The second Penric and Desdemona novella; this time Penric (now finished his fast-tracked training and officially working for the princess we briefly met in book 1) is assigned to help Oswyl. Oswyl, colloquially called a "greyjay" is basically that class of holy man who goes around solving murders and judging the guilty in the world of the Five Gods. This time he's tasked with finding a runaway rogue shaman, one accused of murder and who could be a danger to both himself and others if he's out of control. Along the way however, Penric (and therefore Desdemona and Oswyl and possibly others also) are slightly redirected to serve the needs of the Bastard god (the god Penric and Desdemona are sworn to serve). All in all a fun, light-reading fantasy that develops more lore about shamans and how they differ from sorcerors and demons in this world.