No. I think there are themes in the books about love and sacrifice, tolerance and honor, but I also think it’s up to individual readers to interpret and discover them, and even to disagree with me about what they mean. I don’t believe in “messages.”
The Ragpicker King is the sequel to Sword Catcher. In it, Kel — now fully embedded with the Ragpicker King and his crew — tries to solve a mystery: Who’s responsible for the murders in the Shining Gallery? If someone’s plotting against Castellane, who is it? And why is the woman he’s loved since he was a child, Antonetta Alleyne, determined to marry a monster?