About this audiobook

At a river ford on the edge of Mercia, Leofwine keeps the king's toll. The work is simple: weigh the silver, mark the tally, split the stick. The law requires witness, count, and record. When his deputy is killed and the silver taken, the hundred court convenes. No one saw. No one heard. The inquiry proceeds by proper form, and the ford remains open. Then the reports begin. Halls burned. Roads abandoned. Refugees gather on the far bank—families with empty purses, asking for passage they cannot pay. Leofwine does not yield. The toll-house holds the apparatus. The writ instructs: observe and record. As the river rises and the ford disappears, he continues the count. The tallies are bundled. The silver is weighed. The marks are cut with precision. A novel of institutional collapse told through one man's administrative record. No heroism. No resolution. Only apparatus, water, and the question of what a crossing means when no one can cross.

Audiobook details

GenreHistorical Fiction, General Fiction

Length59 mins

Narrated bySelect Your Own

FormateBook with Audio

Publish dateFeb 27, 2026

LanguageEnglish

About the author

Samuel Stephen

Stephen Samuel is a medieval historian and creator of the Samuel Stephen Chronicles, a documentary podcast series examining institutional power in Anglo-Saxon England. The King's Crossing is his first work of historical fiction.View all by Samuel Stephen