Outcast: Keepers of the Stone Book One (An Historical Epic Fantasy Adventure) by Andrew Anzur Clement

Malka has been taught to be a killer.  The only reason she survived the caravan attack was because she was a child with blue eyes.  The chief of the tribe takes her in and trains her.  Then he gives her an almost impossible mission...

Mr. Clement shared a copy of his book with me for review (thank you).  It has been published and you can grab a copy now.

Malka has enemies.  Another tribe wants the jewel she's transporting and they are as dangerous as she is.  The only thing helping her is that she has a cat that can shapeshift into a woman.  The feline woman is even more dangerous but she's mostly on her side.  She gets quite frustrated with Malka because she doesn't take the most obvious route and she manages to pick up a young male human who, while he's helpful, manages to get away and take the money they stole at the same time.

There's a lot going on.  This is the first book of the series but it felt a bit like I was missing some of the history of this story.  There's a side story about Stas, who has had his own adventure with Malka.  He's a mess at the end of the story because his best friend who understood him had died.  I don't think that's the end of Nell though.  I think she'll be back in another book.

There's time travel, invisibility, extraordinary fighting talents on all sides, and plenty of action.  Malka still has the jewel but the others that want it haven't given up their fight.  I wish her luck!