Child of the Daystar by Bryce O’Connor

Among the scattered fringe cities bordering the Cienbal desert, the true name of the Monster of Karth is spoken only in whispers…

Raz i’Syul Arro.

A sellsword of the utmost caliber, Raz is a killer of paramount skill and highest regard. Towering tall even amongst the atherian, he is the only of his kind to live free in the “civilized” confines of mankind’s varied cultures. He has no need of loyalties, his sole affections pledged to the gold crowns that buy his time and skills. Wed to his blades, Raz’s only friends are the Moon and Her Stars and the shadows they bring with the night.

But Raz was not born to the mercenary’s way, to the butchery and battle of day-by-day survival. Raz, like a sword, was hammered from steel and fire and ashy smoke, forged on the ruins of an old life. And Raz knows who he owes this new path to, this carved way of blood and iron.

Category: Fantasy – Sword & Sorcery

Raz i’Syul Arro is a hunted man. To the south, the Mahsadën of Miropa are gone. The šef lay dead, slain at Raz’s own hands, their cruel will ripped from the shadows of the city. In response, riders careen to every reachable corner of the known realms, telling anyone with a mind to listen of the boundless riches promised for the Monster’s head. The world now turned against him, Raz is forced to flee, escaping along the northern roads just as the summer months come to an end. For a time the coolness and breathtaking verdure of the great rolling woodlands he finds himself in are a welcome change, offering a sublime peace from a life that has rarely known more than brutality and bloodshed.

But that peace – as is so often the case – is a shallow trickery. The North, it seems, is not far-gone from the corruption and wickedness Raz had hoped to leave behind in the fringe cities.