The penitent

the long version

"A baby is born and placed in his dead mother's arms. When the funeral shroud is cast over her, his father names his son Pall. It will soon become a name that strikes a shiver into the hearts of those who hear it in combat. A lone survivor on a battlefield many years later, Pall dazedly recovers from the wounds of war. Despite the dead cast about him, everything he sees is unfamiliar to him. Wandering away from this scene of carnage, he encounters John Savage, a giant of a man who puts Pall within the sites of Savage's seven-foot, nocked longbow. What ensures from this deadly encounter is an elusive journey for truth. Yet it is haunted not just by a ravening demon out to destroy Pall and John, but by the vision of a startling beautiful young woman protecting Pall from afar."--Back cover.