Berren has left his past as an apprentice thief-taker behind him, in a mist of blood and screams and death. Press-ganged as a sailor, his old life is now just a distant memory. Until the day he spots someone who might well be his old master, Syannis, the man who killed Berren's first love. Syannis was thought dead, but he is a hard man to kill. As Berren chases down the man he believes to be an enemy, he finds himself caught up in a web of political machination and danger unlike anything he has encountered. For Syannis is a deposed prince and he is willing to go to any lengths - including dealing with the black-hearted sorcerer Saffran Kuy - to regain his throne.

As Berren struggles to understand his feelings towards Syannis and his mad quest, he slowly comes to realise that the world is going to war - and Berren is caught in the middle. Can he navigate a path through the dangers that suround him? Will he find a way to extricate himself from the sorcery and intrigue that follow him at every step? And who is destined to be the King's Assassin?