An acclaimed legend in the field of fantasy and science fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold returns to the vivid and perilous world of her previous masterworks, the Hugo Award-winning 'Paladin of Souls' and Hugo and World Fantasy Award-nominated 'The Curse of Chalion', with an epic tale of devotion and strange destiny. Prince Boleso is dead – slain by a noblewoman he had intended to defile. Lord Ingrey kin Wolfcliff has been dispatched to the remote castle of the late, exiled, half-mad royal to transport the body to its burial place and the accused killer, the Lady Ijada, to judgment. Ingrey's mission is an ugly and delicate one, for the imminent death of the old Hallow King has placed the crown in play, and the murder of his youngest son threatens to further roil already...