On the way to the castle at Valenda, he received an unexpectedly large amount of money in response to the simple task of giving directions then he found the body of a merchant who'd died of death magic he made sure the man was buried properly, prayed for him, and collected his robe. He was emotionally and physically damaged from nineteen months as a galley slave, and mostly thinking of a job as a scullion. Lupe dy Cazaril (called Cazaril or Caz for short), formerly a military officer in the service of Chalion, returned to the town of Valenda in hopes that the Dowager Provincara would remember him from his childhood days as a page and give him a job. and trap him, flesh and soul, in a maze of demonic paradox, damnation, and death for as long as he dares walk the fivefold pathway of the gods. The only recourse left to her loyal, damaged servant is the employment of the darkest and most forbidden of magics – a choice that will indelibly mark Cazaril as a tool of the miraculous. The life and future of both Iselle and her entire blighted House of Chalion lie in dire peril.

Yet something far more sinister than their scheming hangs like a sword over the royal family: a curse of the blood that taints not only those who would rule, but those who stand in their circle. In Cardegoss, the powerful enemies who once placed Cazaril in chains and bound him to a Roknari oar now occupy the most lofty positions in the realm, beneath only the Roya himself. But the assignment must ultimately carry Cazaril to the one place he fears even more than the sea: to the royal court of Cardegoss, rife with intrigues and lethal treacheries. welcomed warmly, clothed and fed, he is named, to his great surprise, secretary-tutor to the Royesse Iselle – the beautiful, strong-willed sister of the impetuous boy who is destined to be the next ruler of the land. Now he seeks nothing more than a menial job in the kitchens of the Dowager Provincara, in the noble household where he served as a page in his youth.īut the gods have greater plans for this humbled man. A former courtier and soldier, Cazaril has survived indignity and horrific torture as a slave aboard an enemy galley. On the eve of the Daughter's Day – the grand celebration that will honor the Lady of Spring, one of the five reigning deities – a man broken in body and spirit makes his way slowly down the road to Valenda.

The curse of chalion