A compendium that contains the first three stand-alone novellas featuring the warrior Rayden Valkyrie. Included in Volume I are Blood of a Queen, Winds of War, and The Sun's Caress. With diverse settings, action-driven plots, and an array of fearsome adversaries, the Rayden Valkyrie Tales will satisfy any reader of Heroic Fantasy or Sword and Sorcery! Here is what readers can look forward to in this volume! Traveling farther east, Rayden Valkyrie comes upon a city shrouded in fear and anger. A devastating drought has been followed by a nightmarish rash of brutal murders and disappearances that only occur after the sun goes down. A few witnesses speak of terrifying, monstrous wraiths prowling the streets at night. The ruler of Terith-Ka, Queen Annukeyen, claims that the demonic entities have been summoned through dark magic wielded by sorcerers in the rival city of Rastapur. A war looms and the people clamor for vengeance against the city they believe has caused their suffering. Rayden suspects something much darker at work underneath the simmering atmosphere of Terith-Ka. When all others have gone inside with the fall of night, Rayden heads into the empty streets of the city to find answers and confront the evil plaguing a frightened populace. The winds of war are stirring. The kings of Thrakkia and Samosia quarrel with each other as a wave of invaders from a powerful empire crashes upon the shores of the nearby Kingdom of Pargemon. Having finished a harrowing mission aiding the Thrakkians deep in their mountains, Rayden Valkyrie understands the looming, perilous threat from the Astrian Empire. Without unity, none of the Griacan kingdoms stand a chance against the much larger invasion that Rayden knows will follow the conquest of Pargemon. With time dwindling fast and the kings set on a course to weaken each other in battle, Rayden undertakes a bold mission. The fate of many lands hangs in the balance. At the edge of the world, far to the east, Rayden has joined with a band of pirates led by Timiko, the young widow of a great warrior revered for showing compassion and generosity to the powerless toiling in the fields and villages on the islands of Yamatainu. When word arrives that a raiding fleet is approaching under the command of the pirate Fujimara, a man known for extreme cruelty and barbarity, Timiko and Rayden know that the villages throughout their region are in great peril. Though greatly outnumbered, Timiko's fleet sets out against all odds to confront Fujimara's raiders.