In a city built within the bones of two dead gods, a piece of forbidden magic--the ear of a glitterkind, a being whose flesh has astonishing healing powers--goes missing. Criminals and constables alike search frantically for it, driving the city ever closer to civil war. In the tumult, a nine-year-old girl is taken by one of the gangs. Only her friend and neighbor, Kyrioc, is left to try to save her. Amid the escalating violence, Kyrioc's quest to save a single life will threaten the entire city, and even risk reawakening the powers that murdered the gods a millennium ago.