Publisher's Synopsis
In the deep of the night, Na'kar Runelayer is called into the woods of Arkdale by a visionary dream. As he sits beneath an ancient tree in deep meditation, a slender beam of silvern light falls from the full moon into the darkness of the glade before him. Within that light he sees a bright shimmering. As he reaches out to grasp it, visions appear to him of a great white pyramid of diamond stone, and a sense of an ancient, solemn vow awakens within his heart - a vow he has made before he was ever born. As he opens his hand he sees he holds a small flickering diamond that he will come to know as the Seventh Tear.
With that silent vow in his heart he begins his wandering in the wild, feeling destiny has put him upon a quest. Soon he finds he is searched by the Dark Arkanum, an order of ancient evil. But also the warriors of Shunkaya seek him, an order of white mystics to whom he must fulfill his vow. Together they must bring the Seventh Tear to the lost and hidden city of Ellaris, before the final remnant of an ancient higher race ascends from the world, to leave mankind ever more vulnerable to the grasp of darkness.
Lions of Virtue is a meditative journey that reveals spiritual wisdom with every step, an expression of the Taoist way of being that the author remembers of his former lifetimes devoted to this ancient form of Chinese mysticism. This book will be appreciated by those who have an appetite for spirituality, ancientry, mythology, and poetry. The poetic metre of Lions of Virtue is inspired by the author's spiritual Stillness.
Lions of Virtue is a contemplative vision of the mystical state of being at one with Tao, the eternal "Way" cultivated for millennia by Taoist mystics in ancient China. Rather than trying to explain the "Way that cannot be spoken", in the silent heart of the most esoteric teachings in the East, the author illustrates these ancient precepts through a fictional tale in rhythmic prose with elements of Early-modern English, a phonetic device that works well here. Lions of Virtue is also a parable for our times of the long running battle between the forces of the Dark and the Light that is now looming in our world.
- Daniel Reid, best-selling author of The Tao of Health, Sex and Longevity