The Corrii have not given up. Their spies have long been searching out Herelstrom and its weaknesses. They do not intend to underestimate them again. When the invasion comes, it comes swiftly, with greater numbers and new terrors. Norri with his friend Gordy and the former Corriian Admiral, Denquinar decide to attempt two almost impossible journeys to reach the Bernadians via the southern mountains and the longer, unexplored sea route to the south, to seek possible help from the Bernadian Emperor and a young man Norri saved, who is the emperor's younger son. They have barely left when the great invasion begins and their friends and all the people they love, are caught up in a desperate struggle to survive. Their young wives must flee into the forest from the grimulves and a new, deadly, winged adversary that seeks only to kill all it finds.Many who never thought of themselves as heroic, find that their choices make them so, as the second great war against the Corrii rushes toward its conclusion.