A thrilling introduction to the world of the widely acclaimed Low Town trilogy. Rigus is the greatest city in the Thirteen Lands, a glittering metropolis of towering citadels and sumptuous manors, where bored nobles settle affairs of honor with cold steel, and sorcerers craft enchantments of wonder and majesty. But light casts shade, and in the shadow of the spires the baseborn struggle, eeking out an existence amidst the cast-offs of their betters. This is Low Town, a sprawling warren of side streets and back alleys, of boarded-up windows and false storefronts. Here the corner boys do a steady trade to the dead-eyed and despairing, and a life can be bought with a clipped copper penny. Low Town is an ugly place, and its champion is an ugly man. Once a war hero and intelligence agent, now a crime lord addicted to cheap violence and expensive narcotics, the Warden struggles to maintain some semblance of order in a corner of the world where chaos is the natural state.