In the not-so-distant future, when people no longer remember the names of their cities — and hardly care to give them new ones —there stands a place where survivors live in constant fear, trapped between hunger gnawing inside the walls and the machines that wait beyond the horizon, silent but always present. Life is harsh, resources are scarce, and power belongs to the strongest.
The fragile order of the city begins to crumble when Niam is suddenly taken. Stan is forced to make choices, and neither of them offers an easy way out of the growing crisis. Every decision pulls him deeper into a web of danger, where hesitation can be as deadly as action.
As with every war in history, the wars of the future revolve around one crucial element—resources. Whoever controls them controls survival, and victory.
This chapter continues from Storm on the Horizon, where the looming battle for Malleus began to take shape. Now, in the aftermath of fire and smoke, new alliances are forged in the shadows of distrust.
For days he survived on instinct, hunted by both the desert and the machines. But fate twisted unexpectedly when an assassin, moving like a shadow in the night, agreed to help.