Once and an age -- The precipice of war is never more than the width of a blade away. Now, when the legendary assassin known as the Black Rose has slaughtered the house of Baron Dartris Gorsha and fled with his young daughter, three nations that knew tenuous peace prepare for the brutality of battle. Yet a new and mysterious danger has emerged. The Shrike arrives to offer mercy and vengeance in equal measure to all those with a role to play, bringing cryptic messages from his unnamed master. Underlying his threats is one simple command: retrieve the daughter of Gorsha. Three Ravens of Danot — Celnor, Derrigan, and Martyn — are called upon to protect the child, and they seek answers to troubling questions and motivations. Manipulated by their queen, feeling as no more than pawns to the history unfolding around them, they conspire to bring about a necessary change to the balance of power. The secrets of their own shadowed pasts serve to pull at their union, threatening to unmake their pact, and leading them to ask one simple question: are there roads too entrenched in darkness to allow for redemption? In a time of growing doom and dread, when long-lost magic begins to find a new foothold, Wretches and Kings alike maneuver and scheme as the Codex is inscribed with the fell deeds and heroic sacrifice compelled by a conspiracy of Ravens.