A novelette of 16,000 words, sequel to Hambly's Darwath series. The wizards at the distant Keep of Black Rock have disappeared. Warrior woman Gil Patterson, the wizard Ingold Inglorion, and Ingold's pupil Rudy Solis set out to learn what happened to them – but only Gil manages to arrive at Black Rock Keep. Something caused the mages of Black Rock – and Ingold and Rudy, when they drew near to the half-ruined Keep – to lose their magic, before they disappeared, and Gil senses that something deeper and stranger still is going on. But whatever it is, she has to figure it out alone.