In Fortress in the Eye of Time, the wizard Mauryl Gestaurien summoned his greatest spell and created Tristen, the gray-eyed youth with strange powers. Mauryl's death sends the innocent Tristen out into the world, where he is befriended by Prince Cefwyn, heir to the Marhanen throne. Tristen, armed with a magic sword bearing the words "Truth" on one side and "Illusion" on the other, rides into battle for Cefwyn against the Shadow spawned by Hasufin, Mauryl's greatest enemy. In this sequel, Cefwyn is now king, and he has two intentions: to marry Ninévris?, the beautiful Lady Regent of Elwynor, and to reunite Ylesuin, the land known in its former glory as Galasien. But even as his wedding approaches, his dreams grow more and more unattainable.

Tristen is both more and less than a man. A summoning, a shaping, he was brought to life by a wizard, to serve a king yet to be crowned.

Now the wizard is dead. And young Cefwyn is king. Cefwyn has a dream: a united Ylesuin, and a peace this land has never known. Cefwyn needs his only friend, this young man of mysterious origins who is more brother than vassal. He relies on Tristen, and trusts him though he knows not why, as he plans the war that will bring his dreams to pass.., or bring ruin upon them all.

The eagerly awaited sequel to her acclaimed Fortress in the Eye of Time, C. J. Cherryh's newest high fantasy triumph is an epic saga of destiny and intrigue in a magical world as wondrous, and as real, as our own.