The High Throne of Erkynland is tottering, its royal family divided and diminished. Queen Miriamele has been caught up in a brutal rebellion in the south and thought to have died in a fiery attack. Her grandson Morgan, heir to the throne, has been captured by one of Utuk'ku's soldiers in the ruins of an abandoned city. Miriamele's husband, King Simon, is overwhelmed by grief and hopelessness, unaware that many of these terrible things have been caused...

Two princes of the immortal Sithi-beloved Hakatri and mercurial Ineluki-are bound by pride and love in their quest to slay the greatest of the monstrous dragons, as Ineluki has vowed to do, this traps Hakatri in a never-ending cycle of indescribable painand prophetic dreams, while Ineluki is destroyed by guilt and self-hatred for his role in his brother's agony.