In the Wormpile district, gangs rule the streets, unwashed urchins assail each other with minor magic, and the people boil under the sway of a monstrous god. Deep within those decaying alleyways, the boy Larin shouts his tourette-like outbursts at random, explosions that have turned him into a pariah throughout the neighborhood. And while he's protected from the gangs by his drug-addicted uncle Akul - a warrior with a mysterious past and the emotional range of granite - none of that will restore his social life. But soon, Larin finds he has bigger problems. For the source of his outbursts is the malevolent being Haraf, Lord of Demons, enemy to the Six-Legged Gods. Now that priests of the Six-Legged Gods have begun creeping through the Wormpile, masking their terrifying agenda with calls for social justice, it's only a matter of time before things spiral out of control. As Larin and his uncle find themselves surrounded by enemies, their only hope is to join forces with a perpetually drunk warrior-priestess and a high-born wizardress, who must hold her nose to work with the street-rabble she despises. And Larin will either follow his master Haraf, or watch his city plunge into a far more insidious darkness - one so great, it will turn mankind's soul to ash.