This is the latest novel from the author of 'The Fionavar Tapestry' trilogy and the bestselling 'TIGANA'. Guy Gavriel Kay creates a work of subtle, intricate richness, bringing to life a vivid and multi-layered world and its peoples balanced on the knife-edge of change.

Ren Daiyan was still just a boy when he took the lives of seven men while guarding an imperial magistrate. That moment on a lonely road changed his life in entirely unexpected ways, sending him into the forests of Kitai among the outlaws. From there he emerges years later--and his life changes again, dramatically, as he circles toward the court and emperor, while war approaches Kitai from the north.
Lin Shan is the daughter of a scholar, his beloved only child. Educated by him in ways young women never are, gifted as a songwriter and calligrapher, she finds herself living a life suspended...