Skyhunter

Skyhunter is the first book in the Skyhunter duology. The story takes place in a world built on the ruins of a long-vanished advanced civilization known as the Early Ones. The Karensa Federation, a vast expansionist empire, has conquered nearly every nation on the continent. Its most terrifying weapon is the Ghost, a human twisted through poison into a monstrous war beast. The Federation controls its Ghosts through a mental bond with its leader, the Premier. Mara, a small mountainous nation, is the last free country remaining.

Talin, the narrator, is a Striker, one of Mara's elite silent soldiers who hunt Ghosts at the warfront. A refugee from Basea, a nation the Federation conquered 10 years earlier, she lost her voice at eight when poison gas scarred her vocal cords during her family's flight. Strikers operate in bonded pairs called Shields, communicating through sign language to avoid the Ghosts' acute hearing. Talin's Shield is Corian Wen Barra, a son of one of the wealthiest families in Newage, Mara's capital, who championed her entry into the forces despite a Senate ban on refugees serving.

During a routine sweep, Talin and Corian kill six Ghosts in coordinated combat. Corian kneels beside the dying leader to offer a silent blessing, a ritual reflecting his compassion for what Ghosts once were. A seventh Ghost ambushes him from behind and bites his shoulder. Striker protocol requires that a bitten Shield's throat be cut before they transform. Corian signs for Talin to do it, and she obeys, killing her closest friend.

Corian's death leaves Talin vulnerable to dismissal. When she delivers his uniform to his family, as tradition requires, Corian's father refuses to accept it, calling her unfit. Two weeks later, her patrol mate Adena Min Ghanna, a weapons inventor whose brother was killed by the Federation, rouses Talin for a mandatory gathering: A Federation deserter captured at the warfront is to be publicly interrogated.

At the arena, guards drag out a tall young man in chains. Talin senses hidden power beneath his lifeless exterior and realizes he is a captive only because he wants to die. When the guards whip him and he refuses to resist, Talin intervenes, arguing to Firstblade Aramin Wen Calla, the young Striker leader, that this prisoner could be a valuable asset. Aramin relents but punishes Talin by assigning the prisoner as her new Shield, making her a laughingstock but allowing her to remain in the Strikers.

Talin visits the prisoner's underground cell with Jeran Min Terra, Adena's Shield and a gifted fighter who serves as translator. The prisoner reveals little but gives his name: Redlen, called Red. The Federation designated him the Skyhunter, one of its engineered super-soldiers. Talin notices artificial grooves under his skin, evidence that something has been grafted into his body.

When the Strikers rotate to the warfront, the cease-fire breaks. Premier Constantine Tyrus arrives, demanding the return of his escaped experiment. Aramin refuses, and Constantine releases his Ghosts. In the battle, Talin is cornered and prepares to die. Red lands behind her, his eyes glowing silver-white, and from his back unfurl enormous wings of black steel blades. He tears through Ghosts and soldiers with inhuman speed, turning the tide. After the Federation retreats, Red remains in a trance of fury. Talin approaches him unarmed, signing the words she taught him, until he calms. He presses his palms to her face, forming a mental bond between them.

When Red wakes, they discover they can communicate telepathically, allowing Talin to speak through thought for the first time since losing her voice. Red explains that the Federation bonds its creations to the Premier's mind to force obedience, but he escaped before the link was completed, and his unfinished bond attached to Talin instead. He reveals the Federation is making more Skyhunters. Through their bond, Talin witnesses Red's memories: As a 12-year-old soldier during the Basean invasion, he refused to shoot a child. The Federation punished him by sending him to the labs, turning his father and sister into Ghosts, and forcing him to kill them. Talin realizes she was that child, and that Red's mercy saved her life and destroyed his family.

Adena conducts experiments and discovers that Red's blood neutralizes Ghost aggression entirely, severing the creatures' obedience to the Federation. A public demonstration confirms this before Mara's Speaker, the nation's chief political leader, and the Senate. Adena proposes a mission: Red will let himself be recaptured, Talin will track him through their bond to the Federation's lab complex in the capital Cardinia, and Adena will contaminate the central nutrient system with a serum made from Red's blood.

The Speaker refuses to authorize the mission, ordering Red sent to the labs for bleeding. However, Aramin sends Jeran a warning letter 12 hours early, giving the four time to escape. They flee Newage and cross into Federation territory, stowing away on a train to Cardinia. At a national fair, the Federation displays its Ghosts as entertainment while the Chief Architect, the scientist who transformed Red, demonstrates her control over them. Under cover of darkness, the group breaks into the lab complex, and Adena injects Red's serum into the central nutrient supply.

For a brief moment, the plan works: Ghosts throughout the complex lose their aggression. But the Premier is waiting. Constantine reveals that Mara's own Speaker betrayed them, warning the Federation of the mission in exchange for his life being spared after Mara's fall. The Chief Architect prepared a countermeasure, and the Ghosts snap back under Federation control. Red breaks free, and the four fight their way out and escape into the forests.

Wounded and demoralized, they debate whether to flee or return. Jeran insists on going back because Aramin would stay and fight. Talin agrees because Mara is the home her mother sacrificed everything to give her. They surrender and are imprisoned. Aramin learns of the Speaker's treason from Talin and secures a letter the Speaker wrote to Constantine, arranging to return Red after Mara's fall. At the arena, where the group faces execution, Aramin reads the letter aloud. Every Striker draws weapons in support. Before the standoff resolves, alarms sound: The Federation has broken through the last defenses.

Aramin orders the prisoners freed. Red bursts from the prison on his steel wings. Talin finds her mother fighting from the rooftops. Together with Adena and Jeran, they ride toward Constantine, but Talin is struck by arrows, and a soldier blocks her shot at the Premier. She frees Red from a chain binding him to an enemy Skyhunter, urging him to flee. As Talin lies dying, a suppressed memory surfaces: Her father died during the Basean invasion because her eight-year-old cry revealed their hiding place. Her silence was never only physical; she stopped speaking because her voice led to her father's death.

Talin wakes chained in the conquered National Hall. Constantine holds her wounded mother at knifepoint and offers Talin a choice: become his personal Skyhunter, or watch her mother die. With no alternative, Talin kneels and accepts. Through their fading bond, she catches a last vision from Red: He is alive, flying over burning Newage, and has spotted Adena in the northern forests with surviving Strikers. Talin submits outwardly but vows she is not done. The story continues in Steelstriker.