Tom Badgerlock has been living quietly on the Withywoods estate with his wife Molly for many years. But the respectable façade conceals a deception. For Tom is actually FitzChivalry, a royal bastard, a user of forbidden magic, and an assassin. One night a messenger arrives to seek out Fitz, then disappears, leaving nothing behind but a blood-trail. What was the message ? Who was the sender ? And what has happened to the messenger ? As Fitz's violent past erupts into the peace of his new world, nothing and no one will be safe.
