When a flood traps a young officer of shameful birth with an enemy sergeant not long off the farm, they must decide how far to trust one another if either is to survive until they can be rescued-but whose army will find them first?
Despite, or perhaps because of, her meddlesome dead parents, Stisele of Imlen has made it to the age of nineteen and the rank of lieutenant in her foster father's army. Rushing through a north country forest to bring him a secret diplomatic message, she gets caught in the might of her own people's watercalling magic and trapped atop the ruins of an ancient broken bridge. When an enemy sergeant escapes the floodwaters by climbing to the same sheltering height, what begins as a battle of wits becomes a fragile, uneasy truce. Stisele's ghosts give her an advantage, but Gallirrim's glimpses of a future that shifts from moment to moment are the smallest manifestation of his people's power. More dangerous than either soldier is to the other-more dangerous even than the raging floodwaters are to them both-is the risk that if rescue comes, it will come from the wrong side.
A sequel to The Imlen Brat, by the author of the Mythopoeic Award winning Tales from Rugosa Coven.
