The Crocodiles of Ring Lake

Scholar Likasan has been studying two things for a decade: magical amulets and the elusive art of staying composed. A visit to the town of Ring Lake might just test her skills with both.

Likasan is an apprentice to her adoptive parents, scholars who study the history and function of magical amulets. When they ask her to retrieve an amulet carried by her uncle, an emissary to the settlement of Ring Lake, Likasan agrees despite the town being the place of her miserable childhood. But once she arrives, her uncle and his amulets are nowhere to be found.

As Likasan investigates the disappearance of her uncle, she finds that the gnarly politics of Ring Lake has grown thornier than what she remembers. Corruption remains unchecked among the nobility and a faceless thief is siphoning off the town's treasury. It's clear that the crocodiles of Ring Lake aren't simply the ones prowling on its marshy borders, and the longer she investigates, the deeper the town's teeth and claws sink back into her.