Dorothea, Volume 2 by Cuvie

Dorothea has been accepted into the Landsknecht as an infantryman, at the fee of 6 Gulders. Gyurk is still attempting to shield her from the realities of war, given his pledge to her grandmother to try and keep her safe. But with a battle coming up can he keep her safe while not dying himself?

In her first battle, Dorothea kills a man, and finds a crucifix on his body. The men they are fighting against are religious separatists, which makes them Anathema to the Vatican and the local church. Dorothea picks up the unusual crucifix, but is affected by having killed her first man in battle.

When she comes upon a woman about to be raped, she rescues her and returns her to her family, only to find that the man she killed was the woman's husband, and when the woman finds the crucifix on Dorothea, she turns on her, blaming Dorothea (rightly) for her husband's death. Finding all this out makes Dorothea exhausted, confused and shell-shocked. She stumbles away from the woman's farmhouse, only to see it be set on fire by some of the Landsknechts, burning the woman, her mother, and her children alive inside. She tries to stop her fellow soldiers, but they overpower her, and she is rescued by Gyurk, who tells her that this is what he didn't want her to see or experience, that war damages you inside, and he didn't want it to happen to her.

He also tells Dorothea that to avoid being accused of being a witch, she should make friends with her fellow soldiers. The more of them that are on her side, the better. She does so, and discovers that the religious separatists that they were fighting were burning women, and women like her especially, as witches. But when the commander asks her to pretend to actually be a witch to draw the other separatists out of hiding and into a battle, Gyurk doesn't want her to take the risk. Can Dorothea face up to her fears and take on the role? Or will she refuse, risking an ambush by the enemy forces?

This second book expands on the promise of the first as Dorothea faces off in her first actual battle and must deal with the bad and evil acts that many soldiers perform. She's shocked by the difference between sparring a battle and actually fighting one and killing someone.

So far, my feeling about the series has not materialized into actuality, but it looks like this series will be ongoing into the future, and I am already looking forward to reading the next one.