New Birth — J.M. MacLeod

The Singing Sword Brigade is the odyssey of Artka, a young man who embarks on a life of crime in the medieval empire of Carnalia, gets captured and is forced into the army. He is trained to fight against the armies of King Elyon and his son, Logon Xychirion. In one of his skirmishes he is pierced to the heart by one of the kingsmen's strangely glowing swords. He awakes to find himself in his former enemy's camp and finds his heart's allegiances have drastically changed: he no longer wants to serve Lurcan, the wicked emperor of Carnalia, but feels unworthy to join Logon's warriors in their quest to rescue lives to the king. The empire makes many attempts to recapture Artka as he sets out on his journey to be healed by Logon. Tophets (huge, invisible, insect-like monsters that devour the unwary) and Cusps (shadows that penetrate the mind with Carnalian thoughts) and even a Dread (one of the emperor's strongest, demonic forces) are sent to reclaim Artka for the empire, but Tren, the warrior who rescued Artka, fights in Artka's defense as he guides him to Logon's Rock where Artka's heart-wound is finally healed. Logon heals Artka, clothes him with a clean white tunic, and arms him with an Ecclessite sword, then sends him to join a kingsman brigade in Ecclessa to re-learn battle tactics, for the king's armies seek not to harm, but to rescue people from the deceptions and cruelty of the emperor and his minions. Joined in his quest to find the new brigade by three new friends, Artka discovers that empire agents have infiltrated Ecclessa's brigades to varying degrees, causing dissension among the kingsmen ranks so that they are not a unified body facing the enemy, but a fractured, bickering coalition of independent forces that aren't having much effect against the powers of their enemy. On the way to his assignment Artka narrowly avoids being kidnapped by one of these renegade kingsmen leaders, fights a band of tophets that has been dogging him and faces the facts of his ow