The fugitive slave Ghu has ended the assassin Ahjvar's century-long
possession by a murderous and hungry ghost, but at great cost. Heir of
the dying gods of Nabban, he is drawn back to the empire he fled as a
boy, journeying east on the caravan road with Ahjvar at his side.
Haunted by memory of those he has slain, Ahjvar is ill in mind and body,
a danger to those about him and to the man who loves him most of all.
Tortured by violent nightmares, he believes himself mad. Only his
determination not to leave Ghu to face his fate alone keeps Ahjvar from
asking to be freed at last from his unnatural life. Innocent and madman,
god and assassin--two men to seize an empire from the tyrannical
descendants of the devil Yeh-Lin. But in war-torn Nabban, enemies of
gods and humans stir in the shadows. Yeh-Lin herself meddles with the
heir of her enemies and his soul-shattered companion, as the fate of the
empire rests on their shoulders.