Kate Haggis is a bard, at least in title. But she is left behind in Leafeldur DorDinen's compound, along with Tagolan Greenleaf, to run his household smoothly whilst he selfishly goes to rebuild another town in his fiefdom, wanting back the former glory days of his clan.
But whilst both the mage and his ranger friend are out doing this work, Kate is paid an unusual visit by a paladin, who informs her that Robert Trellawny, her adoptive father, is currently being held captive by a renegade group of terrorists under the leadership of a vile man called Shaolgris in a different pocketful of existence known as Khenvairc.
Kate agrees to go rescue the old healer, whom she is very fond of. She takes off with the paladin and finds herself trapped by his lies. He doesn't want her help but plans something much more nefarious for her personage.
In Khenvairc, she crosses the path of the race previously thought of as extinct, along with drakes, and inadvertently starts off a war between Shaolgris and those who are hot in pursuit of the bard.
As she races against time and all the odds, can she make it to rescue Robert in time before he is executed? And if she can, what price might she have to pay as a result on her humanity?
Drakes, monsters unique to that dark realm of shadows, and a title that has not been claimed in several hundreds of years, along with a power-mad dictator and evil magics beyond imagination!
How will Kate ever survive it all?
Again mixed up in a deadly enchantment that threatens to delete her usual existence permanently!
Can the bard make it out alive?
Or will the darkness of the deed engulf her soul?
