Gonji: Red Blade from the East (43 page)

The son of the most noble
daimyo
Sabatake Todohiro stood and faced the east. He turned slowly, marveling at the vast and distant beauty of the encircling Carpathian peaks, which belted the territory like a long-ago echo of the ancient walls of Vedun.

“Hai,”
he breathed at last, “and that, Wilfred-san, is how a man of the East brings order and harmony to the chaos of barbarian Europe.”

Then Wilf watched him climb the slope to their tethered steeds, up through the sparse pines to a point where a vermilion sun lay engorged on the hilltops, where, from Wilf’s vantage, Gonji’s form went awash in the bloody glow.

THE END

of Book One of
The Deathwind Trilogy

THE DEATHWIND TRILOGY CHARACTER INDEX

Alain Paille,
an artist and poet; Vedun’s antic genius

Aldo Monetto,
a biller; friend of Karl Gerhard

Anna Vargo,
wife of Flavio’s counselor Milorad

Anton, the Gray Knight,
last retainer of Baron Rorka

Anton Torok,
a lorimer

Baron Ernst Christophe Rorka,
deposed baron of the province

Ben-Draba,
King Klann’s Field Commander

Boris Kamarovsky,
a wood craftsman; friend of Strom Gundersen

Captain Sianno,
a Llorm officer under King Klann

Danko,
a tanner

Eduardo,
young leader of a band of street urchins

Esteban,
second-in-command of King Klann’s 3
^rd
Free Company

Father Dobret,
itinerant priest; confidant of Simon Sardonis

Flavio,
Council Elder of Vedun

Francisco Navárez,
Captain of the 3
^rd
Free Company

Galioto,
a farmer and dairy stockman

Garth Gundersen,
chief blacksmith of Vedun

General Gorkin,
King Klann’s castellan

Genya,
servant at Castle Lenska; beloved of Wilfred Gundersen

Giacomo Battaglia (Jocko),
cook for the 3
^rd
Free Company

Giselle,
beloved of Janos Agardy

Gola the Butcher,
a mercenary

Gonji Sabatake-no-Sadowara,
an itinerant samurai on a quest through Europe

Goodwin,
an English merchant

Gornick,
a farmer

Greta,
betrothed of Jiri Szabo

Gutschmidt,
owner of the Provender Inn

Hawkes,
an English mercenary with the 3
^rd
Free Company

Helena,
a young deaf-mute

Hildegarde,
a Nordic warrior-woman; a former bandit

Ignace Obradek,
a blind wagoner

Ivar,
Llorm lieutenant under Captain Julian Kel’Tekeli

Jacob Neriah,
a traveling merchant

Jana Torok,
daughter of Anton

Janos Agardy,
a clubfooted militiaman; a romantic poet

Jiri Szabo,
a young militiaman; betrothed of Greta

Julian Kel’Tekeli,
captain of free companions in the occupying army in Vedun

Karl Gerhard,
a brilliant archer, fletcher and hunter; friend of Aldo Monetto

Klann the Invincible,
mysterious enchanted king who has invaded Vedun

Klaus,
an oafish militiaman

Kovacs,
a lorimer; father of Lottie

Lady Gorkin,
wife of the castellan

Lady Thorvald,
a mistress of the king

Lancaster,
an English merchant; companion of Goodwin

Lorenz Gundersen,
eldest son of Garth; Vedun’s Chancellor of the Exchequer

Lottie Kovacs,
a castle servant; lover of Richard

Luba,
a vicious mercenary

Lydia Benedetto,
wife of councilor Michael

Mark Benedetto,
young brother of Michael

Michael Benedetto,
protégé of Council Elder Flavio

Miklos Zarek,
a fisherman

Milorad Vargo,
Flavio’s friend and advisor; husband of Anna

Mongols (Ling and Hu San),
antagonists of Gonji with the 3
^rd
Free Company

Mord,
King Klann’s sorcerer

Nikolai Nagy,
a hostler; friend of Stefan Berenyi

Old Gort,
ancient gatekeeper of Vedun

Paolo Sauvini,
a wagoner; apprentice to Ignace Obradek

Phlegor,
a militant craft-guild leader

Radetzky,
a foster

Richard,
a castle baker; lover of Lottie Kovacs

Riemann,
a German highwayman with the 3
^rd
Free Company

Roric Amsgard,
chief provisioner of Vedun; a former Austrian soldier

Salavar the Slayer,
vicious, legendary mercenary

Simon Sardonis,
mysterious loner sojourning near Vedun

Sophia,
mother of Helena

Stanek,
a mercenary under Julian

Stefan Berenyi,
a hostler; friend and co-worker of Nikolai Nagy

Strom Gundersen,
a shepherd; youngest son of Garth

Sylva Monetto,
wife of Aldo

Tadeusz,
a militiaman

Tiva,
a little girl in Eduardo’s bunch

Tralayn,
prophetess and councilor in Vedun

Tumo,
a cretin giant with Klann’s army

Vaclav,
father of Tiva

Verrico,
Vedun’s surgeon

Vlad Dobroczy,
a farmer; rival of Wilfred Gundersen

Wilfred Gundersen,
middle son of Garth; a smith, lover of Genya

William Eddings,
an English sundrier in Vedun

Wolverangue,
a powerful demon invoked by Mord

Wyvern,
a ghastly flying serpent; a familiar of Mord

Yuschak,
a farmer

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

T. C. RYPEL
—“Ted,” to all who admit to knowing him—is a writer who has divided most of his existence between northeast Ohio and the darker regions of his imagination. He has tilted with the fantastic, in fiction and nonfiction, in most forms that wouldn’t surprise you—novels, film criticism, screenplays—but some that surprise even him. (Would you believe, Irish drinking-ballad lyrics for a
Ripley’s Believe It or Not
endeavor?)

Gonji
is the work for which he is best known, chronicling the historical-fantasy, European sword-and-sorcery adventures of a demon-stalked, metaphysically questing, halfbreed samurai, Gonji Sabatake. A popular adventure-fantasy series in the 1980s,
Gonji
was curtailed by the original publisher’s cancellation of its entire fantasy line. Now that the series has been revived in new stories, foreign reprints, audiobooks, and the present Borgo Press reissue, Rypel plans to bring a long-promised closure to Gonji’s relentless quest across monster-infested medieval Europe and into strange and unexpected worlds beyond.