When a blacksmith's apprentice discovers his rare ability to summon demons, he and his personal demon, Ignatius, head to the academy, where Fletcher must choose a side as trains to join the Empire's war against the Orcs.

When Ludlow Fitch runs away from his thieving parents in the City, he meets up with the mysterious Joe Zabbidou, who calls himself a secret pawnbroker, and who takes Ludlow as an apprentice to record the confessions of the townspeople of Pagus Parvus, where resentments are many and trust is scarce.

"The Queen's Assassin is forced to take on a mysterious apprentice on his most dangerous mission yet, pulling them both into a vicious web of secrets and lies"--