Seeking a position in the royal household, Cazaril is offered the post of secretary to the Royesse Iselle, the sister to the heir to Chalion's throne, but his new assignment brings him face to face with old enemies.

Summary

Lois McMaster Bujold burst upon the science fiction world in 1986 with the first of the Miles Vorkosigan Saga novels, SHARDS OF HONOR. She has won the Hugo award four times, and the Nebula award twice. In this, her first epic fantasy, we join Cazaril -- a former soldier and courtier -- who is about to embark on a perilous journey, rife with lethal treacheries, demonic magic, and scheming characters Having already created a classic hero in the form of Miles Vorkosigan, and captured a cult following the process, Lois McMaster Bujold now takes up her prolific pen to produce an epic of the most fantastic magnitude. A brilliant and detailed landscape populated with illustrious and demonic characters, ushers the arrival of a hero for the twenty-first century. Cazaril has seen more of the world than he ever wanted. He has been a soldier, a slave, a courier and courtier, and carries the graces and scars of all four to remind him. Now he returns to his childhood home with nothing more than the hope of a quiet retirement. What awaits him however, is a less peaceful, and possibly more dangerous, journey than any he ever anticipated