The Sword of the Lictor: Urth: Book of the New Sun Book 3 (Gateway Essentials 211)

Banished for showing mercy, Severian, from the guild of Torturers, is exiled and flees. He reaches Thrax, the city of Windowless Rooms, to become its Lictor, its executioner and torturer but flees into the mountains instead.

In the wilderness, Severian encounters the Alzabo, where the dead seem to live on, adopts a son but loses him in battle, and settles an old score. His exile leads him to encounter mysterious and alien beings, even the enigmatic character Dr. Talos. The Sword of the Lictor details the stranger and stranger turns taken by Severian's journey.