Cleansing Hunt: Book Two of the Earthsoul Prophcies

The Hunt Begins

After the brazen attack on Fairimor Palace by the Hand of the Dark, the allied nations of the Nine Lands begin preparations for a prolonged war against the refleshed Dreadlord Throy Shadan. Even now, his army is poised to enter Kelsa with enough shadowspawn to ravage the entire nation.

But word has come from the south of the discovery of a lost Temple of Elderon which contains a Blood Orb of Elsa — a talisman powerful enough to heal a dying world. With his friends at his side, Jase Fairimor undertakes a dangerous and desperate journey to retrieve the Talisman before it falls into the hands of the enemy.

In Trian, Elison Brey continues his war against the Con’Kumen, determined to eradicate their dark brotherhood from the ancient city, while the traitor Zeniff plots Elison’s assassination and the overthrowing of the kingdom.

Meanwhile, Croneam Eries enlists the help of the Gifted who have been drawn out of hiding by the crowning of Fairimor Dome with Fire. Led by a handful of Dymas who survived the Battle of Greendom, these noble warriors move eastward to engage Shadan’s armies in an attempt to hold them back long enough for the Fairimors to fulfill their mission.

But there is danger even in success, for Jase’s earlier misuses of the Power have him nearing the realm of the Agla’Con. Jase Fairimor, Gifted above all others, is now the Earthsoul’s greatest hope — and its greatest threat.

From Chapter 21: Death Dulls Not My Sword

Daris had only gone a few steps toward the inn when the street was suddenly swarming with Shizu. They seemed to come from everywhere; the alleys, the rooftops, even from the backs of several wagons. Then, because he was armed, they converged on him from all sides.
He met the attack and tried to clear his mind of everything except for how many Shizu he would kill. He wanted to know how good he had been in his old age before they finally got him. And they would get him, he knew; there were too many to stand against them for long.
Time and motion seemed to slow as he wove his way among them, becoming one with his sword. Four... five... six... he kept count of his kills and realized it was almost perfectly synchronized with his heartbeat. Another beat, another dead Shizu. One more beat, one more killing blow. Maybe he wasn’t as old as Brysia thought.
And then time and motion returned to normal, and he found himself on the defensive, barely managing to keep from getting his head taken off as the Shizu blocking his way to the inn slashed and twirled with more skill than any opponent he’d faced in his life. He could sense other Shizu rushing in from behind and frowned grimly. He was going to die now, he knew. His only regret was that he wouldn’t get to say goodbye to Brysia.
Then reinforcements arrived—three of his warders and a half dozen soldiers from the garrison—and he let them engage the lesser Shizu while he focused his attention on the Blademaster before him. For that was what the man was, he realized. There were no etchings on his blade to prove it, but it didn’t matter. Only skill mattered. And right now it appeared the Shizu had more.
Daris continued to counter every move, but was unable to launch an attack of his own. The Shizu must have sensed he had the upper hand, because he pressed forward with even more ferocity, and it was all Daris could do to keep from being slashed to pieces.
The glass doors of Brysia’s balcony shattered outward in a crystalline spray, and a black-clothed figure plummeted into the street. If the fall hadn’t killed him, the thorny stem tightening around his neck certainly would. A second Shizu staggered out of Brysia’s room, clutching at a similar stem entangling itself around him. The thorns turned to dagger-length spikes in a flash, and the man’s corpse toppled over the balcony and into the street.
The realization that Brysia was fighting for her life caused him to falter slightly, and the assassin’s blade grazed his thigh, leaving a bloody slash. He growled in pain and forced himself to concentrate. The pain in his leg woke him, but it was the danger to Brysia that fueled his attack. He lunged forward, turning the Shizu’s sword away with his own, then viciously slammed his forehead into the man’s face.
The Shizu staggered backward in pain and tried to regain his stance. Daris howled in rage and whirled, bringing his sword around in a sweeping arch that sliced the Shizu completely in two. From within the narrow slit of his mask, the man’s eyes went wide as he toppled into two separate heaps.
Daris was already racing past, his eyes fixed on the door of the inn, his heart burning with the fear that he might already be too late to save Brysia. A Shizu tried to bar his way, but Daris left him standing armless in his wake, not even bothering to kill him. There would be time for that later. Right now, all that mattered was reaching Brysia.