Fifth book in The Nine Lives Of Michal Piech. Largely an interlude in Michal's story between climaxes, the book shapes part of the world and brings magic and politics into the equation, focusing heavily on the pagan religious system and the relationship between normal people and sorcerers, and communism and the rest of society.
The action is split between the north and south, with parallel stories as Wladek investigates a mystery relating to one of his son's friends and Michal adjusts to his self-imposed internal exile.
Michal has left Achava for the country. Settling as a labourer in a small mountain village, he encounters two very different women, an overbearing magistrate and his bluestocking daughter, and a landlord with a surprising attraction to him. Reunited with a schoolfriend, a sporting accident leaves the village shocked and angry. Meanwhile, with poaching breeding resentment between labourers and landlord, Michal finds himself deeper involved than he might otherwise care to be.
Meanwhile in Ludlin a tenement fire leaves Stefan Mlynarczyk maimed and insensible. Wladek and the militia find assistance from another acquaintance of Michal's, whose wife has a guilty and rather dangerous secret holding the key to the mystery. Keeping her safe while fingering the man who instigated the blaze proves difficult - particularly when Leo Henderson himself is high on the hit list.
Written in four parts, the book is an attempt to fill in some gaps in the history of the Empire and Michal's own story and set up the political elements of the revolution.
- Beastly Bloodsports - the shooting party forms the climax of the first part. Guns always make things a bit more ...interesting.
