A recognized master fantasist, Tanith Lee has won multiple awards for her craft, including the British Fantasy Award, the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement, and the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Horror. Raldnor, Storm Lord and chosen hero of the goddess Anackire, has passed into legend after bringing peace to the land of Dorthar. But after twenty years, that tenuous peace is threatening to dissolve. Contentious forces are brewing, working through subterfuge and overt war to see the new Storm Lord displaced. Kesarh, prince of Istris, has grand ambitions. Though he is only a lesser noble of Karmiss, his shrewdness and cunning ensure him a stake in the tumultuous fight for sovereignty. If he succeeds, he may yet win the power he craves--and an empire to rule. But his plans are not infallible--a daughter, conceived from a forbidden union, could prove to be his downfall. Ashni is a child not quite human, altered by the strange circumstances of her birth and blessed by the goddess Anackire. In a world of assassinations, concealed plots, and political machinations, Ashni must contend with the dangerous plans of her father if she is to fulfill the demands of the goddess... and avoid a war that could destroy the very empire Kesarh wishes to build.