In the desert, water is everything. Without it, cities crumble, lives are lost, and civilization falls. The Stormlord keeps the rains flowing, but he is dying—and there is no one to take his place.
Shale is an outcast, a boy with nothing. No wealth, no status, no water. But he holds a secret power that could change everything—if it doesn’t get him killed first.
Terelle is a runaway slave, escaping a future as a courtesan only to find herself bound to a painter with strange, powerful magic of his own. As she learns his secrets, she realizes she may have traded one kind of servitude for something far worse.
Their world stands on the brink of disaster. If Shale and Terelle can survive, they may be the ones to save it.
