The Eye of Nissi'I — Ronald Wilcox

Slavers on the loose . . .When Gallian of Orsanyiu baits his friend, Beábe, to accept a wager that he can hunt a baxis by playing a magical flute, the two Chaatiu Rangers set out into the verdant grasslands where the lumbering beetle-like beasts graze. Eschewed by hunters, baxi have at least one valuable commodity-chitin, which Gallian extracts from a carcass to sell to Lord Drohemy for making a cuirass for the king's army.On his return home, his life is shattered: he finds his home invaded, blood stains on the wall, his wife and children missing. Hearing reports the offenders were skull-masked raiders, he suspects slavers are involved-Black Scions, amongst the most notorious legions of Torsk.Mystery brews when a lone mercenary, Rhugardt of Caladhin, visits the rangers, claiming to know who abducted the rangers' families. He offers to guide them through the harsh Dead Lands of Bruille; a former Black Scion, Rhugardt seems the perfect guide for the rangers' needs. Gallian accepts the mercenary's offer.Desperate to rescue his family, Gallian forms his own legion, the High Bloods, to confront one of the most ruthless warlords of Torsk, Brubat of Narzwar, a renegade high priest of the Shakhahedrin. But to infiltrate the warlord's court, the High Bloods must swear an oath of fealty, bonding them to criminal life to fulfill any whim the warlord commands.At the Temple of Lyrk, where Brubat is believed to hold the abductees from Hazsolask, the High Bloods become pawns in a deadly game of politics, sorcery, and diplomacy. Gallian's fate leads him to resolving the mystery of an ancient artifact, the staff of Volniccia, that opens the Eye of Nissi'I, a portal allowing travel to all the continents of Markham. Caught in a web of intrigue, he must treat his adversaries with utmost diplomacy, or face death.