In the south, the Shadari rebels have thrown off their Norlander oppressors and are struggling to rebuild their desert kingdom - but King Daryan is about to discover a secret cabal has been working against everything he is trying to do. Lahlil Eotan has left her great victory in Norland behind her in the hopes of reuniting with King Jachad of the Nomas - before his transformation into a god separates them forever. Chasing her heels is the hideous Norlander plague. It can be controlled only by immersing in snow, freezing out the disease . . . but it is already spreading beyond the boundaries of its frozen land. But Daryan is facing more than treachery and plague: an old woman with unimaginable powers is sailing towards him, determined to claim his country and his people as her own.