My biggest complaint with this book is the climatic ending. It seems much too rushed. Lin is supposed to be a on a quest to find Edrien Letrell’s Path, which will reveal secret lost magic. But we get details of this later - Lin uses knowledge learned from the path, but the reader never sees her discover that knowledge. It seemed to me that suddenly Lin knew things that we did not. I also was disappointed by the arch-villain, Court Poet Lord Gerrard. Gerrard stays so far in the background for most of the novel, he is basically invisible (except for his corruption of Marlen, who seems to betray his life long friend Darien for reasons that seemed implausble), until at the end Gerrard suddenly erupts with foul deeds of black magic and ruthless evil. There is a lot of story about relationships between Lin, Darian, her evil brother Rayen, the vixen Marilla, the wealthy merchant daughter Rianna, and the hapless but goodhearted Ned - all of these characters interact, and they seem like real people. But there is a Red Death coming, there ought to be some urgency here. And why does the super bard Valanir Ocune have to be so cryptic? Why can't the wise one be straightforward for once, why does every wiseman have be obscure in word and deed? Defeating a necromancer ought to inspire some focus and sense of purpose. But the characters in this book just seem to meander around.