Tank, once an unwitting tool of powerful factions in his southern homeland, spent years hiding from his past in an effort to stay alive; the people who used him intended it to be a fatal experience. He now works as a freewarrior -- a type of bonded mercenary with strict codes of conduct.

Lia volunteered -- even begged -- to enter the service of a powerful man in her northern home, the rigidly austere, almost theocratic city of Stecatr. But as Stecatr slid from austere to harsh, Lia chose freewarrior training -- not an easy thing for a woman to do, in such a conservative setting.

Lia's choices take her far south of Stecatr, and well astray from her plans. She learns more than enough to start questioning everything the Stecatr Church taught her; and when she hires on with Tank, the questions -- and dangers -- only multiply.

As they travel, their very different pasts provoke unexpected trouble. Tank must come to terms with powerful psychic abilities he's denied for years; Lia must decide between her own safety and that of her family.