Diviners have told Audrun that the child she carries must be born in a haven of peace, far from her war-scourged homeland, but as she flees she finds only far greater danger. For her karavan is overtaken by Alisanos, the deepwood, a dangerous magical forest that harbors not only demons, gods, and other otherwordly creatures, but also its own sinister intentions-and which may have already claimed Audrun and her child for its own.

Abandoned at birth in the dangerous Deepwoods, young Twig has been brought up by a family of woodtrolls. Now he sets out to discover his true identity.

This 1st book in a new fantasy series from the author of the acclaimed Song of the Shattered Sands series follows an unlikely pair as they expose the secrets at the heart of the mountain city of Ancris. Lorelei Aurelius is the smartest inquisitor in the mountain city of Ancris. When a mysterious tip leads her to a clandestine meeting between the Church and the hated Red Knives, she uncovers a plot that threatens not only her home but the empire itself. The trail leads her to Rylan Holbrooke, a notorious thief posing as a dragon singer. Rylan came to Ancris to solve the very same mystery she stumbled onto. Knowing his incarceration could lead to the Red Knives’ achieving their goals, Lorelei makes a fateful decision: she frees him. Now branded as traitors, the two flee the city on dragonback. In the massive forest known as the Holt, they discover something terrible. The Red Knives are planning to awaken a powerful demigod in the holiest shrine in Ancris, and for some reason the Church is willing to allow it. It forces their return to Ancris, where the unlikely allies must rally the very people who’ve vowed to capture them before it’s too late. Explore the mountain city of Ancris, where fast-paced adventure and intrigue abound. in this new offering from the author of the acclaimed Song of the Shattered Sands series.

"I was stopped by a messenger from Blackstone," Sylvie said simply and held out a folded sheet of paper that had been sealed with black wax, the crest of the main guild of the city impressed into it. "Seems urgent."Siobhan broke the seal with a quick twist of her fingers before unfolding the paper. Deepwoods had strong ties to Blackstone, the master guild of Goldschmidt, and often took on minor jobs for them. To be given a message like this wasn't unusual. To get it this late in the day, however, spoke of impending trouble. She scanned through the letter quickly and unease coiled into a cold lump in her stomach."Listen up," she called to the table, not taking her eyes from the letter. A hush instantly descended. "This came directly from Guildmaster Darrens. His daughter Lirah has gone missing.""Missing?!" several people repeated in shock."She apparently was going to Sateren to negotiate something for her father but she never got there. He's verified that she went through Island Pass so she at least got to Wynngaard, but it's now three days past when she was meant to arrive and there's no sign of her." She raised her head and looked around the table, stating what everyone had already guessed. "He's asked us to go after her."

When my boy Henry was killed, I tracked a pooka through the deep wood for three days with no food in my gut and only my daddy's hunting knife for comfort. Was what got me into the monster killing business, that pooka, and I ain't regretted a single day of it since. The day I stumbled on a four-legged critter with human eyes, the rightness of my revenge begun to unravel, leading me to a clan of two-natured shifters what'd been living under my nose the whole time. And when the two-natured started showing up in odd places, stalking humans in a very unnatural way, weren't nothing I could do but dig to the bottom of it. And what I found turned my world and ever thing I knowed upside down. A Magic, Mayhem & Monsters Story.

THE TWIG TRILOGY, Book I When thirteen-year-old Twig discovers that he was abandoned at birth by an unknown outsider, he leaves his woodtroll family behind and sets off on a journey through and beyond the dangerous Deepwoods. As he makes his way through a nightmarish world of goblins and trogs, bloodthirsty beasts and flesh-eating trees, only two things keep Twig going: the mystery of his identity and the promise of a heroic destiny. . . .