Characters

Daughter of one the greatest Halfling merchant families in the Imperial Protectorates, Gywnneth's trip to the far South ended in disaster. She was bound as an unwilling concubine to the heir to the slaver House Rhaed, and endured months of rape and abuse at his hands. Freed by her husband in a fatal gambit, she is now a fugitive along with the gladiator Bronze.

Slave gladiator of House Rhaed, Gywnn's husband gave his life to free Bronze from the geas binding her to Rhaed. In return, she vowed to free Gywnn and see her safely home to the Empire. Freeing Gywnn was the easy part. Now the fugitives face a perilous journey through the most dangerous region of the entire world.

Born in the darkness of the Age of the Gods, now called the First Age, Keah fought in the rebellion of the mortal races that overthrew the Old Gods. Now a member of the Conclave, the secretive organization opposing the slavers of Rhaed, Keah and her mage companion, Tyr, search for the fugitives Bronze and Gywnn, to find out how Bronze was able to escape the geas of the slavers. But in finding the fugitives, a secret from her distant past surfaces, and the elven warrior-druid may be forced into a confrontation with an evil long thought destroyed.

Companion to Keah, the young half-elven mage is on his first extended trip outside the cloisters of the Mages Collegium of Nestra. Although he frequently exasperates the more experienced elf, she has been quietly impressed by his coolness in the face of danger, and wonders if he may be far more powerful than he appears.

For the First Captain of the Red Dancer mercenary company, risking her life is just another day on the job. But when her commander dispatches her to the remote village of Coppergate, she finds far more than the current contract calls for.

The owner and proprietor of Issak's Folly has only one priority in life: protect the wisewoman Nell. Easy enough in a place as remote as Coppergate, until travelers bearing secrets and strange events begin to gather in his village.

A seemingly harmless herbalist and wisewoman living on the outskirts of Coppergate, her terrible scars hint at a violent past. A glare from Issak typically discourages any questions, and a little mystery is a small price to pay to have access to her first rate potions and healing abilities.

Originally training in healing arts under Nell, a series of tragic reverses forced her into a life of prostitution. As the self-described "town whore," she held out no hope for any real future, until a series of travelers arrive in Coppergate, and everything she thought she knew about herself begins to change.