Bronzewood

Hearts & Thorns is an epic fantasy novel. In the late-medieval fantasy world called Bâlthazar, all the Wiccans of the Forest of Bronzewood have been captured or killed... except one. All the Green Knights who have guarded the Wise and protected the sacred woodland have been slain or imprisoned... except one. Knight and Wiccan -- survivors of the massacre -- must band together against a throng of flesh-eating, Demon-worshiping creatures called Cobâlion. Alongside a half-breed sellsword, a wise-cracking ruffian, and a spellcaster with powers as mysterious as her origins, this mixed band of heroes must fight off the menace of the Cobâlion and restore peace to their beloved forest.

The five diverse champions must struggle to resolve their own inner -- and interpersonal -- conflicts before they can pierce the dense woods, reach the Temple of the Wise and seek guidance from the Archangels of Life. Down every bend in their path, a crafty, savage Warlord of the Cobâlion hounds them. Later, he compels a captive villager -- a ritual dancer, mother to the lone Green Knight -- to disclose the location of the Wiccan Temple. Yet the Warlord is himself tormented by memories of his traumatic past, which cause him to doubt his part in the Cobâlion's invasion. The dancer, meanwhile, is driven by a profound love of nature and liberty, and by her growing attachment to a captive child.

Will the desperate band of conflicted heroes reach sacred ground before the Warlord can burn it all to ash? The action climaxes in the vast Tabernacle of the Tree of Life, where each character and their struggles converge... while a Demon of Vengeance and a Spirit of the Forest do battle.