Marked with strange tattoos from before his earliest memories, Jared was told that one day the choices he would make would either ensure the safety of his homeland or destroy it. Growing up in a time of peace, Jared forgot the whispered prophecies until he is captured by the evil King of Bandobras, given as a slave to the lovely Queen Xylandrian, and then must challenge the demi-god Ahrimanno to win back the woman he loves.

Excerpt from the book:

Jared lost track of time.

When he thought at all, he could only wonder why he wasn’t yet dead. It was during one of those quiet times, that Jared heard the sounds of a woman’s footsteps. Through slits where his eyes had been, he saw a woman looking at him. Full and red lips made tisking sounds at the High King even while her eyes looked at Jared with pity and something else that he could not define. She came close to Jared and pulled his face up to look into his eyes.

Kindness looked at him from gentle green eyes. He felt the warmth of the Naides who watched protectively over the souls of warriors like himself. Suddenly Jared remembered springtime flowers and the soft babbling of brooks. He felt himself drawn to those gentle green eyes and that frightened him more than any thing that could be done by the men. He tried to pull away, tried to scream no, but all that could come out was a rasping sound, more like a whimper than a demand.

The woman tilted her head, frowning slightly at Jared’s struggles and then turned her head to look over her shoulder. “Release this man to me.”

“NO!” Jared, panicked beyond reason, managed to make his voice work this time, “let me die!” He started crying like a small child, whimpering without shame. “Just let me die.”

“All Zachary is going to do is kill this man. Release him to me.” Her voice was melodious and warm. “Let me convince him.”

The sound of her voice brought a flood of memories; the taste of good warm bread that was fresh from the oven and a thousand other small pleasures. Jared remembered sitting by the fire with elven wine and Sharawin, the half-elf woman he loved.

“NO!” Jared managed a full scream this time, fear coursing through him far more than it had since his capture. This unknown woman’s presence invoked images of what he most wanted and he knew in his heart that she could bend his will to hers. Some part of him knew that he would not be able to refuse this woman anything. Exhausted by his feeble efforts, Jared dropped to the floor.

Afterwards there were vague memories of being roughly carried out of the dark room, followed by equally vague memories of the sense of movement, of traveling somewhere, but Jared neither knew nor cared where he was being taken. Somewhere in that time, he heard a man’s heavy and rolling voice say that they had almost been too late. “He may yet die.”

“We will do what we can.” The woman’s voice had answered dispassionately, betraying neither hope nor despair.

Jared heard nothing further for a time then the man spoke again, mostly musing as if to himself. “I wonder why he was so frightened of you?”

“I don’t know, but it worked in our favor. Let us thank the Naides and see about healing him.”

“And if we can’t?” the man had insisted.

“Then we will have to find another way.”