Entry number three in the popular Hell's Gate series by 28-time New
York Times best-selling author David Weber and Joelle Presby.
The war between magically gifted Arcana and psionically talented Sharona
continues to rage. The dragon-borne Arcanan assault across five
universes has been halted at Fort Salby by a desperate defense, but at
atrocious cost. One of those costs was the life of Crown Prince Janaki,
heir to the newly created Sharonian Empire, who went knowingly to his
death in the tradition expected of the House of Calirath. And another
price will be the sacrifice of his younger sister, Grand Imperial
Princess Andrin, now heir of Sharona, for the accords creating the
Sharonian Empire require the marriage of the heir to the Crown to wed a
Uromathian prince.
Andrin bears her family's Talent, the Glimpses, which show flashes of
events yet to come. She knows the accords must be secured...and, like
her brother, she will pay any price, make any sacrifice for her duty to
her people.
Sharona's soldiers dig in, facing the Arcanans in a tense standoff that
cannot last long. Both sides continue rushing reinforcements toward the
front, but how do armies fight wars when they can reach one another only
through the portals that join the universes? And far, far behind the
front, carried by dragons, a young Voice name Shaylar and her husband,
Jathmar, hurtle deeper and deeper into Arcanan captivity, their only
protection the fierce personal honor of the Andaran officer whose men
massacred all of their companions in the horrendous misunderstanding
that began the entire conflict.
Men and women of honor on both sides must grapple with the terrible
costs and deadly secrets of the spreading cataclysm, and in the shadows,
those who will balk at neither treason nor murder drive the conspiracies
that pour fuel into the furnace. The stakes are high, and the pieces are
in motion, but there are factors known not even to the conspirators, and
not even a Calirath can Glimpse the final outcome.
