From the murky Thames to the misty Moors of the North, murder stalks Welsh soldier-sleuth Owen Archer and his dearest friend...

It is 1367. When Sir William of Wyndesore's page is found drowned in the icy Windsor Castle moat, some say he was done away with by Ned Townley-soldier, spy, and jealous lover, But Ned's struggle to prove his innocence to his ladylove, Mary, is thwarted by his abrupt dispatch to Yorkshire on a royal mission.

Soon an unseen hand speeds Mary to a watery grave, while hot-tempered Ned vanishes in the northern wilds. And Archer, his old comrade-in-arms, must pursue him through a tangle of threats and butchered corpses, to save his life...or to bring him to justice. Owen, with his one sound eye, can see more than most with two, but what the bold ex-archer spies-with the help of his apothecary wife Lucie-will enmesh him and his friend in the dark and bloody intrigues of Church, crown, and court.