After decades of internecine warfare, the six Tiste Edur tribes are finally united under the rule of the sorcerer-king of the Hirot. Peace has been achieved - but at a terrible cost: a treaty has been struck with a hidden power whose intentions are dubious at best and disastrous at worst. In the south, the expansionist kingdom of Lether has enslaved all the less civilized neighboring tribes with insatiable greed. Everything - except tiste edur. But the Letherians are approaching a long-prophesied transformation—from a small kingdom in a forgotten colony to a reborn empire—and they have now set their sights on the rich lands of the Tiste Edur. It seems inevitable that the tribes will fall victim either to the suffocating weight of gold or to the murderous edge of the sword. This is ordained by Fate. And while the two parties are preparing to conclude a big agreement, which in fact none of them needs, ancient forces awaken. After all, the impending battle between two peoples is only a pale reflection of a much more powerful, primitive clash, and in its seething heart the unhealed wound of ancient betrayal and thirst for revenge festers... The fifth novel from the majestic epic canvas of the Malazan Book of the Fallen - for the first time in Russian!