<http://schema.org/description>
"A thrilling new voice in fantasy makes an unforgettable debut with this \"intriguingly twisted tale of treachery and magic\" (New York Times bestselling author L. E. Modesitt, Jr.). Liane Merciel&#8217;s The River Kings&#8217; Road takes us to a world of bitter enmity between kingdoms, divided loyalties between comrades, and an insidious magic that destroys everything it touches. . . .  The wounded maidservant thrust the knotted blankets at him; instinctively, Brys stepped forward and caught the bundle before it fell. Then he glimpsed what lay inside and nearly dropped it himself.  There was a baby in the blankets. A baby with a tear-swollen face red and round as a midsummer plum. A baby he knew, even without seeing the lacquered medallion tucked into the swaddling&#8212;a medallion far too heavy, on a chain far too cold for an infant who had not yet seen a year.  A fragile period of peace between the eternally warring kingdoms of Oakharn and Langmyr is shattered when a surprise massacre fueled by bloodmagic ravages the Langmyrne border village of Willowfield, killing its inhabitants&#8212;including a visiting Oakharne lord and his family&#8212;and leaving behind a scene so grisly that even the carrion eaters avoid its desecrated earth. But the dead lord&#8217;s infant heir has survived the carnage&#8212;a discovery that entwines the destinies of Brys Tarnell, a mercenary who rescues the helpless and ailing babe, and who enlists a Langmyr peasant, a young mother herself, to nourish and nurture the child of her enemies as they travel a dark, perilous road . . . Odosse, the peasant woman whose only weapons are wit, courage, and her fierce maternal love&#8212;and who risks everything she holds dear to protect her new charge . . . Sir Kelland, a divinely blessed Knight of the Sun, called upon to unmask the architects behind the slaughter and avert war between ancestral enemies . . . Bitharn, Kelland&#8217;s companion on his journey, who conceals her lifelong love for the Knight behind her flawless archery skills&#8212;and whose feelings may ultimately be Kelland&#8217;s undoing . . . and Leferic, an Oakharne Lord&#8217;s bitter youngest son, whose dark ambitions fuel the most horrific acts of violence. As one infant&#8217;s life hangs in the balance, so too does the fate of thousands, while deep in the forest, a Maimed Witch practices an evil bloodmagic that could doom them all. . . ."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://books.simonandschuster.com/The-River-Kings-Road/Liane-Merciel/9781439159156>