Emissary

Hyam grows up an orphan and an outcast. He trains for a short time at Long Hall, then is thrown out because people distrust his unnatural gift for languages.

When his mother dies, she tells him something she has kept hidden: he may carry Milantian blood. The Milantians are a hated people, blamed for a war that nearly wiped out the elves generations earlier. The secret puts Hyam's whole life in a new light.

He sets out to find answers from the reclusive Ashanta. There he is named their emissary and handed an authority he never asked for. The role pulls him into a struggle against a power that threatens the entire realm.

This is epic fantasy with a Christian allegory running beneath it, touching on redemption and calling. It is the first book in the Legends of the Realm series, written by T. Davis Bunn under his fantasy pen name Thomas Locke.