The much-awaited story of master assassin Artemis Entreri and the first installment in a new series set in the Forgotten Realms universe. With each kill, I grow wiser, and with added wisdom, I grow stronger. Powerful assassin Artemis Entreri tightens his grip on the streets of Calimport, driven by the power of his hidden drow supporters. But his sponsor, Jarlaxle, grows ever more ambitious, and Entreri struggles to remain cautious and in control. Soon, the power of the malevolent Crystal Shard grows greater than them both, threatening to draw them into a vast web of treachery from which there will be no escape.

The book was hidden well. It's pages promised the power of the Witch-King himself. And now that it's been found, even the fact that it kills anyone foolish enough to crack its cover won't stop people from fighting over it. Welcome to the Bloodstone Lands! Human assassin Artemis Entreri and his dark elf companion Jarlaxle have come to the demon-haunted wastelands of the frozen north at the request of their dragon patron. It doesn't take long for them to find themselves caught in the middle of a struggle between powerful forces that would like nothing more than to see them both dead—or worse. But Entreri and Jarlaxle aren't just any wandering sellswords, and the ancient evils and bitter blood-feuds of the wild Bloodstone Lands may have finally met their match.

To her, to her dying breath, you were the untouchable one, the one whose flesh her dagger could not penetrate. THE ASSASSIN A cold and emotionless killer for whom every soul has a price, even his own, embarks on a path to find out just how high that price can be. THE MERCENARY A dark elf of limitless guile dares to challenge a king, and carve for himself a place in the inhospitable World Above. ILNEZHARA and TAZMIKELLA are ancient dragons of great power, accustomed to easily manipulating the humans around them. But not all humans are so easily led. When they pushed Entreri and Jarlaxle into the heart of the Bloodstone Lands, not even they could have imagined the strength of the human assassin’s resolve, or the limitless expanse of the drow mercenary’s ambition.