Heart of the Ronin

A young masterless samurai, a ronin, despised and distrusted by peasants and samurai alike, wanders the countryside of 13th-century Japan, a world where gods and demons and shapeshifting creatures are as real as the magic sword at his side. His travails begin with a deadly duel versus as unscrupulous samurai. He escapes with his life – and a price on his head for murder. In his his flight from "justice," he thwarts an attack by a bandit gang on the entourage of a noble maiden. He saves her from the demonic bandit chieftain, and vows to safeguard her back to her family. It should be any easy task, until they become ensnared in a shadowy web of intrigue, greed, and conquest. A Mongol tyrant, an underworld overlord, and misguided farmboy seduced by evil, all array to bring the ronin down. Our hero must wander once again, to protect himself from the love of the noble maiden that will haunt him the rest of his days.