In this sequel to Reader's Choice Award Unspeakable, Tanel, Nashada and Ekkuli return in a new city, having made themselves a comfortable home... a comfortable home, until an invader arrives and threatens once again to rearrange all Tanel's notions of love.

"Evaluate the new head of House Laisira, and if he seems unsuitable, deal with it." Such was Pathen Ures-emodo's unpalatable assignment. When he begins his investigation, he suspects nothing more than incompetence. But could House Laisira be hiding a far greater sin? And what will he do about it? A Jokka story set in the time of Roika's empire, after the novel The Worth of a Shell.