Marcus Whitman is the squire of the Queen's Champion Sir Alexander Kenthal, a man who has forged himself into a living legend wielding a magicked blade of questionable origin. But when Sir Kenthal is given the impossible task of bringing a rogue sorcerer to justice, Marcus learns that the Champion may not be the hero the realm believes him to be. Tested by his lord's slow descent into darkness-and by an alluring sorceress whose own motives are unclear-young Marcus is caught up in a world of beauty and betrayal that threatens not only his life, but the fate of a nation as well.

In the aftermath of the Miracle of Sentry, Queen Constance has set her seat of power in Vassarhold, the ruined city destroyed by fell magic twenty years past. But elsewhere in Coranthia the war rages on, and now the ancestral city of Alon is under siege, leading Constance and Marcus to question their decision to remain in hiding. Meanwhile, Ezre sets out on a journey to Jal Athazar to free the woman he loves, while Shyla struggles against her captor, the very sorcerer responsible for the devastation of both Vassarhold and Coranth. Struck by a sudden loss of faith, will Marcus return to help...