Southmarch Castle is about to be caught between two implacable enemies,
the ancient, immortal Qar and the insane god-king, the Autarch of Xis.
Meanwhile, its two young defenders, the king's children Princess Briony
and Prince Barrick, are both trapped far away from home and fighting for
their lives.
Barrick is lost behind the Shadowline, facing all the terrible dangers
and mysteries of that magical twilight land. Briony is alone in a
treacherous foreign court, struggling to survive with no weapon left to
her but her wits. And in the midst of all this, something unbelievable
is awakening underneath Southmarch, something powerful and terrible that
the world has not seen for thousands of years.
In this third volume Barrick and Briony, along with Qinnitan--the
Autarch's desperate, escaped slave--a loyal soldier named Ferras Vansen,
and a tiny handful of other folk, ordinary and extraordinary, must find
a way to save their world, or else witness the rise of a terrible new
age--an age of unending darkness.