The Thing in the Cage

The sorcerer Abdegard is defeated, his army of half-human monsters wiped out.  All but one.

Koni is an innocent, designed to be a killer.  Discarded by her creator as a failed experiment, she is caged and abandoned in a dark corner of the conquered castle.  While the victorious army sacks the fortress, one man, Rawly, discovers the strange, naive creature and sets her free.  Not out of compassion, but in hopes that she can lead him to the escaped Abdegard, and to the rich bounty on his head.

On the dangerous journey which follows, the ill-matched companions come to depend on one another.  In her first exploration of the wider world, Koni will encounter both cruelty and kindness, and display her own submerged humanity as well as an instinctive ferocity.  Through it all, her unquestioning loyalty to her creator remains undimmed and her one ambition is to find him and plead with him to take her back.  The destiny which awaits her may be nothing more than another cage.