Amazon.com description: Product Description: Weasel, a gambler, and thief and sometime mercenary, is living in the northern city-state of Schwerrid, eking out a bare living as the proprietor of a gambling den in the Merchant's Quarter. It seems to him a safe enough living, if a little crooked, but it is steady work.

The arrival of an amateur witch named Palla and a pretender to the throne of Westmarck called Horst portends a change in the affairs of the city, however little comment it causes at the time. Schwerrid was once the seat of power of the Prince Ak-Bar, also known as the Wizard-King, and it is his legacy, the dread Eagle Talisman, which the two have come to steal in hope of making its power their own.

Weasel, whose motto is "Discretion is always the better part of valor", soon finds himself drawn into the plot, however unwillingly, by a Guardsman named Retal, who harbors ambitions of turning Palla's talents and the Talisman into his road to riches and power.

But Palla has not completed her studies and does not understand the nature of the forces she tampers with; the journey to the desolate fortress atop the mountain called Bal-Hotath will have consequences far beyond what she could have imagined. And in the great city of Tyr, capital of mighty Westmark, the worried eyes of the a man named Sarr watch events with growing alarm, knowing what his ex-pupil’s plans, and knowing what the consequences will be if she succeeds in putting her hands upon the Talisman. Every spell, it is said, carries with it a way out. This applies equally to the spell holding Ak-Bar in his prison. Should Palla remove the Talisman from its resting place, the spirit of the Wizard-King will be free to walk the earth once more....

It is the beginning of a momentous time, a time of change which will add a new dimension of meaning both to Weasel's motto and to his perception of himself. A new star has appeared in the halls of power, and it is a dark star indeed.