Balanced on the Blade's Edge

Colonel Ridge Zirkander isn't the model of military professionalism-he has a tendency to say exactly what's on his mind, and his record has enough demerits to wallpaper the hull of an airship-but as the best fighter pilot in the Iskandian army, he's used to a little leniency from his superiors. Until he punches the wrong diplomat in the nose and finds himself issued new orders: take command of a remote prison mine in the inhospitable Ice Blades Mountains. Ridge has never been in charge of a...