oaths, their loyalties fractured. Rose, a child of untrained and reckless talent, once again becomes a pawn in the quest for control. As the Cull Tarr solidify their rule, Guardian plots rebellion. Catling and Whitt, each gifted with singular skills, seek to sway the course of the conflict. Oathbreakers, traitors, and those desperate to save Rose collide in a final battle for the realm. Yet, a third player emerges in the deadly game. The kari, spirits of a sentient planet, command the air, water, and land. They manipulate events to satisfy their sovereign designs and care not who survives the human war.