One warlock has been slain, but the conspiracy of wizards he served is just getting started... As Adelko embarks on his training for journeyman at the Argolian Order's headquarters in Rima, Horskram and his superiors try to work out who is bent on reuniting the Headstone and plunging the Known World into war. Their revelations will take them back on the road again, this time to the exotic Pilgrim Kingdoms, where Urovian crusader lords live in uneasy peace with the native Sassanians. But as Adelko and Horskram are destined to find out, the murky politics of the Blessed Realm have become tainted by the sorcerous plot