In the Words of Good Living, the holy text by which Amian disciples live their lives, Owndiah promises each of his followers a peace that surpasseth all human understanding. And when Brine the disciple leaves his homeland and travels to the desert monastery of Valley Rock to serve Owndiah and to walk in the footsteps of Amontus, he thinks he will obtain this peace.
He is wrong—Dead wrong.
It is only after ten years of trying—and all but giving up on the ineffable goal—that God decides to call. It happens as Brine is reading a mysterious letter from his homeland, feeling the presence of God envelop him so sweetly, so utterly, that there is no other way to interpret the sensation. Owndiah wants Brine to go home, wants him back in the Kingdom of Jashandar. Could the peace that surpasseth all human understanding be there?
Jaysh the woodsman—ardent recluse and current subject in the Kingdom of Jashandar—would have to say yes. For even though Jaysh knows nothing of monasteries or prophets or powerful feelings from his dreams, he knows a lot about peace. He knows it comes from living in the hills and valleys of the kingdom and from spending time with a scroungy, little creature named Zeph. Or at least he used to know this.
Here of late, Jaysh’s life has been less than peaceful. Ever since the Kingdom of Jashandar began to wake, tranquility is hard to come by. There are disfigured animals, defiled rivers, that large and voiceless creature peeking from the shade…
Jashandar is a mess.
