Compass & Codex

A courier in a pressed Syndicate uniform delivers a single cream-colored card to Gunnar's workshop: Silas Vane requests his company for lunch, today, aboard the Syndicate's private dining car parked on the depot siding. 

Vesper calls it a trap or a performance; Calloway warns that men like Vane don't invite you to lunch unless they've already decided something about you. Both are right. But Gunnar has their intelligence and their analysis — what he doesn't have is Vane himself: the specific quality of a man who builds systems that eat other people's choices and calls it efficiency. 

You can't understand an engine from a schematic; at some point you have to put your hands on it. So Gunnar pockets the invitation, locks his workshop like a man who intends to come back, and walks to the depot to meet the architect of the Syndicate's control grid face to face.

Iron Rails & Ruin is a steampunk Wild West adventure for boys 8-18 — a fourteen-year-old engineer in 1882 Montana finds out his father is alive, and the Syndicate has fourteen days to seize every locomotive in the territory.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love trains, invention, and frontier adventure. For fans of Mortal Engines, steampunk machines and mysteries, and Wild West stories with a clever hero at the controls.

📚 Grab your copy of Iron Rails & Ruin: Smoke & Suspicion (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Friday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — A regulator in seven pieces — and a knock at the door
00:02:06 — A Syndicate courier, in a uniform pressed twice
00:04:15 — The card: Silas Vane, lunch, The Argent, the depot siding
00:04:39 — Vesper's voice in his head: "It's a trap"
00:05:07 — Calloway's read: "Men like Vane don't invite you to lunch"
00:06:21 — "You can't understand an engine from a schematic alone"
00:07:16 — "Already know what you think. Going anyway."
00:08:06 — The walk to the depot siding
00:08:15 — The Argent — lacquered black and brass, a statement
00:10:00 — Silas Vane rises — taller and stiller than expected
00:10:31 — The handshake
00:25:24 — The summary document — the deal on the table
00:25:43 — Seven days left on the Syndicate's deadline
00:27:01 — Gunnar crosses the yard, back toward town
00:27:41 — He does not look back at the Argent
00:27:43 — CH 11 — What Comes Next

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I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

Three days lost in the Belgic forest, out of food and nearly out of water, Marcus leads his six exhausted survivors and their Gallic captive toward a thread of smoke rising through the trees. It's a farmstead — a family: a man splitting logs, a woman at the oven, two small children playing in the garden. 

Flavus wants to take what they need by force — who would stop seven armed legionaries, even starving ones? But Marcus looks at the family and sees the farmers outside his own hometown, and he makes the harder call: "That's not who we are." Now he has to find another way to get his men fed — and keep Petronius, whose wound is beginning to turn, alive.

Eagle's Edge is a Roman adventure story for boys 8-18 — a sixteen-year-old recruit takes the oath, marches into Gaul under Caesar, and learns what war actually is.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love history, battles, and adventure. For fans of Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth, the action of Percy Jackson, and classic stories of ancient Rome.

📚 Grab your copy of Eagle's Edge: The Making of a Soldier (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Thursday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Three days lost in the forest, out of food and water
00:01:46 — Petronius fading — the wound is beginning to turn
00:04:30 — A thread of smoke through the trees — a settlement
00:06:00 — Marcus crawls to the clearing's edge — a Gallic farmstead
00:06:41 — A man, a woman, two small children — a family
00:07:42 — Flavus follows: "We could take what we need"
00:08:33 — "That's not who we are" — Marcus makes the call
00:15:16 — Ambrix's boar token — a silent identity, no longer hidden
00:29:18 — Ambrix and the farmer — recognition across enemy lines
00:30:03 — CH 11 — What Comes Next

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I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

Morning breaks over the stockade, and Captain Smollett readies his tiny garrison for the attack everyone knows is coming. 

Water is rationed by the cup, ammunition counted charge by charge, firing positions assigned around the ten-foot log walls — while Dr. Livesey tends the wounded Tom, whose fever is rising. Jim watches Smollett move tirelessly along the perimeter, the man who warned everyone about Silver now spending himself to protect even those who ignored him. 

