The War of Houses has come to an end as sudden as a flash of summer lightning. The whole of the resurgent Tieran Empire holds its collective breath. In the east Tier''s ancient enemy, the Roi, marshal for war. To the west, King Dardan of Syrdis has launched a series of border skirmishes. Whatever the future portends, it seems certain to be written in blood.
Condemned, desperate to escape, a young thief called Qwyk discovers he has lethal tendencies. He affects a bloody-handed getaway from a prison train and befriends a Halfling whose mother was a circus performer and whose sire was a seafaring elf. Qwyk''s efforts to outpace his criminal past are abetted and sometimes complicated by the appearance of a ghost, the shade of his first murder victim.
Alyira Solys, a teenage sorcerer elect studying at the Gyft Ryll in Tyne, grapples with the mystery of the Yir while fighting to overcome the tragedy of her past and the entangling schemes of her mentor, Elyas Warron, a mage as cold-hearted as he is powerful.
Sorcerer and thief, Alyira''s and Qwyk''s paths are fated to cross. Together they embark upon a quest of Elyas''s devising -- a journey that may reveal what destiny holds in store or cost them both their lives.
Whether rogue or hero, innocent or knave, their stories continue to reflect watershed events in a world where the winds of change are rising. Choices matter amid the tumult, more than in less turbulent days, and some have hard edges, thrusting those who make them headlong into the most daunting of consequences.