A thief chooses the wrong victim. A desert lord abandons his lands. A young woman accepts a stewardship. They all find their destiny on the sands. Idisio cut the wrong purse and found himself bound to serve a desert lord who just gave up his wealth, his lands, and his name to wander. His new master is the lone survivor of a massacred family and might be insane, but serving him is better than life on the streets. Lady Alyea accepts the king's mission to assume stewardship of the desert lord's abandoned fortress in the hope of gaining power. But the southern desert is a harsh world of violence, suspicion, and politically tangled family clans who worship the old gods. By the time she realizes she's in over her head, it's far too late to back out. Out on the sands, the harsh glare of the sun reveals more about the world--and themselves--than they ever wanted to know.

A ubiquitous southern saying: "Everyone serves, in the end".Another: "The teyanain are involved, eventually, in everything."People rarely consider how those two statements overlap....The Agreement, that ancient compact between humanity and ha'reye, has kept the southlands relatively stable and peaceful for hundreds of years. But as humans tend to rebel against serving invisible masters and maneuver to subvert service to visible ones, the Agreement has been fraying for a long time.All it needed was someone obsessed with uncovering an elusive truth to break it completely. Men like Cafad Scratha and Allonin Aerthraim. A First Born ha'ra'ha like Deiq of Stass. A younger ha'ra'ha like Idisio. And women like Lord Alyea Peysimun, Lord Azaniari Aerthraim-Darden, and Riss of Obein. All bring their own overlapping secrets, truths, and fears to the unfolding disaster.Then the teyanain's internal battles and beliefs spill from...

A thief chooses the wrong victim. A desert lord abandons his lands. A young woman accepts a stewardship. They all find their destiny on the sands. Idisio cut the wrong purse and found himself bound to serve a desert lord who just gave up his wealth, his lands, and his name to wander. His new master is the lone survivor of a massacred family and might be insane, but serving him is better than life on the streets. Lady Alyea accepts the king's mission to assume stewardship of the desert lord's abandoned fortress in the hope of gaining power. But the southern desert is a harsh world of violence, suspicion, and politically tangled family clans who worship the old gods. By the time she realizes she's in over her head, it's far too late to back out. Out on the sands, the harsh glare of the sun reveals more about the world--and themselves--than they ever wanted to know.