From acclaimed fantasy author Mindee Arnett comes an epic, adventurous
story of a young mercenary magic-user trying to escape the oppressive
island of Riven--and a young noblewoman trying to change it
forever.
Mars Darksvane wants out. Out from under the thumb of Una, the crime
boss who pulled him off the streets as a child and trained him as an
assassin; out from the island country of Riven, where magic, in the form
of a dangerous material called Ice, allows the rich to live in luxury
and keeps the poor in thrall.
Mars is a secret adept--a person born with the ability to channel the
magic that flows beneath Riven--and while his power gives him abilities
useful to an assassin, it also makes him a target. And when his last
mission ends in tragedy, Mars finally decides it's time to escape to the
mainland. No magic, no history, a new life on his own.
But Una has other ideas. If Mars wants his freedom, he's going to have
to perform a final job: protecting Fura Torvald--the heiress of the rich
and powerful Torvald kith, and the daughter of the last man Mars was
sent to kill--and stealing from her a mysterious object known only as
the Primer.
Mars has no interest in Fura or whatever the Primer is, nor in Riven's
corrupt and oppressive politics; he just wants to do his job and get
out. But as Mars comes to know more about Fura, the Primer, and the true
nature of the power in Riven, he realizes that he will soon have to take
a side in a fight he has avoided his entire life.
Which side, however, he does not yet know.
