There's no time for celebrating the holidays when a young messenger boy's corpse is discovered just outside Manatas. Snake had ambitions of bettering himself, but as Halvar, Selim, and the Town Guard seek for the lad's killer, they discover signs of a plot that could endanger the entire city. Then a noted master of mathematics is discovered dead in the Madrassa. Halvar's instincts tell him the two deaths are connected, but unearthing that link may present his most complicated puzzle to date. And, of course, make him a target for death yet again.