Someone is terrorizing the citizens of Nadipur, and when one of his own men falls victim, Rasya, High Lord of the city, begins to investigate the matter personally—and realizes that he is also a target. Trenchant and his adoptive father arrive in Nadipur determined to eradicate the evil creatures subjugating it, the very same type of creatures that slaughtered Trenchant's family and cursed Trenchant. When he encounters Rasya, however, the matter of hunter and hunted becomes vastly more complicated, and Trenchant can find no easy answer to all his new questions.