Twelve years ago, two children witnessed a murder that still haunts them as adults. Tali, a slave girl in subterranean Cython, saw her mother's head hacked open and something taken from inside. Rix, boy heir to the biggest fortune in Hightspall, watched two shrouded figures do the deed. He did not realise they were his parents, acting for a faceless sorcerer. Tali has sworn to bring her mother's murderers to justice, but now she is hunted by a killer who can only be beaten by magic.