The International Bestseller Fresh back from the front, another foe defeated, Prince Arutha arrives to find all is not well in Krondor. The Assassin"s Guild has returned, seemingly killing without pattern or purpose. Where normally the streets are bustling with merchants and tricksters, good life and night life, now there seems to be a self-imposed curfew at sundown. Squire James and newly commissioned Lieutenant William conDoin, son of the magician Pug, are ordered to find the ones responsible. Plummeted into a dark world of murder and politics, they race to unravel what"s happening in the bowels of Krondor. But when one of those murdered is a noble from a neighbouring state, war threatens to engulf the Kingdom, and Squire James and William realize they are fast running out of time...