The Red Sword by Michael Wallace

Markal, an apprentice wizard, is thrust unexpectedly to the head of his order when his master is decapitated by a gray-skinned assassin. The order’s walled gardens have the power to restore their dead master to life, but only if the apprentices can protect his body long enough for their sanctuary to work its magic.

When a barbarian warrior named Bronwyn invades the gardens wielding a soul-binding sword and accuses the order of harboring a powerful sorcerer, Markal thinks she is another assassin come to finish the job. But Bronwyn is a paladin, a holy warrior from across the mountains, and her presence is a harbinger of a greater threat than Markal had imagined, a necromancer with the power to command the dead.

Together, they must join forces before the necromancer destroys Markal’s order and overruns Bronwyn’s homeland.

Category: Fantasy – Epic

After the death of the paladin captain and the defeat of the sorcerer’s attack, apprentice wizards Markal and Nathaliey flee their homeland with the red sword in the hopes of carrying it to safety in the barbarian homelands. They must cross the mountains ahead of the sorcerer’s marauders while avoiding the giants and griffins that infest the high passes.

But before they can cross, the two companions are taken prisoner by a band of paladins who are convinced that Markal and Nathaliey are lying about their captain’s death. The sorcerer has invaded the paladin lands, and they have begun a desperate campaign to throw back his forces.

Meanwhile, the pursuing marauders have been joined by more servants of the enemy: the sorcerer’s dark acolytes, who are eager to test their growing magic against the two young wizards they have been sent to kill.