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PROLOGUE

A ods from the mortal realms for over four hundred years While it stood, endary creatures known as immortals, so named because, unless they were slain, they lived forever Giants, Storres, centaurs, winged horses, unicorns: In time, all became the stuff of children’s tales, or the concern of scholars who explored the records of tione

In the eighth year of the reign of Jonathan and Thayet of Tortall, -lost spells that were the keys to gates into the Divine Realms Ozorne, the Carthaki eents opened gates into other kingdo immortals to weaken Carthak’s enemies for later conquest Even those immortals ere peaceful, or indifferent to human affairs, created panic and confusion wherever they went Gate after gate was opened No thought was spared concerning the long-term effects on the barrier

In the autureat plan came to a halt In the ents had revealed his involvehbors—Ee He ignored oods were do and barred froate spells were destroyed By that time, however, the barrier had been stretched in a thousand places to cover the holes uttering candle

At the dawn of the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, all those with anyto hear so that was not a sound In Tortall, Nues, sat up in bed, pouring sweat Though he could not see thees in the palace and city were doing The king, awake and at work in his study, knocked his chair over when he jumped to his feet Harailt of Aili, dean of the royal university, flailed in bed and fell out with a thud Gareth the Elder of Naxen pressed a hand to his laboring heart; Kuri Taylor swayed on her feet, half fainting Even those ild istered on Numair’s senses Onua of the Queen’s Riders ju a K’miri war cry Stefan Groo safely on bales of hay while the horses who loved him whickered in concern

And Daine, Nue friend and ally of the last three years, sat up in her bed-nest of cats, dragon, loo trilled without stopping, her voice spreading in a series of rippling pools, soon to reach and fill the palace itself

“Kit, hush,” Nuirl didn’t try to enforce the order “Numair, what is it?”

He didn’t question her knowing that he could hear what she’d said, in spite of hundreds of yards and a nus between them, any more than she questioned it In that moue and ghostly “It’s the barrier,” he replied softly, but she heard every word “The barrier between the realone Evaporated”

He could feel her blink, as if those long, dark lashes of hers touched his cheek Suddenly he learned so that he’d never considered before For a brief ical cataclysm

“The immortals—they’ll be on us like a ton of bricks,” she said, her voice et up”

ONE

SKINNERS

The Stor on his throne All around him torches flickered;iant bird with the head and chest of a man As he moved, his steel feathers and claws clicked softly For one of his kind, he was unusually clean His reddish brown hair had once been dressed in thin braids, but e, amber eyes, had once been attractive, but hate deepened the lines at lassy luht

Now he stared intently at a puddle of darkness on the ground before hirew in the inky depths In it, a tall, swarthyover to a young hostler Beside his froray pony When the hostler reached for her reins, the mare’s ears went flat; lips curled away from teeth

“Cloud, leave be,” ordered the girl She spoke Coe of the Eastern and Southern lands, with only a faint accent, the last trace of her origins in the mountains of Galla “It’s too late for you to be at your tricks”

The reed The hostler took her reins carefully, and led s over her shoulder

She is lovely, thought the Stor who had once been Emperor Ozorne of Carthak The boysthe pro the stubborn chin Or at least, he ae to approach a girl so different fro ani that only half the conversation can be heard by two-leggers Such a brave boy—or ray eyes, with their extravagant eyelashes