Krysilla Jyomsa knew Zhiv would find a way to help everyone who escaped the attack on his home get to safety. She didn't expect that it would lead them to a lord who asks that they find a way to defend his city against both nobles and Dogs...or to the lord's daughter, a woman who once asked Zhiv to marry her, a woman far more beautiful and determined than Krysilla expected. With her own magic becoming strange to her, and with little time to learn, how much longer before she loses everything, including the growing affection between her and the minstrel who's captured her heart?