In the Words of Good Living, the holy text by which Amian
disciples live their lives, Owndiah promises each of his followers a peace that
surpasseth all human understanding. And when Brine the disciple leaves his
homeland and travels to the desert monastery of Valley Rock to serve Owndiah
and to walk in the footsteps of Amontus, he thinks he will obtain this peace.
He is wrong—Dead
wrong.
It is only after
ten years of trying—and all but giving up on the ineffable goal—that God
decides to call. It happens as Brine is reading a mysterious letter from his
homeland, feeling the presence of God envelop him so sweetly, so utterly, that there is no other way to
interpret the sensation. Owndiah wants Brine to go home, wants him back in the Kingdom of Jashandar. Could
the peace that surpasseth all human understanding be there?
Jaysh the
woodsman—ardent recluse and current subject in the Kingdom of Jashandar—would
have to say yes. For even though Jaysh knows nothing about monasteries or
prophets or powerful feelings from his dreams, he knows a lot about peace. He
knows it comes from living in the hills and valleys of the kingdom and from
spending time with a scroungy, little cat-like creature named, Zeph. Or at
least he used to know this.
Here of late,
Jaysh’s life has been less than peaceful. Ever since the Kingdom of Jashandar
began to wake, tranquility is hard to come by. There are disfigured animals,
defiled rivers, that large and voiceless creature peeking at him from the bushes…
Jashandar is a
mess.
