Garric or-Reise was born the son of an innkeeper in Barca's Hamlet on the Isle of Haft, but through valor and determination became first a prince and then the Regent and successor to the feeble Valence III, King of the Isles. But the Kingdom is weak, its rule barely extending past the island of Ornifal.
The Isles need a strong king to bring unity, because danger is coming. Magic is stronger now than at any time since the fall of the Old Kingdom in a cataclysm of uncontrolled magic. Evil is growing in the spaces beyond the world, waiting to complete the destruction begun a millennium...

For the first time in a thousand years, the Kingdom of the Isles has a government and a real ruler: Prince Garric of Haft. The enemies joining against him intend to destroy not only the kingdom but humankind as well.

The rebels gathering in the West outnumber the royal army and the magic they wield can strike into the heart of the palace itself, but far greater dangers lie behind those. On the far fringes of the Isles, ancient powers ready themselves for a titanic struggle in which human beings are mere pawns--or fodder

Reptilian and insect monsters from out of the ages march...