After a long spell of exile, Sparhawk, Pandion Knight and the Queen’s champion, returns to his native land to find it overrun with evil and intrigue – and his young Queen grievously ill. Indeed, Ehlana lies magically entombed within a block of crystal, doomed to die unless a cure can be found within a year. But as Sparhawk and his allies – who include Sephrenia, the ageless sorceress, and Flute, the strange and powerful girl-child – seek to save Ehlana and the land, they discover that the evil is even greater and more pervasive than they feared…