The arid mountains and plateaus of Karshoi have always been a difficult place for life to take root; now it is stalked by the Undying--those who at the moment of their deaths were granted immortality using the souls of others. Sidri, a necromancer trained in the old ways, pursues them in hopes of freeing the sacrificed souls and finding out who is responsible for creating the Undying and tampering with the boundary of life and death. She is joined by Jiriga, a man gifted in the hunting and killing of other people, but who keeps his reasons for helping her secret. But their hunt for the Undying has not gone unnoticed, and there are signs that they might soon become the hunted.