"What is the price of magic? Not the magic of tricks and illusions, but the kind that heats cities, powers armies, and transforms continents. Magic that forges empires. The Brannic Empire owes its existence to this magic and for those in power, no price is too great. Even when that price is their own children. For it is the ashes of those with magical abilities that the Church of Alchemy harvests to fuel this machine of empire. So the furnaces burn, and the empire grows. And they call it progress. Trying to escape a lifetime of regrets--and outrun his own demons--veteran soldier Lochled Thatcher embarks on the Fourth Crusade to Leftland, a country rich in magic. Desperate to save her brothers, Rony joins Lochled's squad, only to discover that war is very different from all the songs and fancy speeches. As politics and power clash, Kayna, a Seeker, and Ord, a Priest of the Church of Alchemy, find their foundations of loyalty and faith shaken and crumbling. In this theatre of chaos, magic, and treachery, soldier and priest alike will find their humanity in as much danger as their lives. Will they lose themselves to cruelty and deception? Or can one good action reverse the course of generations of evil?"--Inside front jacket flap.