As the Caribbean heat climbs to its blistering peak, the pirates make their move: branches part at the tree line, muskets crack, and Silver's attack breaks over the walls. Jim — pistol heavy in his hand — finds out whether he has the courage to fire when the fighting reaches him.

Treasure Island is Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate adventure retold for boys 8-18 — a twelve-year-old cabin boy finds Captain Flint's treasure map, and the one-legged sailor a dying pirate warned him about is already aboard his ship.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love pirates, treasure, and high-seas adventure. For families who want the original Stevenson classic told in clear, modern language — a natural fit for homeschool reading alongside Peter Pan and other timeless adventure tales.

📚 Grab your copy of Treasure Island: The Map (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Wednesday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Morning in the stockade — the attack everyone knows is coming
00:01:57 — Dr. Livesey's inventory — most supplies are still on the ship
00:02:01 — Captain Smollett studies the tree line through his telescope
00:04:06 — Water rationed, powder counted — the garrison prepares
00:08:30 — Every face scanning the tree line — the waiting
00:08:50 — Noon heat at its peak — even the birds fall silent
00:20:27 — The first shots ring out from the tree line
00:20:30 — The first musket ball strikes the log wall
00:23:30 — Pirates fall at the wall — "Second rank... reload"
00:24:33 — "Fire!" — Jim's pistol comes up on its own
00:30:42 — Nineteen pirates still surround them despite the losses
00:31:01 — "We held, Jim" — but for how long?
00:31:16 — CH 11 — What Comes Next

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I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

Cinder leads two beetle guards back through the pill bug siege lines and into the Fire Ant Kingdom the only way left — a childhood crawlspace so tight it strips the shell off his back. Inside, the colony is dying by inches: in a dim side chamber he finds Etta Lorne dividing the last crumbs of food among larvae too weak to cry. In the Grand Chamber, Captain Bram Selwick accuses Cinder of desertion — until Cinder lays out what he saw outside: Thane Reed's pill bug army, its stolen-food fortress, and the plan to seal every tunnel and starve the colony out. Thistle and Harper arrive with maps to back him, Blaze staggers in carrying Silas with word that the beetles will fight alongside them, and a spider messenger brings an offer from Moss Wren. Queen Aureline makes her choice: the colony will not surrender. They strike the pill bugs at dawn.

Colony in Danger is a nature adventure story for boys 8-18 — a young fire ant scout, Cinder Marlowe, has just days to figure out why the colony's food is disappearing before everyone starves.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love animals, survival, and adventure. For fans of Watership Down, the Warriors series, and the world of Empires of the Undergrowth — with real fire-ant science woven through every chapter.

📚 Grab your copy of Colony in Danger: The Fire Ant Kingdom (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Tuesday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Cinder leads the beetles back through the pill bug siege
00:04:45 — The only way in: a childhood crawlspace, tight as a coffin
00:05:55 — A dim chamber — Etta Lorne, and the last crumbs of food
00:08:25 — Larvae too weak to cry: "Just in time to see how it ends"
00:10:45 — The Grand Chamber — Bram accuses Cinder of desertion
00:13:10 — Cinder lays out the siege: Thane Reed's army and food fortress
00:14:45 — Thistle and Harper arrive with maps to prove it
00:18:00 — Blaze carries Silas in — and says the beetles will fight
00:20:35 — Silke Greer and Note: this siege has been broken before
00:22:35 — Queen Aureline: the colony will not surrender
00:23:05 — A spider messenger brings Moss Wren's offer
00:24:05 — "We hit at dawn" — Cinder leads the kingdom out
00:25:00 — CH 19 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

With the eastern quarter under curfew, Max and Pip slip into the garrison through a drainage tunnel Max built into the east wall — a maintenance channel sized for a minifig, wet and black and barely wider than his shoulders. It leads to the one place Max hoped he'd never have to enter: the dungeon he designed when he was nine years old. 

