Path of the Samurai

As regional warlords divide Japan, one rogue Samurai will sacrifice everything-apart from his honor-in this thrilling sixth-century epic. Japan, 1532. In the Age of the Warring States, nothing is as it appears. The young Emperor, Go-Nara, has been reduced to ceremonial irrelevance. After a failed assassination attempt on the royal figurehead, an anonymous samurai is coerced into a suicide mission that will test his skills to the limit. He must face this challenge for the sake of his young charge, a girl who is the last remainder of his duty. The samurai and the girl must journey to a far and impregnable mountain fortress, fighting off threats and dangers on the way. The girl, knowing no other life, hopes to learn all she can of the ways of the warrior. But they do not travel alone. The hunters are also the hunted.

For the Samurai, death is not to be feared. It is to be embraced. Japan 1533 – A nation in turmoil. Rival warlords battle for supremacy while common folk struggle to survive in a land laid waste by endless war. Tengu, an orphaned girl, must navigate the lawless hinterlands if she is to survive and achieve her ambition to become a master swordswoman. Rejected by every school of martial skill, she joins samurai from northern Japan as they converge on a river shrine to take part in a savage tournament, a death-match from which only one can emerge victorious. Will she survive the gladiatorial combat? Or will she meet a bloody end on the arena floor? A taut and heart-pounding novel that takes us deep into the life of combat in Shogunate Japan, Raven's Sword is perfect for readers of David Kirk, James Heneage and James Clavell.