Enter Huavaen, realm of the Defender and the hyarmi For Geren, life centers around his wheat fields, home, and family. His grandfather, a former soldier with a penchant for tall tales, taught Geren to wield a sword and made him dream of brave deeds. Yet Geren's favorite tales involve hyarmi and the Defender of Life, an avarii shapechanger giving aid to those in need. In his small town on the fringes of the Dominion, the far-off conquests of the Emperor's army, or even the human and hyarmi sacrifices perpetrated by the Goddess's fanatical servants, mean little. Crops need tending, while bandits must be defeated and tax collectors paid. Blight in the fields or the threat of untimely frost are greater menaces than the dark mages and monsters Geren has never seen. Then disaster strikes. Bereft, Geren heads west. With few skills beyond farming and sword fighting, his future appears aimless and lonely. A strange nightmare of a murder, a rock that might be a valuable magestone, and a stranger's life in peril sweep Geren into the world of those childhood tales. What will he do when he learns that the plague that took his family was no accident?