The first volume of a new trilogy by the author of The Land of the Blood of Allaron series, set over two hundred years after the events in The Daughter of Teragon.

Amarinda, the illegitimate daughter of the late King Sabin of Thiar and a journeywoman minstrel, is given an impossible task by Grand Duchess Soraya, Amarinda's older half-sister and Heir Apparent to the Thiarian throne - awaken the Griffin of Spice Island and beg it to return with her to court and prove to the King's Advisors that Soraya is innocent of their father's murder. Beset with challenges, will Amarinda even make it to Spice Island, much less find this mythical griffin's cave and successfully awaken the creature?

Meanwhile, their half-brother, Grand Duke Valerian, accidentally welcomes the spirit of an ancient mage into his mind after stumbling upon a forbidden book of magic hidden in his late father's study. But is Jax truly the benevolent mage she first appears, or has Valerian unwittingly endangered both himself and those around him?