* BY THE WORLD FANTASY, NEBULA, LOCUS, AURORA AND IGNYTE AWARD WINNING AUTHOR *’A feat of taut, precisely paced storytelling’ – Esquire’A raging treatise and bittersweet character study’ – Reactor’The combination of weird elements and philosophy is superb’ – Locus Magazine’Haunting and insightful… This is not for the faint of heart’ – Publishers WeeklyTHE EMPIRES OF VARKAL AND MED’ARIZ HAVE ALWAYS BEEN AT WARAlefret, the founder of Varkal’s pacifist resistance, was bombed and maimed by his own government, locked up in a secret prison and tortured by a ‘visionary’ scientist. But now they’re offering him a chance of freedom. Ordered to infiltrate one of Med’ariz’s flying cities, obeying the bloodthirsty zealot Qhudur, he must find fellow anti-war activists in the enemy’s population and provoke them into an uprising against their rulers. He should refuse to serve the warmongers, but what if he could end this pointless war once and for all? Is that worth compromising his own morals and the principles of his fellow resistance members?