The rebellion was alive, and it lived in them.

More than a century after an apocalypse-seeking cult brings down civilization—and itself—the priesthood of a new religion rules, commanding unquestioning obedience to its privileged members and violently persecuting seekers of knowledge, who keep secret libraries, plot rebellion, and fall in love against the rules.

Village-born sixteen-year-olds Ronnie and Jenna are at the moment of first separation, Jenna to be confined to the Blessing House in the walled Citadel until she is with priestchild and Ronnie to flee pogrom with the heretic Freethinker Circle. When he announces he’ll go back for her, his father advises him to adopt camouflage and hide “ever closer to power,” but is prevented by sudden attack from imparting a family secret.

Ripped apart by war, high walls, Jenna’s inclusion in a mission to a reviving China, and a tragic misunderstanding that sends them into the arms of others, they pine, their fate and that of their kind now intertwined with the secret—a secret that could change everything.

“Come, my boy! There’s still work to be done.”

It’s year 109 of the Age of Obedience and the heretic rebellion against the world-devouring Priesthood of ZAH has been crushed, its senior members killed. Nineteen-year-old Ronnie—named Red Mask by spectators at the Battle of Citadel Square—is alive after being saved at the last moment by Clare, the high priestess he learns is keeper of the family secret. Taken into the Citadel and learning further of the century-long mission of Clare’s line, he elects a Janus-faced existence in its service, continuing to seek the gold and secrets of well-placed clergywomen while reconstituting rebel forces from the zealous orphans of his own generation.

Pretending only clan connection to Clare, Ronnie brings himself to the notice and bed of Sula, power behind the Ministry for the Suppression of Error and long-ago murderer of Clare’s husband and first children. Convinced she can control him and nurturing what she believes is his true power-loving nature, Sula engineers his dramatic rise, even as she hunts for the troublesome Red Mask.

“Kill!” two-three-four, they came, relentless, eyes fixed on targets, belying youth and humanity, promising pain and death.

As historical forces and murderous intrigue swirl and the great yacht Wind of ZAH tacks its way from China with precious cargo, the mere hill that is Mount of ZAH secretly looms ever greater in one mind. Claimed site of ZAH’s original delegation of authority and now a run-down tourist attraction, it is a place from which one might descend to claim anything—if one could survive the trek and the ascent against the vested interests of the Priesthood. The Age of Obedience is at a crossroads and the temptation to seize absolute power calls.

When the Wind lands at a spot unwatched by Sula’s assassins, Ronnie discovers not only his long-awaited uncle Magnus but a junior consort of the emperor dispatched as ambassador—Jenna—who’d believed Ronnie killed five years earlier, given herself, and borne an heir to the throne. Aching love must yield to propriety on the secret route to the Citadel as Magnus mentors Ronnie in the family mission—until bounty hunters’ arrows find him. Learning that her allies had also killed Jenna’s husband and family in China, Sula seeks her and the surviving heir. Days later, on his twenty-first birthday and the one-hundred-eleventh anniversary of the founder’s ascent of the Mount, with Jenna rallying heretic supporters in the mountains and Sula gnashing her teeth, Ronnie rises at a huge public ceremony to speak the unexpected, undeniable, world-changing words.

“I am summoned.”