NIGHT OF MASKS

In the aftermath of interplanetary war, a disfigured loner is given a chance at a new life?but at a steep cost, in this novel from ?a superb storyteller? (The New York Times). Disfigured in the wars that destroyed his planet, Nik Kolherne lives a shadow existence in the sprawling refugee ghetto of the Dipple. He wears a mask to cover his scars and dreams about another country under an unfettered blue sky and a warm sun. But a chance encounter gives him the opportunity for a new face?and a new life. All he has to do is impersonate a young boy?s fantasy hero.   So what if Nik is now allied with the Thieves? Guild, a subversive outlaw group that seeks their prey on loosely held frontier worlds? A kid all alone in the world could use an ally. His mission is to lure Vandy Naudhin i?Akrama, the young son of a powerful warlord, from his high-security villa and deliver him to the Guild so they can access critical information locked in his brain. But when Nik and Vandy are shipped off to Dis, a burned-out wasteland of a planet, Nik realizes he?s a pawn in a spiraling web of political intrigue and intergalactic evil that threatens both their lives.