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In a desert world ruled by men, Rifkind has always been one apart. A chieftain's daughter, she has learned to wield a sword while all other women are bound by tribal custom to children and the cooking fire. When her clan is massacred, Rifkind's essential solitude is only confirmed.

Alone, prompted by her Deity, she sets forth on a quest for her destiny, a destiny that will shake and shape the world.

Priestess, healer, warrior, witch, Rifkind rode out of the Asheeran desert alone but for the Goddess of the Bright Moon, to whom she owed her allegiance. Alone she faced the strange new world of "civilization"; alone she drove herself beyond all endurance to wrest the secret of her destiny from the all-powerful enemy who had that secret to teach. And she survived.

Now new challenges beckon Rifkind from the comfort of life at Castle Chatelgard with the man she had thought she would love: to the untracked swamps of the Felmargue, said to be under a curse too powerful for even the gods to lift. In the center of that land of harsh magic, on a plateau no visitor has lived to describe, the Well of Knowledge suvives: source of the Lost Gods' power, and of the Black Flame itself.

In battle to the death with the powers of the Felmargue, Rifkind will be driven to the brink of mistrusting her own Goddess--and she will meet a man who for the first time makes her mistrust herself.

In a desert world ruled by men, Rifkind has always been one apart. A chieftain's daughter, she learned to wield a sword while all other women were bound by tribal custom to children and the cooking fire. But when her clan was massacred, she set forth on a quest for her destiny in savage lands ruled by magic and the sword.

For a while she had thought that she had found a home. She practiced the healing arts and raised her son.

But now she has once again heard a personal call to arms, a call to leave behind the safety of her home. She will once again take up the way of the sword, the way of sorcery. And this time she is not alone.