This is an epic though grim story as intricate and as powerful as any fantasy you have ever read, full of adventure, mystery, danger, magic, and magical and strange creatures. A dark and compelling world of full of nuanced, quirky characters that seems too real to be described as fantasy.

The power known as the Wefan, which weaves through everything animate and inanimate, leaks from the world, and Wealdan-bearers, those who can draw on the Wefan for their magic, are fewer and weaker than ever before. A new Priest-king rules in Mureck, and the Murecken blood-priests of the oppressive god Murak rise again to bring war to the lands of Dumnon. They search for those with Wealdan in their blood, for it gives them power. Power to twist, alter and control other beings – human and beast – and ultimately to gain yet more power. They practice horrifying blood-rites on both humans and creatures to gain that power, they gorge on the blood of innocents, destroy farms and families, towns and cities, conquer swathes of territory and gain new followers.

But not all Wealdan-infused blood carries the same intoxicating potency. The blood-priests seek one above all others.

Against a background of failing states, religions, magik and spirits, Coryn and Katleya lose all that they have and must flee all that they know. Coryn, ex-soldier, ex-slave, ex-farmboy, protected by a cracked amulet given to him by a Wealdan-bearing woman also fleeing the Murecken, must find his sister and fulfill an oath. An oath as powerful now as when he gave it over a decade ago.

Katleya, alone in a terrible world, survives through bloody-minded stubbornness, wits and an unbelievable skill with knives. Frustrated that she is able to see the Wefan but not draw on its power, Katleya is determined to reach one of the fabled havens, colleges full of scholars and teachers, where she can learn to use her Wealdan fully. But she is hunted by those who would use her and the Wealdan in her blood for terrible purposes of their own.

Leveen has a single ambition, one she is willing to do anything and everything to achieve. She believes she has found one with so much Wealdan in her blood that the High-priest of Murak himself would give her anything she wants in exchange. And though she hates him with blood-soaked vengeance, she needs him.

And then there's Mureen, trapped and desperate. Too old for such terrible adventures and dangers, she almost loses her faith in her god, Lehot, as she struggles to save the few survivors left in her care from the blood-priests and their writhen – the blood-magik controlled and twisted creatures that some say are descended from human survivors of blood-magic gone wrong centuries ago.

With wyrms, lacerts, pirates, desert warriors, ifrits, writhen, and blood-priests to contend with, how will any of them survive? Will swords, daggers, bows and and a very small amount of magic be enough for them to survive their journeys and achieve their goals?

R.B. Watkinson

Libros