From the forest she will come... NO MEMORY, NO FUTURE, AND ONLY A WHITE ROSE TO IDENTIFY HER... The Ilduin Bane are myth and legend: assassin mages whose blades drip poison and whose minds share a common purpose—one of death or control. All who have gone against them have been lost, unable to penetrate their powerful protections. And so Archer Blackcloak gathers a small band to bring about the downfall of the Bane. From Archer comes strength of purpose and an indomitable will. Ratha and Giri, the Anari warriors, give the group a fighter's skill and temper. They are joined by Young Tom, whose unwavering loyalty is matched by an insatiable curiosity, and by Sara Deepwell, who has a surprising talent for magic. From their last member, Tess Birdsong, the only survivor of a brutal attack that left her with no memory, comes the power of one who has nothing left to lose. But the road to freedom is long and twisted, and before they are finished their old sorrows may destroy them. Yet once started, they cannot turn back—no matter how high the price to be paid....

What will happen when the assassins are defeated... For Tess Birdsong and her companions there will be no warm homecoming. The death of one evil exposed the beating, seething heart of another far more dangerous power. Together they must go to Anahar, to help free the Anari people from their enslavers, and purge the darkness in their own hearts. But that ancient city holds more than the key to Anari liberation. In its temple lie the secrets of the Ilduin, women of almost godlike power. Tess, who remembers nothing of her past, is terrified by the power of Ilduin blood. But Tess' mind conceals more than fear. There is war, and pain, and death, and anguished grief. And somehow she must face it all again, guided only by the shocking secrets of a temple as old as time itself...

They have liberated Anahar, but for Tess Birdsong and Archer Blackcloak the war has only begun. Anari slaves are rebelling in Bozandar, and the streets of that sparkling city are wet with blood. Tess and Archer must forge a peace between the warring races, for only together will their combined armies have the strength to move against the dark forces gathering to the west. As the scars of old wounds are ripped open, pitting brother against brother and the Ilduin sisterhood against itself, Tess and Archer march into a battle that will determine the world's fate. Guided by snow wolves, moving under the dark cloud of a bitter prophecy, they ready themselves to strike at the enemy's seat of power, a mountain fortress that has never been taken. But their greatest danger comes from within, for Archer carries a dark secret that may doom them all....