Its floor is a mosaic of identical gray bricks, and only Max knows the safe path hidden in the pattern — third brick, blue brick, skip two, over and over — with trap-grates waiting behind false plates for a single wrong step. 

Max crosses it the only way he can: from memory, one locked-knee step at a time, with Pip matching his footfalls exactly. Beyond the mosaic waits a barred door — and past it, something Max built that is not yet awake.

Brickhaven is a serialized LEGO adventure story for boys 8-18 — a ten-year-old wakes up shrunk to minifig size inside the LEGO town he built, where the champion he designed now rules as a tyrant.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love building, puzzles, and adventure. For fans of The LEGO Movie, a kids' edition of Ready Player One, and classic portal-fantasy stories where an ordinary kid is the only one who can save the world.

📚 Grab your copy of Brickhaven: The Fall (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Monday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Max finds the hidden grate he built into the east wall
00:01:30 — Into the drainage tunnel — wet stone, black, barely wide enough
00:03:30 — Up the shaft, into the curfew-dark alley
00:05:00 — The hidden hatch — six rivets, press the second and third
00:06:30 — Down the ladder into the dungeon he designed
00:08:00 — The trap-floor: identical gray bricks, wall to wall
00:09:30 — Third brick, blue brick, skip two — the path only Max knows
00:11:30 — Locked knees, one step at a time, Pip matching every footfall
00:13:00 — The far door — and a mechanism not yet running
00:13:30 — CH 11 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

Gunnar cross-references Vesper's telegraph routing files, Calloway's shift notes, and his father's logbook — and circles the same name five times: Miguel Reyes, night telegraph operator at the Copper City central office. 

With Calloway's help, the three of them break into the hidden room above the telegraph office, crack the document case, and find six months of forged Syndicate manifests. Reyes appears in a second doorway no one had mapped — and instead of fighting, Gunnar sits down at the telegraph key and broadcasts the evidence to five stations and three newspapers before Reyes can stop him. 

By morning, the story is everywhere. Then Vesper arrives with the truth Gunnar didn't have: Reyes wasn't the Syndicate's man. He was a Rail Marshal double agent, six months deep undercover, and the broadcast just blew his cover, destroyed the intelligence network he'd built, and put three other agents — and Reyes himself — directly in danger. 

Gunnar was right about what Reyes was doing. He was wrong about what it meant.

Iron Rails & Ruin is a steampunk Wild West adventure for kids & teens — a fourteen-year-old engineer in 1882 Montana finds out his father is alive, and the Syndicate has fourteen days to seize every locomotive in the territory.

Perfect for kids and teens who love trains, invention, and frontier adventure. For fans of Mortal Engines, steampunk machines and mysteries, and Wild West stories with a clever hero at the controls.

📚 Grab your copy of Iron Rails & Ruin: Smoke & Suspicion (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Friday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Three sources, one name circled five times: Reyes
00:05:30 — Calloway arrives — a way in that doesn't use the front door
00:06:15 — Building the plan: entry route, guard rotation, three roles
00:09:15 — Into the postmaster's storage room, up the hidden stair
00:11:45 — The document case — forty seconds, and it's open
00:13:00 — A second door no one mapped — Reyes is standing in it
00:13:45 — Reyes bolts — Gunnar transmits instead of chasing
00:15:30 — Five stations, sent — Reyes gets past Dutch and is gone
00:18:15 — By morning, the documents are in every paper in the territory
00:19:45 — Vesper arrives — something has gone badly wrong
00:21:00 — The truth: Reyes was a Rail Marshal double agent
00:22:30 — The damage: a six-month tracking operation, destroyed
00:24:45 — "I was right about what he was doing. I was wrong about what it meant."
00:26:15 — "What do we do now to limit the damage?"
00:28:15 — CH 10 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

With Petronius wounded and the contubernium lost deep in Nervii territory, the survivors argue: wait for rescue, surrender, or fight their way out. Marcus is a common soldier with four months of training — but he's the only one who will make a call. 

