Regicide. The very word would have been unthinkable for most - but not Hendrick Lokin, Duke of Northmoor. He has done more than think the thought. He has done the deed. Now the only survivor of his treason, the king's daughter Aileen, must flee for her life into the depths of a forest her countrymen fear and avoid.

Worse is yet to come.

Devastating as it is, Northmoor's treachery is merely the most recent engagement in a much more ancient conflict - one which is awakening with renewed fury after a thousand-year sleep . . .

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The Demon-lord's armies are on the move . . . in the North, where the dwarves are only dimly aware that something is amiss . . . in the East, where the Tundines have unwittingly handed themselves into a trap . . . in the West, where the elves and the Tuath would prefer to ignore the gathering shadows. The Age of Fellowship has passed, and the peoples of the world are much diminished. Thankfully, their adversary is diminished, as well - but if even one of Its gambits should succeed . . .