Southmarch Castle is going to be caught between two implacable foes, the ancient, immortal Qar and the insane god-king, the Autarch of Xis. Meanwhile, its two youthful defenders, the king’s children Princess Briony and Prince Barrick, are both caught far away from your home and fighting for their lives. Barrick is certainly lost behind the Shadowline, facing all the terrible dangers and mysteries of this magical twilight land. Briony is only within a treacherous international court, struggling to survive without weapon left to her but her wits. And amid all this, something unbelievable can be awakening underneath Southmarch, something powerful and terrible how the world has not seen for thousands of years. In this third volume Barrick and Briony, along with Qinnitan – the Autarch’s desperate, escaped slave – a faithful soldier named Ferras Vansen, and a little handful of various other folk, ordinary and amazing, must find a way to save their world, if not see the rise of a terrible new age – an age group of unending darkness.