He takes point, gives orders, and the others follow, not because he has authority but because the alternative is to stay in the clearing and die. Then the Nervii close in again, a spear takes Drusus between the shoulder blades, and they run. 

When the pursuit finally falls behind, six men collapse in the forest — and Marcus understands what command actually costs.

Eagle's Edge is a Roman adventure story for kids 8-14 — a sixteen-year-old recruit takes the oath, marches into Gaul under Caesar, and learns what war actually is.

Perfect for kids 8-14 who love history, battles, and adventure. For fans of Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth, the action of Percy Jackson, and classic stories of ancient Rome.

📚 Grab your copy of Eagle's Edge: The Making of a Soldier (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Thursday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Petronius takes the arrow — the squad reaches the fallen oak
00:02:30 — "How bad?" — assessing the wound
00:03:30 — Marcus breaks the shaft and pulls the arrow through
00:06:00 — Bandaged and braced — a moment of relative calm
00:07:30 — Six survivors, two dead, cut off with night approaching
00:10:15 — "We should surrender" — the argument breaks open
00:13:00 — "We move or we die" — Lucius cuts through the panic
00:15:45 — Petronius watches Marcus — waiting, assessing
00:19:45 — A twig snaps — the hunters are closing in
00:21:00 — Marcus reads the land — east to the river
00:23:30 — "We move east" — Marcus gives the order
00:25:00 — A formation forms around him without question
00:27:00 — Drusus's identity disc, carried instead of his body
00:28:15 — "Move out" — six men, one direction
00:29:30 — CH 10 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

The black flag snaps above the Hispaniola — Silver has made his move while half the loyal crew is still ashore. Jim watches from hiding as gunfire erupts on the beach and Long John Silver directs the slaughter with cold precision. 

The survivors — Captain Smollett, Dr. Livesey, Squire Trelawney, and a handful of loyal sailors — race for the old stockade Flint built years before, fighting a running battle through the jungle. 

Jim slips through the chaos and reaches the log-walled fort just ahead of the pirates. Silver's men ring the stockade at nightfall, and Smollett's small band loads every musket. The attack will come at dawn.

Treasure Island is Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate adventure retold for kids 8-14 — a twelve-year-old cabin boy finds Captain Flint's treasure map, and the one-legged sailor a dying pirate warned him about is already aboard his ship.

Perfect for kids 8-14 who love pirates, treasure, and high-seas adventure. For families who want the original Stevenson classic told in clear, modern language — a natural fit for homeschool reading alongside Peter Pan and other timeless adventure tales.

📚 Grab your copy of Treasure Island: The Map (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Wednesday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — The black flag rises — Silver's mutiny begins
00:01:15 — Gunfire on the beach — a man falls from the rigging
00:02:15 — Silver transformed — cold command replaces the friendly cook
00:03:00 — Israel Hands fires — Joyce falls dead
00:04:15 — Smollett's party breaks for the jungle — seven men, one wounded
00:05:45 — Jim crawls through the sand, unseen, into the trees
00:09:30 — The stockade — Flint's old fortress, found at last
00:10:45 — "Identify yourself or be shot" — Jim is let inside
00:16:45 — Ben Gunn's secret: the treasure has been moved
00:17:45 — Joyce and the quartermaster cut down at the gate
00:23:45 — Captain Smollett weighs Ben Gunn's claim against the map
00:26:00 — Pirate campfires ring the stockade — seven flames, one night
00:29:30 — Watches set — Silver's voice calls out from the dark
00:31:00 — CH 10 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

CORRECTED EPISODE: This is an updated version of Chapter 6. The original
release named the wrong battle — it referred to Marcus's first fight as "the
Sabis," against the Nervii. His actual first battle is the Arar, against the
Helvetii, in 58 BC. The Sabis is a real battle too, but it comes later in
Marcus's story (Chapter 8). We've corrected the chapter and re-recorded it.
Getting the history right matters to us — thanks for your patience.

