The country of Massi is free! King Arsinol is dead; the Deutzani have been driven from the lands and Gwaynn Massi is going to be a father. Samantha Fultan is pregnant with his child and for one brief, glorious moment all is well throughout the land, but the drums of war will not be silenced. Caiman Mastoc, High King and husband to Audra, Princess of Deutzani, is furious and will stop at nothing to see the Massi and their Toranado allies fall. The vaunted Temple Knights are coming to Massi and bringing with them the armies of the Palmerrio, the Rhondono and the Deutzani. To protect his land, his people, and his unborn child, Gwaynn must face and defeat them all. But Gwaynn's greatest danger does not lurk within the armies of his enemies. His greatest danger hides in the guise of a beautiful and seductive woman; a woman who loves him; a woman who needs him; a woman who will kill if she cannot have him, the treacherous and deadly Executioner Tarina Cyn de Baard.