Long before the land was Arbhal it was Owan, and the Owanil, a gifted, energetic, but often arrogant people conquered and then lost a vast empire on both sides of Arnan, the inland sea. This is final book of the long, complex, but in the end organic yarn, replete with desperate deeds set in varied landscape and townscape, and encounters with a rich cast of characters, including (besides those already met) the half-mad and wholly sadistic Rheduban, Aëlu, Sebhal's serene wife, the entire ruling house of Kargul, the bearlike Tovakh and his formidable wife, the strategist Petakoi, their dashing but unexpectedly complicated son Kamin-Tolagh, a compulsive womanizer, and his equally-promiscuous younger sister, Kamin-Taru... Dolvid travels with Kamin-Taru, in search of her brother, who's still in the field as an enemy.