The Sunken Road

The rain falls in silver needles. The road is breaking. And the only map that can save it has begun to burn violet. Cartographer Orla has spent six months charting the Starbound Pass, the ancient mountain road that guards the border of the Whispering Reach. Now the ink on her maps pulses a feverish violet: the anchor stones that hold the pass together are losing their resonance, and the road - and the peaceful lands below it - are running out of time. The cause is a betrayal. Arch-Scholar Vane, Orla's mentor at the Royal Academy, has stolen her research and built a siphon engine at the summit, draining the pass of its living magic to feed the ambitions of the High Council. If the siphon finishes its work, the mountain comes down. Orla's only escort is Tarek - a captain stripped of his rank for refusing a monstrous order, a swordsman of few words and unwavering honor. Together they must cross flooded trails, survive an ambush on a collapsing bridge, and pass through gulches that whisper with stolen magic, from one failing waystation to the next, before the road gives way beneath them. She trusts mathematics. He trusts steel. Somewhere on the Sunken Road, they will have to learn to trust each other.