To save his adopted world, Adam Gray must abandon it.

Beaten down by despair, Adam's every breath seems an exercise in futility. Alecia, the woman he loves more than life itself, is dead by his own hand. Most of those he counted as friends lie moldering in their graves. Hope itself flickers like a dying candle.

Only one chance remains to redeem himself and those he loves: The Talisman of Time.

Together with four companions—an elderly mage, a love-sick librarian, an arrogant ship's captain, and a bad-tempered dwarf—Adam sets sail in a desperate search for the mythical icon. Filled with malice and unforeseen death, the world beyond Tantris rivals anything Adam has yet endured. Unknown evils inhabit the shadowy corners of the earth; each one seeking his utter annihilation.

Adam's journey toward atonement has just begun. Should he succeed, it is but one step on the road to a dark and terrible confrontation. At its end, the Dark Mage lies in wait, hungry for revenge.