In ninety years of unbroken light, humans build great cities on the surface of Berun. In ten years of darkness, monsters from Beneath destroy those cities-and those who dwell within them. Only the Risen dead, who awaken when darkness floods the land, stand between the living and the beasts of Nightfell. The caravan will have the herbs. That's what Dolen tells himself as he leaves his wife Rayli struggling to birth their first child. Without the herbs, she won't survive. But the healers are far away, up a steep mountain pass guarded by hungry insectoid beasts. In the last days of Nightfell, when the world has been dark and cold for a decade, Dolen must leave Rayli's side and brave the monsters of the night to save her life. Sorreg lives safely within the desert city of Somteh, thanks to a peace treaty with the Beneathers. But the Risen are in rebellion, and Sorreg's scientific discovery has the potential to completely rewrite the relationship between the Risen and the living. But what cost is she willing to pay to continue the peace-and who is she willing to sacrifice? As Dolen's journey leads him to Somteh, his path and Sorreg's intertwine-with the fate of the Risen on their shoulders.
