Brust returns to the world of Vlad for a swashbuckling tale that sheds long-delayed light on the very fundamentals of Dragaera and its origins. Vlad Taltos, a sometime assasin currently on the run from his former associates, is tracked down in his jungle hideout by a most improbably party: Lady Teldra, the infinitely charming chatelaine of Castle Black. Teldra has come to enlist Vlad's help. His friends Morrolan and Aliera have vanished. Vlad once rescued Morrolan and Aliera from the realm of the gods, but now it looks as if they are in the hands of the Jenoine: the powerful beings who long ago were the makers of Dragaera and the masters of its gods.