A hero trapped on the edge of light and dark... Ashok is a shadar-kai of the Shadowfell who is brought to the city of Ikemmu, a haven of shadar-kai who have learned to use their fierce need for adrenalin and danger to better their city and their civilization. Although he starts out eager to find the weaknesses in the strange city’s armor and return with them to his vicious enclave, Ashok finds himself drawn in by the city. As he struggles to find a balance for himself, his family finds the a way to bring down the city on the Shadowfell’s border. From the Paperback edition.

The witch Ilvani's nightmares of a storm and a suffering soul are luring shadow creatures into Ikemmu, bent on hunting her down and killing her for reasons no one can ascertain. Ashok, however, is determined to find a way to stop it before the shadow creatures destroy the city he worked so hard to save. The trail leads him, the witch Ilvani, Cree, and Skagi along a caravan to Rashemen, where similarly strange attacks are happening among the secretive masked witches of the steppes.