Book excerpt: Skellan meant to save his city and avenge the woman who raised him. Instead he s plunged his country into war and shaken their delicate alliance with the great nation of Cadeleon. Now only he and his crumbling city stand between an army of old gods and the world of mortal folk. But even as Skellan raises the city s wards he struggles to unify the disparate defenders of Milmuraille. Though he promises his friends that neither political machinations nor magical power will ever undermine his ideals, the merciless reality of battling gods soon threatens to claim all he hopes to save."