The King is dead. It is the dawn of yet another war in the Pax Isles. The Duke has wed Princess Anne Orre and banished her brothers. In the face of rebellion on the Isle of Kelton, he left his friend and ally, Merchant Lord Yorif, in control of the city of Pax Publica to go and quiet the colony. After nary a defeat, the Duke becomes embanked in a prolonged conflict with the Lady Darkwood. The Duke claims her castle, her lord husband, and most of her lands, but she retreats into the forest for which she draws her name. Meanwhile, the new Lord Sullivan is amassing forces in the country to fight back and retake their homeland. He is summoning tides of dead and dying to flood the Duke's forces. A powerful coven of Wicked is spreading tales of an unstoppable messiah of death, harvesting the souls of the living. Now in the face of hopeless odds, the Duke's son and his Uncle make a perilous journey to a land far and long away to seek unlikely allies to their cause: three teenagers.