Author: Don Chalant

Publisher: Pamela Edmondson

Published:

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13:

The AlmKore children are attempting to carve a place out for themselves in the dangerous Rekyee forest. Years earlier they survived a bloody ambush that ripped their mother violently from their lives and left them to be found and raised by the Trog priest Galad. The human/gorilla hybrid was a priest of the One True God, and though not recognized by the Garashun Church he was faithful to teach respect for God and obedience of His edicts. Unfortunately, the children couldn't shake the shadow of pain and violence that haunted their nightmares and twisted their daydreams. As she come of age, Ly'n chose a bloody path that didn't quite forsake their surrogate father's teachings, but if they didn't break the rules they sure twisted them into a blacksmith's nail puzzle The Edicts of Will dictates one be willing to fight to the death in the protection of widows, orphans, family, life and limb.. Ly'n chose to haunt the trade routes through Rekyee forest that is fairly crawling with robbers, murderers, and thieves. As soon as Is'c found out he stuck extra close to his sister and never let her leave on her own. His conscience being more sensitive than his angry sister's made him insist they give each band they encountered the option of fighting the seven- and eight-foot ice giant hybrids or surrender their fealty to the twins. The charismatic and powerful twins were soon gathering mercenary followers by the droves. As their army grew, Is’c inspires loyalty through his innate physical strength, mastery of a large array of weapons, and his instinctual ability to read a battlefield and lead his warriors to victory but also due to his easy going, good nature. Meanwhile, Ly'n, arouses an adoration in the majority of their followers that is based more on her exotic pale sea-blue skin and her captivating eyes that shine like violet sapphire gemstones, than on her unmatched military mind or even the rumors that the seven-foot-tall teen is stronger than her eight foot tall brother. Ly'n is as oblivious to her own beauty as she is of the band's near worship and she rules Respite, the fledgling city that sprang up around their mercenaries with the threat of violence instead of enjoying her people's adoration. It was Ly'n with her analytical mind that organized the city's growth into a defensive pattern that Sunday shoppers find frustrating, but an invading army would find a death trap. She insisted on a stone battlement as soon as the settlement began to form and refused to allow buildings to be built with wooden outer walls anywhere inside Respite's fortifications. Even forbidding the use of any other wood besides Iron Wood for interiors of homes and businesses. The city, warriors or otherwise, respect Is'c as a natural leader and as one they act on his every command, but Ly'n is the one responsible for establishing Respite and it was she that invoked the Law of Asylum on her city. Ly'n is a brilliant strategist that directs the handpicked mercenary band while Is'c is a gifted tactician that lead the Lioness' Marauders to victory after victory. As a knife-in-the-dark she has S'Kye, the Child Assassin, who is known more for the tinder age he was introduced to violence than for the fact he is the most prolific blade-for-hire alive or that due to his quick mind and innate magic he has never failed an assignment. S'Kye is hardly a teen but his sister sends him to hunt at her discretion but is it out of cruelness or does she sense that if the boy's broken conscience isn't directed there is no telling which direction it will lash out. The older three AlmKore children for all there faults are admired, respected, and even loved but there is a dangerous edge to all three of them as if they are always a hair's breadth away from trauma and abuse taking the helm of their will. Each has their own ways of coping with a past that haunts them like an incensed apparition. To the three nothing binds them as tight as their immediate family, that includes each other and Galad , but most importantly Er’t, the youngest AlmKore and one of the few humans with no magic at all. Are the children's choices leading them to greatness or will they choose to remain hidden away in a world of violence and blood? They have their faults, their weaknesses, their fears, and shame but no one doubts whether any one of them would lay down their life for any of the other's without hesitation and all are most protective of Er't their powerless baby brother. Er't holds his family in the highest regard and longs more than anything to fight by their side. He has their love, but he yearns for their respect as well. When he witnesses his brother's backing down from a vampyre ambassador that was passing through their forest and sees the respect his sister shows the vampyre Er't senses an opportunity. The power of a three-thousand-year-old Vampyre Prince is a temptation Er't can't resist. More than anything Er't wants to be strong enough, powerful enough, to fight beside his giant siblings instead of cowering behind them. If what he has heard is true Prince Rupart Fontanae DeEtiqua, may be the answer to his prayers. Will the children conquer their own demons in time to save their baby brother from his . Are they cursed with an inevitable life of souls searing loss and bond rending pain, will they surrender to being Children of Fate or can they, with nothing but the unyielding power of their will, be able to rewrite their own destiny?