In a land pockmarked with the grim relics of a long-ago war live a people consumed by the fear of magic. Those suspected of sorcery die at the hands of the infamous White Tribunal. And death and terror will reign until a young man pawns his soul for the temporary power to destroy his murdered father's false accusers.

Now, disguised as a foreigner and with his time measured by the sands of a magical hourglass, Tradain liMarchborg enters the capital city of Lis Folaze, stronghold of the White Tribunal's power. Here his path will cross that of the beautiful Glennian liTarngrav, whose own mission will lock them together in a vortex of love, revenge, death, and enchantment that could save a land...or thrust them both--as Tradain's hourglass sands run out--into eternal torment.