Queen's Blade (Southwell)

A doomed kingdom, a young queen's sacrifice and a killer who will bring an empire to its knees...In a world where men share kindred with beasts, an ageless seer predicts a child who will end the Endless War. One man is the instrument who will change fate. He will usher in a time of strife and pain that will live in legend, and forever bear his name... the time of the Queen's Blade.

The Queen's Blade faces a challenge for his title of Master of the Dance during Jondar's last days, as two armies converge on the doomed city. The young Queen Minna-Satu prepares to make the ultimate sacrifice and save her kingdom by placing the daughter of the Cotti King on the Jashimari throne. The Princess' life is in danger, and Blade seeks a painless death as his enemy approaches…

A fallen kingdom, a captured queen, and an assassin who could save them both… His queen is the enemy king's prisoner, but the Queen's Blade refuses to serve his foe. Unless he slays those who plot against her, however, she will die. Cotti Princes will taste the assassin's blade to ensure her safety and win his freedom, but powerful men plot his demise and that of the infant queen.

Fifteen years have passed since Blade vanished, and plotting Cotti princes threaten the peace of the three kingdoms again. Only the Queen's Blade can save the child Queen, but he must take up the office he scorns and become a sacred Knight of the Veil. However, a bargain with Shamsara sends him into the desert on a seemingly impossible quest that will bring him a mighty reward... if he succeeds.

Captured and condemned, the Queen's Blade is forced to face his fate and fight a deadly duel with a Master of the Dance to survive. More treacherous Cotti princes must die and the Regent's life is in danger. Blade's legendary skills are tested to the extreme and his web of lies and deceit is challenged, but nothing touches the frozen heart and icy mind of a killer whose heart died long ago.

The legendary assassin's life is in grave danger. With the deaths of a dozen princes and a king on his tally, the Queen's Blade is a target for vengeance, and his enemies are powerful. No one knows if Blade is dead or alive when he vanishes again, but the Regent mourns his loss. Two queens, a regent and a king hunt for Blade, who must fight free of fate's cruel grip.