Markaz
"Peace finally came to the land—until something deadlier than steel woke up inside its first city."
Peace finally came to the land—until something deadlier than steel woke up inside its first city. For ten years, rival noble Houses set aside old feuds to build the Straight Roads—driving back brigands and thieves to open greater commerce for all people—and where those roads met, they raised Markaz, the first city in history. Lady Isott Adunthe arrives as her family's new ambassador to keep that hard-won peace alive. Instead, she witnesses two men in a crowded tavern glow white-hot from within and tear the room apart—unleashing a force no one has ever seen, let alone named. Now bodies are turning up crushed into solid stone at the docks, noble heirs are being hunted on the roads, and the only people who survived the tavern blast can feel the same lethal heat waking up between them. In a city with unfinished walls and no laws, the peace is already dying—and the struggle for who will master what woke up in Markaz is only the beginning. Book One of a new sword-and-sorcery fantasy series where political intrigue meets the birth of a dangerous new power.
