In the Hunter Kingdom of the Breodani, the golden-eyed son of Bredan is born to the Lord and Lady of Maubreche. In their lands, at the heart of the Maubreche gardens, a living tapestry, carved across the Maubreche hedge-maze, is about to reach its end with the boys birth. But Stephen is a Hunter Lord by birth, and he must find a huntbrother and make the oaths to his god in preparation for the future war that waits him -- if he survives. In the fabled Reach of the Guild of the Makerborn, in the heart of the Empire of Essalieyan, the Artisan who now rules the Makers Guild is about to meet an apprentice he will envy, resent and grow to love as the shadows that grow over the whole of the Empire - and the Kingdoms beyond - promise war, cataclysm and death. Their stories are here in two novellas, Huntbrother and The Memory of Stone, along with four additional short stories. This is the first time all six of the Essalieyan-related short fiction has been collected in one place.