There’s a secret place known as the Dying Day, where legends spring to life. Hidden beneath the eternal shadow of a gigantic tree, the Dying Day is a school where blade masters and magicians instruct their students in the mystical rites of a strange and dark power.

Within the mysterious boundaries of the school walls Agone, son of the deceased Baron de Rochronde, faces forces of sheer darkness. Sometimes a pupil, sometimes a conspirator, he has to fight for his survival in a web of intrigue centred on a vast but hidden design. Nobles and mages alike are quarrelling bitterly around him. And with a firm grip on a magical rapier endowed with a soul, there’s a chance that the future of the land beyond the walls of the Dying Day may rest in his hands…