Peasant boy Oswy, sold to witch-lord Sulien FitzGuimar, thinks he's destined to be carved into spell ingredients. Yet behind Sulien lurks someone even worse – his old master, Tancred, now the king's mage.

When Tancred stages a coup, dragging the elves into his Empire-building plans, the woman he has set his sights on as a bride – aspiring nun, Adela – sets out to find someone to oppose him. But dark magic is addictive and hard to escape. With all their lives in peril, the fate of the world may balance on Sulien's traumatized soul.