It was once a property ravaged by war-minor town state governments, baronies and principalities fighting with each other for supremacy. But the rival metropolitan areas of Tali and Quon formed an alliance and so Quon Tali happened and with it came a serenity of sorts.

That was, however, long ago and the regional forces are once again at each other’s throats.

At Quon Tali’s heart sits Li Heng-a town declare that has for years and years enjoyed relative stability under the iron rule from the sorceress they call the ‘Protectress’. She about Dancer’s Lament and her cabal of five mage servants kept back again the Quon Tali Iron Legions but now her website is certainly under threat as never before….

Two young men have recently arrived. One is set to prove he is the most qualified assassin of his age group, while the various other is his quarry-a Dal Hon mage who is proving annoyingly tough to kill.

And then, from the south, the forces of Itko Kan are on the march, led by an ambitious new king. He has sent his assassins, the Nightblades, into Li Heng, and you will find rumours that he provides inhuman, nightmarish makes at his command. As shadows and mistrust develop, and monstrous beasts that appear from nowhere rampage through the beleaguered city’s roads, it seems chaos is come. But in chaos, as a particular youthful Dal Hon mage would say, there is chance….

Taking readers back to before the Malazan Empire happened, this is actually the opening chapter in Ian C. Esslemont’s amazing new epic fantasy, chronicling this troubled continent’s turbulent history.