The action continues fast and furious in this third installment of Elizabeth Moon’s celebrated go back to the fantasy world from the paladin Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter. This award-winning writer has firsthand military knowledge and an creativity that understands no bounds. Combine those characteristics with an ability to craft flesh-and-blood people, and the result is the sort of speculative fiction that engages both center and mind.

All isn’t good in the Eight Kingdoms. In Lyonya, King Kieri is approximately about Echoes of Betrayal to celebrate marriage to his favorite, the half-elf Arian. But uncanny whispers in the spirits of his ancestors continue to alert of treachery and murder. A finger of suspicion has been directed toward his grandmother, the queen from the Ladysforest elves, and that suspicion has only intensified as time passes and the Lady’s inexplicable behavior. Obviously, she is concealing something. But what? And why?

Meanwhile, in Tsaia, the youthful ruler Mikeli must grapple with unrest among his own nobility over his controversial decision to offer the title and estates of a traitorous magelord to a Verrakaien who all not only possesses the forbidden magic but is usually a female besides: Dorrin, once among Kieri’s most trusted captains. When renegade Verrakaien strike two of Dorrin’s squires, suspicion and prejudice combine to put Dorrin’s life in danger – as well as the king’s claim to the throne in peril.

But even greater risk is looming. The wild offspring of a dragon are on the loose, sowing loss of life and damage and upsetting the ancient stability of power between dragonkind, human beings, elves, and gnomes. A collision seems inevitable. Yet when it comes, it will be absolutely unexpected – and all the more devastating for this.