THE RIDERS OF ASH & BONE

 

Blistering heat, sand-blasted settlements, the garish flags of Travelin Jack's Big Top snap in the wind as the crew put down stakes in yet another abandoned town.

 

The towns are no more than outposts, barren and dusty. The cities are overcrowded, nothing but rotting meat, corruption, and disease. In between, beasts roam the desert landscape, fierce creatures whose only instinct is to feed.

 

The world is a dark place, and it's coming to an end.

 

The whispers began as bedtime stories for frightened children. Two riders will come. The battle between them will bring a new age, rising from the charred husk of this one. They are called The Riders of Ash & Bone. People look to their coming with an acidic mix of fear and expectation. They hope the riders can keep the beasts at bay.

 

Hickory and Cassandra Sharpe live in a small town at the base of Crag Mountain. They have two young sons, Weston and Joshua, and they are happy. When the beasts come, a torrent of blood and fire sweeps over the town like a wave, leaving nothing alive in its wake. Jack and his two sons debate their luck as they find themselves mostly whole amidst the ruins of their home.

 

They find refuge with a small band of circus performers, and find roles for them in the organization. Jack himself takes on Bolton as his pupil, and begins to teach him everything he knows, which is considerably more than performing. The years pass, and the world continues to darken. Bolton and Weston join Jack on his hunt of the beasts, while Joshua runs from the nightmare.

 

Twenty years later, Bolton Sharpe is the ringleader of Traveling Jack's, the foremost traveling circus in the outland and the last dying hope of a world without a savior. With his band, Jack paces the desert looking for the next hunt. He has taught Weston everything he knows, and they fight side-by-side.

 

In a small city, on the other side of the world, Joshua Sharpe owns a small shop. He plans to marry a woman he has known since he arrived in the city, twenty years earlier. He remembers his childhood, and he cringes. He fights to forget. He does not think of his father. And he does not think of Weston.

 

But the two brothers share one destiny.