Shadow & Claw is the story of the journeyman torturer Severian and his exile from the citadel of the torturers' guild. Severian's world represents a ruined future, fantastic but in pronounced decay. Sorcery and bureaucracy coexist all around him as, exiled for carrying on an affair with a victim of his guild, he leaves to perform his grisly trade elsewhere. Slowly it becomes apparent that Severian's journey is being watched by forces beyond his comprehension.
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