One warlock has been slain, but the conspiracy of wizards he served is just getting started...

As Adelko embarks on his training for journeyman at the Argolian Order's headquarters in Rima, Horskram and his superiors try to work out who is bent on reuniting the Headstone and plunging the Known World into war.

Their revelations will take them back on the road again, this time to the exotic Pilgrim Kingdoms, where Urovian crusader lords live in uneasy peace with the native Sassanians. But as Adelko and Horskram are destined to find out, the murky politics of the Blessed Realm have become tainted by the sorcerous plot they are struggling to unravel....

With them go Anupe, Hettie and Adhelina - as the latter discovers latent powers that might be able to help the monks - while the knights Braxus, Torgun, and Wrackwulf head north to fight in Thraxia en route to the mysterious Westerling Isles to warn the keepers of the third fragment. With them as ever goes the redoubtable squire Vaskrian, whose reckless ambition will have unforeseen consequences.

And on the Other Side, the Seven Princes urge on their dark prophet.