The Clever Hawk — Ronan Frost

After a fateful lapse in his duties, a boy raised as a spy must flee the castle that has been his home. Forced into the wild mountains and weakened by hunger and fatigue he is taken in by the yamabushi, ascetics living in isolation in the mountains. There he is taken to a temple high upon the mountains overlooking the capital of Kyoto, home of the legendary warrior monks well versed in martial arts - a force to be reckoned with even against mighty samurai armies. The boy's solace is short-lived however, for he is soon drawn back into the web of conflict, and he to find that all is not as it first seems to be...The Clever Hawk is speculative fiction based on fact and folklore, in a time of bloodshed and upheaval in a land with a fascinating depth and complexity of history.