The Long Night has begun and the North moves towards the final, apocalyptic battle that may bring an end to the realm of men. In the vast and frozen Racklands, Raif Sevrance is captured by the Sull. What he endures at their hands will change the course of the world. The Sull strip away his identity and force him to battle every night in their fight circle, thereby creating the very thing they fear most: Watcher of the Dead.
The epic saga of Sword of Shadows has come to this: Clan Blackhail is in disarray. While Mace Blackhail is away waging war, Raina plots to take control of her clan. Far to the East, Raif is captured by the fearsome and unforgiving Sull, while Ash March struggles to come to terms with her heritage, and with the knowledge that Watcher, of the Dead, armed with Loss, will be the one who ends the existence of her people: the Sull.
Raif recalled drawing it from the Red Ice, its blade forged from meteor steel, metal that did not belong on this earth. Sul Ji, the Sull named it. The God Sword. It had another name, though, a human one given by the warrior who had wielded it. Raven Lord had named the blade Loss.
Ash pushed the blade across her skin. There was no pain, just a sense of opening, of becoming somehow larger than herself. Her body was no longer contained by her skin, and the insubstance that shimmered on the edge of existence touched her from the other side.
The US cover image (top of the page) was created by J.P. Targete, who used a portion of the early manuscript for his inspiration. It captures the scene in Watcher where the Sull Queen forces Raif to fight in single combat. The UK cover art (second image down) depicts the same scene, illustrated by David Wyatt. Finally, we have Marc Simonetti's rendition for the French edition below. Simonetti chose to isolate Raif, showing him alone in the fight circle, depicting the moment when he stopped being Raif Sevrance and became Watcher of the Dead.
