Captain Jisten and High Priest S’Rak flee north. It is past time for Jisten to claim his lands formally and S’Rak’s advancing pregnancy can no longer be hidden. The dark servants are traveling, too—two separate teams work to reach S’Rak before the Koilathan crown can claim him, one to defend him physically and one to defend him legally. In the meantime, a Lythadi conqueror has arisen with the strength to unite the warring clans for the first time in history, and he won’t be satisfied until Koilatha once more belongs to the nomads. Warning: There is a brief, non-graphic, m/f scene