Khyven the Unkillable

Khyven has survived forty-nine bouts in the Night Ring, the arena at the centre of Usara, and the name he has earned for it is the Unkillable. King Vamreth's promise is simple: win the fiftieth and you walk out free, with a knighthood.

The king does not intend to keep it the way Khyven expects. Instead of a final match, he hands over a job. Khyven is to cross the noktum — a region of absolute, magical darkness — find the hidden refuge of the rebel leader known only as the Queen in Exile, gain her confidence, and betray her. Do that, and the knighthood is his.

What complicates it is the doing. Living among the queen's followers puts Khyven close enough to see what he has actually been asked to destroy, and leaves him standing between a rebel committed to her people and a king who wants her gone. This is the opening of Fahnestock's Legacy of Shadows, and it establishes the noktum and the companions who carry the rest of the series.