Book excerpt: Ten years ago, the Kinslayer returned from the darkness. His brutal Yorughan armies issued from the pits of the earth, crushing all resistance, leaving burnt earth and corruption behind. Thrones toppled and cities fell. And then he died. Celestaine-one of the heroes that destroyed him-has tasked herself with correcting the worst excesses of the Kinslayer's brief reign, bringing light back to a broken world. With two Yorughan companions, she faces fanatics, war criminals and the Kinslayer's former minions, as the fragile alliances of the War break down into feuding and greed. The Kinslayer may be gone, but he cast a long shadow: one from which she may never truly escape.