About the Book
The action continues fast and furious in this third installment of
Elizabeth Moon’s celebrated return to the fantasy world of the paladin
Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter. This award-winning author has firsthand
military experience and an imagination that knows no bounds. Combine
those qualities with an ability to craft flesh-and-blood characters, and the result is the kind of speculative fiction that engages both heart
and mind.
All is not well in the Eight Kingdoms. In Lyonya, King
Kieri is about to celebrate marriage to his beloved, the half-elf Arian. But uncanny whispers from the spirits of his ancestors continue to warn of treachery and murder. A finger of suspicion has been pointed toward
his grandmother, the queen of the Ladysforest elves, and that suspicion
has only intensified with time and the Lady’s inexplicable behavior.
Clearly, she is hiding something. But what? And why?
Meanwhile,
in Tsaia, the young king Mikeli must grapple with unrest among his own
nobility over his controversial decision to grant the title and estates
of a traitorous magelord to a Verrakaien who not only possesses the
forbidden magic but is a woman besides: Dorrin, once one of Kieri’s most trusted captains. When renegade Verrakaien attack two of Dorrin’s
squires, suspicion and prejudice combine to place Dorrin’s life at
risk — and the king’s claim to the throne in peril.
But even
greater danger is looming. The wild offspring of a dragon are on the
loose, sowing death and destruction and upsetting the ancient balance of power between dragonkind, humans, elves, and gnomes. A collision seems
inevitable. Yet when it comes, it will be utterly unexpected — and all the more devastating for it.
