Book Description

Even monsters have horrors they whisper about in the dark of the night. They told him that the Lost were animals. Crazed and brutal, they said, a danger to themselves and others. Hero, they called him, for providing the mercy of a clean death. They lied. The Tiarna Beo is a land frozen in the still moment between acts of savage violence. Forty years after a genocidal Purging that drove an entire race either into the grave or north through the mountains, every man watches his words and his neighbour. Only a fool draws attention to himself, and only the suicidal travel to or from the North. Growing up fatherless in a cold and grieving home, Breag held tight to a clear vision for his future – a good woman, a family of his own and a quiet life. When his good woman betrays him, her confederates force him to travel to the Tiarna. He's charged with the mission to track down one of the Lost and bring it North. Its unwilling sacrifice will win him back his life. Mired in hopeless duty, spending his days and his years among people who would kill him if they knew what he was, Breag struggles to hold to the frayed edges of his humanity and his hope. But no good deed goes unpunished. When a man who would be his conscience pushes him to rescue a brutalised young woman, he finds out that she is the Lost he has spent eight years hunting for. His prize, e token that will give him back everything he ever wanted. All he has to do is bring her North. But the girl refuses to go quietly, and Breag is forced to choose between his future and hers. His choice will send out ripples that ignite the fumes of anger between Daoine and humans, and will ultimately burn the entire Tiarna down around him. Previously published under the name Tara Saunders.