Wexford Stoli has a talent, and it's not raising pigs. He joins palace soldiers as a cartographer to map the lands of the kingdom for Overlord Kryst. The Veil in the Angry Mountains is said to hide the blasphemies of a bygone age, and the dark curtain has remained for hundreds of years. Those drawn into the Veil of darkness do not return. The company includes a magician of dubious skills, a Count's daughter, and an unlikely group of misfits. Wex becomes the mapper when his sketching unexpectedly moves the Veil and the company encounters deadly Rotters, River People that time has forgotten, river-dancing Adara of the Walther, and horned beasts. Vill Magnan has emerged from the Veil with a singular desire for vengeance against the man who had unfairly betrayed him. His beastly Murks are simple creatures but are trained as an army to become a powerful force. X marks a treasure or disaster as Wex must continually map away from danger, trying to return to his own land. The unknown world changes and they head toward a deadly confrontation.