The Paladin

Betrayed by the Emperor he once protected, master swordsman Saukendar leaves the way of the sword behind him forever--so he thinks. When a headstrong peasant girl burning to avenge her murdered family demands that he train her, Saukendar is faced with a momentous choice. Send Taizu away, never see her again--or join her and destroy the tyrant who has nearly destroyed them both. Shoka, retired to the mountains, is found by Taizu, a young woman determined to learn his sword mastery and use it to avenge her people by facing the overwhelming evil of Lord Ghita Shoka was well on his way back to the porch when the apparition came out of the forest, a huge lump moving on two thin legs, that proved only a basket and a skinny boy in a hat. A retired weapons master is roused from retirement by a girl who wants to be trained to avenge her family