Rexson Phinnean has ruled Herezoth for twenty-five years, mostly in peace. But now twenty sorcerers, snubbed when the king founded the Magic Council ten years before, have joined forces to attack the village of Partsvale and exact revenge. Can the king stop them? What's the nature of their grudge? Will the royal spy, the sorcerer Duke of Ingleton, make it out alive? And when sorceress Kora Porteg violates the terms of her banishment to return from Traigland to offer the king her aid, along with three of her children, what chaos will ensue?