Hunter has been a soldier, monk, rebel, thief, and kingmaker - or queenmaker, to be precise. Now he wants nothing more than to settle down with Marna, his long-lost daughter, and to court lovely Dahlia Rancher.<br /><br />Hunter&#39;s quick trip to fetch Marna unravels when he and Chekwe, his best friend, arrive at Hunter&rsquo;s ancestral home to discover that Marna has been kidnapped.<br /><br />The friends track Marna to their old battlefield haunts in the north, dogged by old foes and finding new enemies every step of the way: seers and necromancers, warlords and heretics, once-dead warriors and renegade pacifists. Their only friend is Dru, a woman pushed out of her job as a constable by men returning from the Orgooth wars.<br /><br />With Dru&rsquo;s help and the grudging support of a new king, Hunter builds a force capable of rescuing Marna. It&rsquo;s a plan that just might work, if the Orgooth don&rsquo;t jump into the fray too. But with Chekwe and his pet kitten on the prowl for whisky, milk, and something to kill, nothing Hunter plans is certain.