The return of the Crimson Guard could not have come at a worse time for an empire exhausted by warfare & weakened by betrayals & rivalries. Into the seething cauldron of Quon Tali
- the Malazan Empire's heartland
- they march & with their return comes the memory of their vow: undying opposition to the Empire. But elements within the Guard's elite the Avowed have set their sights on far greater power while other more ancient entities are rising up intent on furthering their own arcane ends. & what of the swordsman called Traveller who with his companion Ereko seeks a confrontation from which none have ever returned? As the Guard prepare to wage war the Empress Laseen's generals & mages grow impatient at what they perceive as her mismanagement of the Empire. Is she losing her grip on power or has she outwitted them all? Could she be using the uprisings to draw out & finally eliminate the last irksome survivors from the days of Kellanved her illustrious predecessor?