Realmgolds by Mike Reeves-McMillan
A reluctant, inexperienced and ineffectual ruler must become the leader his people need when an old rival’s hate-filled rhetoric foments rebellion.
The young ruler has an ally and mentor, a competent woman who rules the realm to the south. Unfortunately, the ancient magical treaty between their realms means she can’t send in her troops, her skyboats or her pressure guns. What she can do, though, is share a new magical communications technology – and her elite corps of Gryphon Clerks…