Synopsis: Ink for Thieves

A thousand years ago, the world burned. Fired as if in a kiln and utterly changed, no one living now remembers why. The people that survived gathered what was left and built their lives anew, and an age later only the flashpoint lingers; the Embers burn still, and the surrounding desert is rife with the dangerous forms created at the very moment of Change. It is impassable, a cursed land. At night, from the tallest towers of Gloam City, it is possible to see the baleful glow of the Embers, far beyond the Blessed Hills. But few choose to look upon it.

Guido Foss hadn’t planned to steal anything, certainly not a priceless Artefact from the famed museum of the Gloam Academy; but perhaps this is why she is now hopelessly on the run, with no real idea of why she has chosen to ruin her life and her promising academic career for a petty act of revenge. Perhaps next time they won’t leave her off the honours list.

Her only choice is to run to the distant city of Turnstrad; in Turnstrad’s teeming population of thousands, no one will notice one more fugitive. But to get there she must cross the Embers, the near mythical passage of desert where the sunlight alone can make you sick, and the bandits and prairie wolves are the least of your worries. With the reluctant help of an ex-criminal turned guide, and a man who already believes himself to be dead, Guido’s chances of making it out of the cursed desert alive are dwindling fast.

And deep in the boiling centre of the Embers, something is waiting.