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by Robin Hobb (Author)
"One of the great modern fantasy writers"* returns with this enthralling follow-up to Shaman's Crossing--the second volume in her epic, international bestselling Soldier Son Trilogy.
*The Times
The second son of a second son, Nevare Burvelle was destined from birth to carry a sword, until a military assignment to the frontier post of Old Thares changed everything. There the wealthy young cadet came into contact with the Specks, a quiet, forest-dwelling folk gifted with magic and cursed with a terrible plague--both to which he succumbed.
Now nearly healed, Nevare has returned home, determined to bury the past. But his happy reunion turns dark when plague infects the Burvelles, setting off a chain of events that will lead Nevare into a strange and mysterious realm where danger, betrayal, and the beguiling Specks await.
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Plague has ravaged the prestigious King's Cavalla of Gernia, decimating the ranks of both cadets and instructors. Yet Nevare Burvelle has made an astonishingly robust recovery, defeating his sworn nemesis while in the throes of the disease and freeing himself--he believes--from the Speck magic that infected him. And now he is journeying home to Widevale, anticipating a tender reunion with his beautiful fianc?e, Carsina, and a bright future as a commissioned officer.
But there is no haven in the bosom of his kinfolk, for his nights are haunted by grim visions of treachery--and his days are tormented by a strange side-effect of the plague that shames his family and repulses the lady of his heart. And as the still-potent magic in his blood roars to life, Nevare realizes a terrible truth: that the enemy who seeks to destroy everything he loves dwells perhaps not without but within him.
