Invelmar. A great kingdom boasting unrivalled peace and a brutal grip over the known world. A kingdom built with blood.
Former Invelmari prince Klaus surrendered everything to it. Now he’s fleeing a shattering betrayal and wondering why his parents want to kill him.
Neighbouring Derinda – a once-magnificent realm devastated by Invelmar’s damming of its mighty river – may offer Klaus a new life mapping distant roads. But feuding Derinda makes poor refuge for a fugitive mapmaker, and there’s no peace from his questions here. Questions about who his real family are. Questions about the sentient particles awakening in Derinda’s desert, intent on unearthing the devastating secret buried in its sands…
Because this desert wind is thick with poets and pirates, shamans and spaewives, and the answers are far worse than Klaus could have imagined. His loyalties to his beloved home are fast unravelling, and the desert clamours for a trial of Invelmar’s crimes. But can he separate vengeance from justice?
Does he even want to?
TRUTH IS A KNIFE. LOYALTY’S A CAGE. NO ONE IS INNOCENT.