The Empire sends its inquisitors where the world turns strange. Arius is one of them: bound to flame, hungry for a worthy enemy, and not yet master of his own fire. For weeks he has hunted Adaster Lowbeck, a murderer who leaves storms and lightning-scarred earth in his wake. The trail leads to a storm-wrecked village, an inn full of frightened people, and a forest that has not been quiet in years.