An ambitious warrior leaves his nephew for dead and seizes his lands.A stubborn father forces his younger son to give up his wife to his older brother.A woman of the Old People seeks five fathers for her five children, the Spider Tribe, born from cocoons.A powerful priest trains a young disciple, Shikanoko, who has been made a sorcerer against his will.An intricate tapestry has been woven for two rival clans to enter a savage battle over who will be crowned Emperor of the Eight Islands.In an extraordinary story seething with intrigue, adventure and love, Lian Hearn masterfully brings to life a mythical Japanese world inhabited by assassins, ghosts, spirits, deer and monkeys. A spellbinding new work from the author of Across the Nightingale Floor.