Winter only comes to the land once in a hundred years. But the snow
covers ancient secrets: secrets that could topple a kingdom.
Mauritaine was a war hero, a Captain in the Seelie Army. Then he was
accused of treason and sentenced to life without parole at Crere Sulace,
a dark and ancient prison in the mountains, far from the City Emerald.
But now the Seelie Queen - Regina Titania herself - has offered him one
last chance to redeem himself, an opportunity to regain his freedom and
his honor.
Unfortunately, it's a suicide mission, which is why only Mauritaine and
the few prisoners he trusts enough to accompany him, would even dare
attempt it. Raieve, beautiful and harsh, an emissary from a foreign land
caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Perrin Alt, Lord Silverdun,
a nobleman imprisoned as a result of political intrigues so Byzantine
that not even he understands them. Brian Satterly, a human physicist,
apprehended searching for the human victims of the faery changeling
trade.
Meanwhile, dark forces are at work at home and abroad. In the Seelie
kingdom, the reluctant soldier Purane-Es burns with hatred for
Mauritaine, and plots to steal from him the one thing that remains to
him: his wife. Across the border, the black artist Hy Pezho courts the
whim of Mab, offering a deadly weapon that could allow the Unseelie in
their flying cities to crush Titania and her army once and for all.
With time running out, Mauritaine and his companions must cross the
deadly Contested Lands filled with dire magical fallout from wars past.
They will confront mounted patrols, brigands, and a traitor in their
midst. And before they reach their destination, as the Unseelie Armies
led by Queen Mab approach the border, Mauritaine must decide between his
own freedom and the fate of the very land that has forsaken him.
BONUS AUDIO: Includes an exclusive introduction written and read by
author Matthew Sturges.
