TheCO: You have a book due out in a short time, The Hallowed Hunt—who are the main characters?

LMB: This tale is told single-viewpoint from the head of one Ingrey kin Wolfcliff, the disinherited scion of a noble family of the Weald, my Chalion-universe (loose) analogue to medieval Germany. He's a swordsman of about 25, who, after knocking about the world after the disasters of his earlier youth, found a place as a trusted retainer in the household of the Sealmaster (chancellor) of the Weald, as something between a clerk and a bravo; he is on a mission for the Sealmaster as the book opens.

Ingrey's assigned task is to arrest one Lady Ijada dy Castos for the (well-earned) murder of the royal younger son, mad Prince Boleso. Ingrey quickly discovers that Ijada's legal and magical problems are closely bound up with his own. Completing the unholy triumvirate that drives the plot of the book is Ingrey's fey cousin, Earl-ordainer Wencel kin Horseriver, about Ingrey's age but vastly higher in rank and power in the Weald, being among other things, married to the dying hallow king's only daughter, Princess Fara.

Also important are Learned Hallana, both a physician-divine of the goddess known as the Mother, and a sorceress-divine of the god known as the Bastard (rather like having a double PhD, that); her husband Oswin, a scholar of the Father, the god devoted to justice; Learned Lewko, a divine of the Bastard with a peculiar job description; Prince Biast, Fara's brother (and Horseriver's brother-in-law); and, most delightfully, Prince Jokol, a skaldic warrior from a cold southern island and his unexpected pet, the 600 pound ice bear, Fafa.

It all comes together. Trust me.

TheCO: Thematically speaking, what can we expect from this book?

LMB: Almost all of my books are about identity formation or re-formation—coming of age and redemption—on the deepest levels, and The Hallowed Hunt does touch these issues somewhat. But this one surprised me a bit, by the time I'd wrestled it to the end, by being more about the elusive spiritual nature of kingship. What other quarry, after all, is more worthy of a god's own hunt than such a royal prize? The losses of time and history also ended up being explored, down some—to me, at least—rather unexpected paths.

TheCO: Does this particular book focus on any one of the Gods like the first two did, and if so which one?

LMB: This is the Brother's book, aka the Son of Autumn: the god of young men, the hunt, harvest, animals, and war. The tale takes place in His season, and has much to do with His issues, one way or another. Ingrey is at the season of his own life where the Son of Autumn would be his natural patron. But as usual, the Bastard, god of all things out of season and something of the trickster figure in this pantheon, also has His thumb in the pie.