307pp. 8vo. Book Two of the Tower and Knife Trilogy. Signed, dated (12/12/12), quoted ("This knife cuts just as well as all the others. I am just as damned." Grada), doodled (snakehead), and numbered (5/5). Book is a stated first edition, has its price intact, is unmarked, clean, tight, and unread. Jacket is in an archival protector.

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The brother of a fallen emperor ascends to the throne of the Cerani Empire in the second installment of the Tower and Knife trilogy.

After a lifetime locked in his tower room, Sarmin has come into his own. He is the crowned emperor; he has wed Mesema of the horse tribes; the Pattern-Master is dead. Everything should be happy-ever-after.

But war ignites in the north, and in the palace, Sarmin's new baby brother is seen as a threat to Mesema's unborn child. Scheming courtiers surround the Petal Throne, and when a peace envoy is invited, their plots blossom. Sarmin has no royal assassin as proof against their treachery; no one to whom he can give the twisted Knife.

Those whom Sarmin saved from the Pattern-Master's curse, unsure how to live without the Many, turn to Mogyrk, the god of their ancient foe, for comfort. And Sarmin has not been left alone: the remnants of the Many haunt his thoughts; he hears their voices in the darkness of his room. The worst damage left by the Pattern-Master is about to take Sarmin unawares . . .