Licking its wounds after the events in Darujhistan, the Malazan Empire now faces unrest in Seven Cities. Too soon, the rumblings of disquiet escalate into a fully-fledged uprising as the long-prophesied rebellion, named the Whirlwind, explodes, drawing the entire subcontinent into the bloodiest conflict the Empire has ever known. It seems that as prophecy and ancient sorcery collide, so chaos comes again. As Coltaine, the charismatic commander of the Malaz 7th Army, fights a valiant, five month-long rear-guard action against the odds in a desperate bid to save the battered remnants of his army and the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the Whirlwind, so disparate groups of individuals are drawn, in spite of themselves, into this most savage of uprisings. Felisin, Heboric and the silent murderer Baudin are fleeing the horrors of the Otataral mines; Fiddler and the assassin Kalam - once Bridgeburners now outlaws - journey together with Crokus and Apsalar to fulfil their public promise to return Apsalar to her home - and the secret vow to rid the Empire of the evil at its heart. And then come the two ancient wanderers, Mappo and his half-Jaghut companion Icarium, bearers of a devastating secret that is about to break free of its chainsa