The dead will rise. The living will fall. The Deathless will reign.

Born on the vernal equinox, his first breath drawn while he lay on blood-soaked soil in the mystic woods of Dunai, Andry's birth portended heroism, power, destiny.

And yet, other than an unusual affinity for the land, the boy has lived a life indistinguishable from that of any other child born in Dunai: a life of secluded, prosperous, boring contentment.

But when two soldiers arrive, fleeing the never-ending wars of an evil empress, everything changes. Andry's home has at last been found by the empire, and the empress demands her due: Dunai's crops and food to feed her subjects, its men and women to fight her wars. Worst of all, the empress has the Mother of Kish-a sorceress whose thirst for blood and power knows no bounds-to oversee Dunai's conquest.

But the Mother of Kish has her own dark designs. For she has heard the rumors, she has divined the signs. She knows that the treasure of Dunai lies not in its crops or people, but in the power it hides: the power to raise the dead; to create an eternal army capable of laying waste to all who stand against her.



And the Mother of Kish will have that power-or she will destroy it, along with all Dunai-unless Andry can discover the truth of his birth, the lie of his life. Unless he can find within himself the power that creation bent itself to give him...as The Son of the Deathless.