Synopsis: An apprentice guard in the royal household of Brandishear, Chriani is a capable young warrior held back from attaining his full potential by a lifetime of dark anger. Lauresa is a princess about to be set aside as heir and married off for the sake of treaty — and the first woman Chriani ever loved. When his mentor is murdered preventing an assassination attempt within the palace, Chriani is forced to become Lauresa's protector, the two reconciling a forbidden passion even as they are caught up in a maelstrom of political intrigue, ancient racial hatred, a society living in mortal fear of sorcery — and a decades-old plot to plunge five nations into genocidal war.