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His enemies call Prince Richius "the Jackal," but he is merely a reluctant warrior for the Emperor in the fight for the strife-ridden borderland of Lucel-Lor. And though the empire's war machines are deadly, when the leader of a fanatical sect sweeps the battlefield with potent magic, Richius's forces are routed. He returns home defeated--but the Emperor will not accept the loss.

Soon Richius is given one last chance to pit the empire's science against the enemy's devastating magic, and this time he fights for more than a ruler's mad whim. This time Richius has his own obsessive quest--and where he hesitated to go for an emperor's greed, for love he will plunge headlong into the grasp of the deadliest enemy he has ever encountered...

Prince Richius Vantran, the Jackal of Nar, has fled into exile. Meanwhile, Nar has exploded in civil war. The conflict is being waged between the religious fanatics of Bishop Herrith, who follow the Light of God, and the ruthless followers of Count Biagio and his Black Renaissance. As the terrifying slaughter mounts, fueled by the development of hideous new war machines, Vantran is offered a chance to ally with a third faction and take his revenge against his ancient enemy Biagio.

But Biagio, a master of deception and intrigue, has a grand design to gain total power that involves luring Vantran's new allies into a deadly trap. As for Vantran, Biagio has a special punishment: to strike the warrior-prince's only weakness...Vantran's innocent daughter. And Vantran himself will unwittingly seal the young girl's fate.

Biagio, Emperor of Nar, was once a madman and a tyrant. Now he wants peace. The irony is that no one believes him. Instead, the cruelest of his minions are amassing an army to usurp his throne, bringing a new scourge to a battle-scarred world.

But the wily Biagio has one more desperate plan. Alazrian Leth, bastard son of Aramoor's governor, is barely sixteen, but this young prince secretly possesses rare magical talents. Biagio sends Alazrian on a near-impossible mission: to convince outlawed priest Jahl Rob and his followers -- the fearless Saints of the Sword -- to search for the exiled ruler of Aramoor and the mysterious people called the Triin.

If these ancient enemies can unite into one great army, a boy's strange and wonderful magic may be the spark to heal a wounded world... or set in motion an unimaginable betrayal.