Book Two in the acclaimed The Shard Of Elan series! Shianan Becknam, commander, count, and bastard, has survived committing treason and the murder plot against him. Now that the kingdom is at last protected from marauding Ryuven, the only worth he’s ever had is no longer needed. Trapped in conflicting oaths of allegiance, he’s more a political liability than ever—and less able to court the woman he nearly died to save. But the protective shield, for which Shianan suffered so much, may not be working. The reports of Ryuven raiding the countryside should be impossible within the magical shield. Luca has returned to his homeland, but how can it be a home ever again, as he faces the family who sold him into slavery? Newly betrayed by the only person he trusted, he can conceal physical signs of his enslavement, but what can be done for the wounds that can’t be seen? Mage Ariana Hazelrig is the first to come back from the Ryuven world, but at an unforeseen cost, and she is more determined than ever to end the destructive war between their peoples. When the Ryuven champion Tamaryl reappears in the human realm, she has one chance—and it will brutally hurt those she loves. Their separate paths will twine together once more as inevitable battle closes, to end conflict by bloody victory or desolation.