The Burning Times — Peter Smalley

In this fast-paced alternate history novella, a renascent European civilization struggles to raise itself out of darkness - but to do so may require the destruction of a far older civilization. From the guttering flame of the fallen Aquilonia Empire comes the spark, igniting the forests of Gothia, home to the not-quite-human Folk of the Wood. An age of darkness has given way to the Burning Times.

Two centuries after the Aquilonian Empire was brought down by internal power struggles and the coming of the dragonscourge, the people of Europas are resurfacing from an age of darkness to reclaim their destiny. In the region of Europas known as Gothia, the struggle to create a new civilization brings deadly conflict with the indigenous race, the mysterious sylan Folk of the Wood. Now, free bands of bold Gothic men and women risk their lives taking the battle to the Woodfolk. Legends like Wilhelm Grimme lead their armed bands in a deadly struggle, hunting the eldritch Woodfolk in their vast primeval forest homelands - from which few humans have returned alive.

Kaarin is one such human. She and her rag-tag band of Gothic partisans harry the Woodfolk while she struggles with her own guilt and anger at her family's deaths, murdered by rampaging Woodfolk warriors in the early nights of the conflict. Caught between powerful tides of grief and revenge, Kaarin must not only choose how far she will go to sate her ultimate thirst for vengeance, but also whether gaining justice for her family is worth destroying her own soul - and a fragile hope for the future of Gothia.

A fast-paced tale of one woman's struggles and choices during the height of a deadly conflict between two civilizations struggling to survive, The Burning Times is an imaginative novella of modern Young Adult Fantasy at its most epic.