Sherwood Smith is "a writer who is making her bid to be a major fantasist. "( Orson Scott Card)Inda, on the verge of adulthood, is at last coming home. At age eleven he'd been exiled from his kingdom, but when he learns that his homeland is about to be invaded, he ends his exile to report the imminent attack. Pressed into service as the king's "royal shield arm," Inda must now defend the kingdom—for his reputation as the captain who defeated the most dangerous pirate fleet in history makes him the only man who stands a chance to defeat his country's ancient enemy.