Great scaly dragons roamed the dunes—unreal beasts resurrected daily in the mirage belt. Illusions created by atmospheric manipulation—and by magic. For although Esmeralda was a backward world, it had a very real and unusual native art—witchcraft! Raker of Soldiers of Fortune, Inc. was being paid well to track down the planet's deadly Fire-Eater—who visited flaming death upon distant enemies. But Raker found himself battling not one wizard, but a whole pack of sorcerers, plague makers, lycanthropes, and fire assassins. And the ones who couldn't kill him with words went at him with battle axes, swords and the like. Raker began to wonder if even a great fortune was going to be just compensation if he couldn't live long enough to collect....

CIVIL WAR THREATENS THE MOST FOULED-UP PLANET IN THE GALAXY—Murdstone is the most backward planet in the entire Barnum System, and Peluda is the most backward and fouled-up territory on Murdstone. Sensible people avoid Peluda—unless they are fond of disappearing at unpredictable moments. When that happens to a Barnum secret agent, his frantic wife finds that his government will do nothing to get him back, so she turns to the notorious Mirabilis Agency. And that turns loose free-lance undercover agent Peter Torres on one of the wildest chases of his career, where the bad guys keep helping him out of trouble and the good guys are out to kill him.