For the first time in a hundred years, Vod'Adia - the fabled Sable City - is Opening. All across the known world, adventurers hungry for gold and relics from the Witch King's era are making their way to the legendary ruins. For many of them, the Sable City will claim their lives and perhaps even their very souls. But for one heroic fellowship, bent only on rescue, entering this deadly place may do worse than destroy them. It may destroy the entire world. The journey begins in the Miilark Islands, where a most unusual dwarf makes a most unusual choice. Captain Block, charged with finding the exiled heir of House Deskata, picks Tilda Lanai to accompany him - a young woman newly trained in the arts of the Guild, but completely untested. But when fate turns against them, Tilda must navigate a strange land with only her instincts as her guide. With the help of a rag-tag company that includes a ronin samurai, a semi-competent wizard, a noblewoman in disguise, a healer, a warrior-priest and two ex-soldiers (one in danger of being hanged for desertion), Tilda's quest leads her into the very heart of the Sable City--where devils and demons roam freely, and very little is what it seems.                 Volume One of the Norothian Cycle. Muskets, Magic, and Matilda Lanai.(#2 Death of a Kingdom, #3 The Wind from Miilark, #4 Devil Town)