"I read everything Brendan DuBois writes. Science fiction, fantasy, mystery, it doesn't matter. He's one of the best." --- Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Hugo award-winning author * * * Hundreds of years after the War of the World devastated humanity, only one nation is still thriving in North America: the Empire of the Nunavit, also known as the Empire of the North, where Canada once stood. From this Empire, young Sire Armand de la Couture travels south with his father by airship on a trading mission to a city-state called Potomick, which was once the capitol of the world's greatest empire, known as Amerka. There, among the ruins of buildings and museums, he comes upon a sacred site, a temple of a bearded, brooding man, sitting on a throne, looking out upon a rectangular pond. The man is known as Father Abram, and centuries ago, the stories say, he once freed the slaves. He is now worshipped and offerings are left at his feet, for the oppressed people of Potomick pray that a new Father Abram will arise and free the slaves once again. Armand soon returns to the safety and comfort of his Empire, but takes a critical look at his Empire's society, where indentured servants work for families to work off debts decades old, and Armand begins to ask questions. But soon Armand catches the attention of his Empire's security forces, and he is forced to make a terrible decision: to betray his noble family and the Empire that has raised him, or to fight for those who have no voice, who are slaves in name and in deed, struggling to survive in the Empire of the North. In this stunning debut work of a three-novel series, award-winning winner author Brendan DuBois sets a new world among the ashes of the old, where the humanity-long struggle between freedom and slavery takes place in the ancient lands once known as Canada and America...