Assassins are bad. Angry gods are worse. All that plus cults and demons? In the hero business, they call that Monday.



The worst thing about a man being led to his execution—aside from the whole impending death bit—was that he immediately tried to figure out what choice had brought him there. Which Dannen thought was ridiculous.



The one possible comfort a man could have, when faced with his own death, was that things simply could not get any worse.



The problem, of course, was that things could always get worse.



Sure, on the surface being saved from certain death seemed all well and good. But what about when that saving came at the hands of the God of Mischief, a deity whose sole purpose was to cause chaos? And what if, after being saved, a man—along with those poor fools unlucky enough to be his companions—found himself facing assassins, a strange magical hermit, a demonic cult, and a very demonic demon?



If there are lessons to be learned, then they are the same lessons the world had been trying to teach Dannen since his birth. Insane mages make for poor friends, the only thing better than being a hero is being alive, and the most important lesson . . .



Things can always get worse.