"We do not kill children; we do not commit rape; we do not take pleasure in torment." Dorac Kingsbrother was one of the King's Thirty in the kingdom of Marod. That was before he was found guilty of the murder of Lord Gahran's three children. Though Gahran was a traitor, his children were innocent. The code of the King's Thirty leaves no room for such a barbaric act, and for this heinous crime Dorac faces a life in exile. The shame of such a sentence is something that Dorac can't brook, and so he sets off on a journey to the Old Stones, the place where those that seek death meet their end....