Oath of Iron and Bone

Caught between starvation and damnation, Corius is presented with two conflicting bargains, each a potential path to salvation and each with a terrible price. This is the crucible that will forge his fate, forcing him to decide what part of himself he is willing to sacrifice.

Corius, a battle-hardened warrior from the frozen North, is now a wandering vagabond in a foreign, walled city. The wind that whips down its cobblestone streets carries the hot, flinty tang of the open desert-a world away from the cold that shaped him. Here, in this sun-scorched land, his heavy-boned, fair look makes him an object of both desire and disdain. But Corius is a man running from a past as brutal as any desert sun, and he has just stumbled into a nest of vipers where survival is measured in inches of steel.

In a walled city that stinks of desperation and death, the hunted warrior Corius is hiding from his past. But he cannot hide from his present. Bound by a debt to the ruthless assassins of the Four Swords, he lives and dies by a single code. His next contract is his most chilling yet: murder Lady Dangerosa in cold blood. The order comes from the one man she should be able to trust-her own wealthy father, who fears her "dabbling in sorcery." Could be a danger to his own growing power.Watching him is Dombyr, a fellow killer whose quiet threats are a chilling reminder of the price of failure. To the Four Swords, betrayal is a debt paid only in death. Corius is a loose end, and he knows it; the Four Swords bury their secrets along with their assassins.