They were sent into solitude, yet neither of them was ever truly alone.
Wrongfully accused of insulting a man of higher rank, a bright young man is banished to a remote post where he must stand watch over a signal fire. Batu isn’t entirely alone, though. There’s an orange-robed monk who checks in on him from time to time, and he’s somehow befriended a golden eagle. But strange things begin to happen when the guard changes in the next tower over.
Qara can’t bear to face the future her father planned, so she runs away, pretending to be her older brother. But her new commanding officer isn’t so easily fooled. For her own good, she’s bundled off to a mountaintop watchtower. Qara is safe, but the cold and the solitude become too much to bear … until she befriends a wild sheep, a cheery villager, and the man in the next tower over.