On the stolen throne of Darion sits the usurper, Sedry, haunted by the silent grey eyes of the half-sister he banished, whose gift for magic was equal to his own; Elfrid, the Bastard. At watch, folded into the darkness, Bal of Korent remembers a half-grown, dark-haired child, swift as a sabre, trained in the ways of the warrior, as no woman before: Elfrid, the Sword. In the hugshed gloom of night, a shadowed figure walks alone. Waiting for the morning, for battle, for vengeance. She has waited in exile for eight long years. Now, Elfrid of Darion has come home....