Locklands

Once, Sancia Grado was just a thief with a grudge and a rare talent. Then she learned how to use that talent, and beat the great merchant houses of Tevanne at their own game. With Clef and Berenice, she even saw off an immortal hierophant - but the war theyre fighting now is one they know they cant win.

Absolutely riveting . . . A magnificent, mind-blowing start to a series Im hungry for - Amal El-Mohtar, co-author of This is How You Lose the Time War, in the New York Times on Foundryside

This time, theyre not facing robber-baron elites or an immortal hierophant, but an entity whose intelligence is spread over half the globe: a ghost in the machine using the magic of scriving to possess and control not just objects, but human minds.

Despite all their efforts their enemy marches on, implacable, unstoppable - and its closing in on its true prize: an ancient doorway that leads to the centre of creation itself.

One of the best fantasy writers on the scene today says Kirkus Reviews

Sancia and her friends glimpse a last desperate opportunity to stop this unbeatable foe - but to do so, theyll have to unlock the centuries-old mystery of scrivings origins and pull off the most daring heist theyve ever attempted.

And as if that werent enough, their adversary might just have a spy in their ranks - and a last trick up its sleeve . . .