The sequel to Hugo Award Winner Tim Pratt's Liar's Island! For charming con man Rodrick and his talking sword Hrym, life is all about taking what you can and getting away clean. But when the pair are arrested in the crusader E nation of Lastwall, Rodrick faces immediate execution, with Hrym spending the rest of eternity trapped in an E enchanted scabbard. Their only hope lies in a secret government program in which captured career criminals are E teamed up and sent on suicide missions too sensitive for ordinary soldiers. Trapped between almost certain death and actual certain death, the two join forces with a team of rogues and scoundrels, ready to serve their year long tenure as best they can. Yet not everyone in their party is what they seem, and a death sentence may only be the start of the friends' problems.