A Dragon Rises: Mercenary

Tulag Gor had sold his sword and axe to more rulers and kings in more lands than he could count, but the big northerner had never taken contract with a more unlikely patron than the one who approached him that day in Butistan: an ex-clan chief of the Iloni, accompanied by the commander of the royal elite guard of Urland, hereditary enemies of the Iloni themselves. It was a job he couldn't pass up. The Iloni was Orin-na-Tak, father and royal steward to Prince Michal, heir to the throne of Urland, and the young prince had been betrayed by none other than General Tomeku, supreme military commander of Urland's armies. Now the boy was being held captive, to be used as a pawn by the general as he sought control of the kingdom. Orin-na-Tak and what remained of his loyal guards would stop at nothing in getting his son safely back to him, and to reclaim Prince Michal's birthright as the future king. None could know that this singular drama playing out in a small realm far to the east of the Amber Sea would begin a confluence of events that would soon shape the destiny of the entire West.