The rebellious son of a long line of pureblood cartographers and diviners, Valen has spent most of his life trying to escape what ordained for him. His own mother has predicted that he will meet his end in water and blood and ice. And her divination seems fulfilled when a comrade abandons Valen, half-dead, in a rainy wilderness, addicted to an enchantment that converts pain to pleasure and possessing only a stolen book of maps. Offered sanctuary in a nearby monastery, Valen discovers that his book - rumored to lead men into the realm of angels - gains him entry into a world of secret societies, doomsayers, monks, princes, and madmen, all seeking to unlock the mystery of the coming dark age. Now, to preserve the lands of Navronne, Valen must face what he fled so long ago. For the key to Navronne's doom is buried in half-forgotten myth - and in the secrets of his own past ...