Hero in the Shadows — David Gemmell

The ruined city of Kuan Hador reeks of dark mystery. Shunned by brigands and commonfolk alike, it is home to fearsome wild creatures and tales that freeze the blood. Legends speak of slavering beasts, who are locked behind a powerful wall of spells and possess an insatiable appetite for death. Millennia have passed since they were bound, and the spell of imprisonment has begun to fade. Soon the foul minions will break free to wreak vengeance against all that live.

But no army waits to oppose them, only a ragtag group of unlikely heroes. Leading them is the mysterious Gray Man, an enigmatic figure with a blood-drenched past who has killed for principle and for payment--a man of destiny known throughout the lands of the Drenai as Waylander the Slayer .. .