THE PAST LIES AHEAD Bloodied knuckles. Sword cuts. Aching limbs. With each day of training in a mountain temple, Antarna draws closer to the power she'll need if an assassin strikes once more. Never again will she be helpless. When magic ravages the temple, the lives of her friends and the future of the congregation hang by a thread. A rare cure for their grave condition offers hope, and so Antarna braves a return to the city she fled as a child. The journey ahead is fraught with thieves, traitors and tyrants who covet the cure. Lies are as thick as flies. In a desperate race against time, her past may hold vital clues-or offer only deeper peril.