Book excerpt: The third utterly compelling fantasy adventure in the ARGOSI trilogy, exploring the origins of the SPELLSLINGER series to enrapture devotees as well as newcomers alike. While liberating a notorious thief from prison, Ferius Parfax encounters an inmate named Chedran, one of the last living members of her people, the Mahdek. Chedran is leading a group of young Mahdek who are determined to make a future for their people and Ferius agrees to help them find a place where they can live free from persecution. Meanwhile, having repaid her debt to the thief, Ferius finds her feelings towards Arissa becoming more complicated as she decides what debt she owes the society into which she was born.