When murder and betrayal fracture the alliance between Crown and Temple, Danielle d’Lavandou must flee for her life. Falsely branded a traitor and heretic, Danielle is now a fugitive in a realm that once celebrated her as the greatest adept of her generation. Wyn lies grievously wounded, her life as an unrepentant thief and eager spy stolen in the agony of her injured body. Only her fierce resolve to kill the treacherous son-of-a-bitch responsible keeps her from despair. And the wizard Karsha Hali finds himself trapped between the great nobles of Albyn, who despise him, and the leaders of the Temple, who have denounced him as a murderer, as he struggles to control the intrigues of a nation hurtling toward civil war. Hunted by the Crunorix priest whose vision of a new Temple dedicated to the blood magic of the foul magi grows closer to fruition every day, Danielle is desperate to reveal the machinations of the traitor who has shattered her world, and reunite Crown and Temple before the realm tears itself apart. But as Danielle is pursued from teeming city to desolate, ice-shrouded wilderness, she discovers that simply surviving may be an impossible task.