Benedetto de Lyse can pick nearly any lock in the delta city of Ardent. As a common thief and lowly henchman of one of the city's shadow princes, his options to move up in the world are limited. Which makes his fascination with the charming Alessandra all the more tragic. She's a daughter of one of the merchant princes, and there's no way he'll ever be able to unlock her heart. Hell, she doesn't even know that he exists.Yet when a rival organisation threatens to kidnap the princess, Ben can't sit idly by. After all, the Cordo family has a penchant for snipping off fingers if their demands are not met with alacrity.In Ardent, caring about the wrong person can get you a slit throat and a pocket full of stones to drag you to the bottom of the river.With time running out, Ben must act, even if his intervention threatens to spark a war that will rip out a city state's underbelly.
