A reissue of the first novel in this brilliantly fantasy series by Col Buchanan.

When vengeance isn't enough ...Riding at the head of her army, Holy Matriarch of Mann plans to conquer the fortress city of Bar-Khos, whose walls have held the empire at bay for ten long years of siege. Ash is a man who would see her dead before that. The ailing Roshun assassin is determined to seek vengeance for the Matriarch's previous crimes. But such a course of retribution goes against everything his life has taught him. Meanwhile, Che, a trained killer of the state, watches as the Mannian army slaughters their way across the remnants of the free world, and questions whether he believes...

As the empire of Mann threatens the world with enslavement, only a single island nation continues to stand in its way the Free Ports of the democras. For 10 years they have held their own, but now the empire draws its noose even tighter over them. Rallying to its defense are those from the secretive network known as the Few, including the cripple and troubleshooter Coya Zezike. Coya has hopes of enlisting the forest contrare in the aid of the besieged city of Bar-Khos. With him is Shard, the only Dreamer of the Free Ports, a woman capable of manipulating waking reality or the strange...