I turned slowly, slipping the catch of the sheath strapped around my right wrist. The weight of the diamond shaped throwing knife slid into my hand. Over my shoulder a light flared and the room was illuminated by the glow of an oil lamp blinding my still sensitive eyes for a moment. “I should forget the knife if I were you.” A dark shape sat behind a desk in the opposite corner of the room silhouetted by the lamp. “I’d kill you before you could raise your hand, and I don’t really want to do t...

Prologue 15th day of Snowmelt 1459 (Kulan Reckoning) A heavy fall of rain, followed by a cold sea wind, that flowed up the narrow alleys behind the Temple of the Waves had left Temple Square empty. The sonorous, night long, chant of the Sacred College drifted out from the tower to fill the quiet air. Mala pulled her cloak tighter around herself and the baby as she moved through the shadows towards the shining columns of the White Mother’s Sanctuary. Slipping into one of the passages along the...

1 3rd day of Moonflower 1478 (Kulan Reckoning.) Gradually the watchman’s footsteps died away. I stood up out of the shadows where I’d been waiting. I shrugged off the beggar’s cloak that had cost me a silver piece earlier that morning. The lice from it were already nipping at the skin beneath my collar. A trip to the Bathhouse was called for after I had finished this evening. Pulling my hood tight around my head I sprinted across the alleyway. I knew I had 20 breaths to cross the street and g...