The blood won't come off. Hours after the slaughter at the Arar, Marcus sits
apart from the celebrating camp, cleaning a sword that's already spotless —
oil, cloth, wipe, inspect, repeat — while Lucius tries everything he knows to
reach him: bread, his mother's lentil stew, stories of Petronius's perfect
thrust. 

None of it works. 

Only when Petronius himself sits down in the dark, saying nothing for a long while, does Marcus hear the five words that actually help: "It doesn't get easier. You get faster at deciding." Not a promise that the fear will fade — just the truth that he'll carry it better next time.

Eagle's Edge is a Roman adventure story for kids, teens, tweens and young adults — a sixteen-year-old recruit takes the oath, marches into Gaul under Caesar, and learns what war actually is.

Perfect for kids, teens, tweens and young adults who love history, battles, and adventure. For fans of Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth, the action of Percy Jackson, and classic stories of ancient Rome.

📚 Grab your copy of Eagle's Edge: The Making of a Soldier (Book 1) —
available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Thursday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Marcus scrubs a spotless sword, four hours after the Arar
00:02:45 — Lucius arrives, talking, while Marcus stays silent
00:06:00 — "You should eat" — Lucius leaves the bread untouched
00:10:00 — Night falls — eight men went into the Arar, eight came back
00:11:45 — Counting chainmail rings until memory breaks through
00:13:45 — The line dissolving — a spear, a shield, Petronius's save
00:14:15 — The boy with the knife, and the hesitation Lucius finished
00:17:30 — True fear: a world with no order, no command, no guidance
00:18:00 — Petronius sits down beside him in silence
00:20:15 — "It doesn't get easier. You get faster at deciding."
00:23:00 — The truth beneath the words — chaos will come again
00:23:30 — Marcus packs away his gear, no longer obsessive but purposeful
00:25:00 — CH 7 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

Cinder staggers through the dark meadow, dry and lost, until he crashes into a ditch and a boot pins him flat. It's Rook Calder — the beetle Enforcer, the last creature Cinder would have trusted — and he's not there to fight. 

Across the meadow, Blaze carries the fading Silas through the pill bug lines with the help of a spider called Miri Solace, whose silk and spores clear the path no fire ant could open. And Thistle moves alone through the field on memory alone, charting the gaps in the patrol grid one blade of grass at a time. 

Three paths, one destination — and if all three reach the queen, the counter-attack against the pill bugs might actually be possible.

Colony in Danger is a nature adventure story for kids 8-14 — a young fire ant scout, Cinder Marlowe, has just days to figure out why the colony's food is disappearing before everyone starves.

Perfect for kids 8-14 who love animals, survival, and adventure. For fans of Watership Down, the Warriors series, and the world of Empires of the Undergrowth — with real fire-ant science woven through every chapter.

📚 Grab your copy of Colony in Danger: The Fire Ant Kingdom (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Tuesday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Cinder staggers alone through the dark meadow
00:01:45 — A boot pins him flat — Rook Calder, Beetle Enforcer
00:05:15 — Not a threat — a truce, and intel to trade
00:08:15 — A ridge view of the pill bug operation — and prisoners used as bait
00:13:15 — Blaze and Silas, hunted, until Miri Solace drops in
00:16:45 — A debt called in — Miri's silk net clears the checkpoint
00:21:15 — Thistle alone, mapping the field step by step
00:23:15 — Harper Blackwood steps out of the dark
00:25:15 — Crossing the grass bridges, unseen, toward home
00:29:45 — Cinder watches the pill bug wall from the ridge
00:35:00 — Inside the colony — chaos, and a guard who calls Cinder dead
00:36:00 — The queen's chamber — proof, numbers, and a plan
00:37:30 — "We fight back. Not alone. Together."
00:38:15 — "Go" — the alliance is made
00:39:15 — Out into the blue dawn, together
00:39:30 — CH 18 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.