All is not well in the Letherii Empire. Rhulad Sengar, the Emperor of a Thousand Deaths, spirals into madness, surrounded by sycophants and agents of his Machiavellian chancellor, while the Letherii secret police conduct a campaign of terror against their own people. The Errant, once a far-seeing god, is suddenly blind to the future. Conspiracies seethe throughout the palace as the empire edges closer to all-out war with the neighboring kingdoms.

The great Edur fleet draws ever closer. Among its warriors are Karsa Orlong and Icarium Lifestealer - each destined to cross blades with the emperor himself. A band of fugitives seeks a way out of the empire. One of them, Fear Sengar, must find the soul of Scabandari Bloodeye. Yet traveling with them is Scabandari’s most ancient foe: Silchas Ruin. His motives are anything but certain, for the wounds he carries on his back, made by the blades of Scabandari, are still fresh.

Fate decrees that there is to be a reckoning - a reckoning on an unimaginable scale. This is a brutal, harrowing novel of war, intrigue, and dark, uncontrollable magic; this is epic fantasy at its most imaginative, storytelling at its most thrilling.