Beyond the Shadows

Brent Weeks

Chapters (109)

Cover

Blurb

Kylar had never started a war.

Approaching the Lae’knaught camp required none of the stealth he’d used to approach the Ceurans. Invisible, he simply walked past the sentries in their black tabards emblazoned with a golden sun: the pure light of reason beating back the darkness of superstition. Kylar grinned. The Lae’knaught were going to love the Night Angel.

Without provoking anyone, Cenaria had been invaded from the east by the Lae’knaught, from the north by Khalidor, and now from the south by Ceura. It was about time some of those hungry swords met each other.

Kylar ran, pulling his illusions around him, becoming the Night Angel. As if through smoke, there were glimpses of gleaming iridescent black metal skin, the crescents of exaggerated muscles, a face like Judgment, with brows pronounced and frowning, and glossy black eyes without pupils that leaked blue flames. He ran past a knot of gaunt Cenarian recruits, wide-eyed, their weapons in hand but forgotten. There were no crimes in their eyes. These men had joined because they had no other way to feed themselves.

The next group had participated in a hundred burnings and worse. A smoking black blade slid from Kylar’s left hand.

“I judge you!” the Night Angel shouted. “I find you wanting!”

Praise for The Way of Shadows

Praise for The Way of Shadows

“What a terrific story! I was mesmerized from start to finish. Unforgettable characters, a plot that kept me guessing, nonstop action and the kind of in-depth storytelling that makes me admire a writer’s work.”—Terry Brooks

“Kylar is a wonderful character—sympathetic and despicable, cowardly and courageous, honorable and unscrupulous . . . a breathtaking debut!”

—Dave Duncan, author of The Alchemist’s Code

Books by Brent Weeks

BOOKS BY BRENT WEEKS

THE NIGHT ANGEL TRILOGY

The Way of Shadows

Shadow’s Edge

Beyond the Shadows

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a data base or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Orbit

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue

New York, NY 10017

Orbit is an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The Orbit name and logo is a trademark of Little, Brown Book Group Ltd.

First eBook Edition: February 2010

ISBN: 978-0-316-04027-3

Dedication

For Kristi,

for all the usual reasons,

For my dad,

for your excellence and your integrity,

and for raising kids who whisper, “Peep!”

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