Young Fawn Bluefield has fled her family's farm hoping to find work in
the city of Glassforge. Uncertain about her future and the troubles she
carries, Fawn stops for a drink of water at a roadside inn, where she
encounters a patrol of Lakewalkers, enigmatic soldier-sorcerers from
the woodland culture to the north. Fawn knows the stories about the
Lakewalkers: they are necromancers; they practice black sorcery; they
have no permanent homes and own only the clothes they wear and the
weapons — mysterious knives made of human bone — they carry. What she does
not know is that the Lakewalkers, as a whole, are engaged in a perilous
campaign against inhuman and immortal magical entities known as
“malices,” creatures that suck the life out of all they encounter, and
turn men and animals into their minions.
Dag is an older Lakewalker patroller who carries his past sorrows as
heavily as his present responsibilities. When Fawn is kidnapped by the
malice Dag's patrol is tracking, Dag races to rescue her. But in the
ensuing struggle, it is not Dag but Fawn who kills the creature — at dire
cost — and an uncanny accident befalls Dag's sharing knife, which
unexpectedly binds their two fates together.
And so now the misenchanted knife must be returned to the Lakewalkers.
Together, Fawn and Dag set out on the long road back to his camp. But
on the journey this unlikely pair will encounter danger and delight,
prejudice and partnership, and maybe even love...
