riveting sequel from christian fantasys most talented new voice when sarin valon the corrupt secondus of the conclave flees erinon and the kingdom errol stone believes his troubles have at last ended but other forces bent on the destruction of the kingdom remain and conspire to accuse errol and his friends of a conspiracy to usurp the throne in a bid to keep the three of them from the axe archbenefice canon sends martin and luis to errols home village callowford to discover what makes him so important to the kingdom but errol is also accused of consorting with spirits convicted his punishment is a journey to the enemy kingdom of merakh where he must find sarin valon and kill him to enforce their sentence errol is placed under a compulsion and he is driven to accomplish his task or die resisting