Kathleen Bryan returns with the sequel to "The Serpent and the Rose.""" Beautiful Averil is now the Duchess of Quitaine, but to keep her people safe, she made a vow to the traitor King of Lys. After a year, she would come to his Court in Lutece, and choose a husband from the men he offers her. Averil must produce an heir - not only to Quitaine, but also to all of Lys; for she is the only daughter of the King's sister, and he has no wife or child of his own.

But Averil's heart is in the keeping of a powerful young Knight of the Rose, Gerient, a man she can never marry. The two share a bond of magecraft as well as love, for between them lies the power to raise the Wild Magic of the world, the only force that can defeat the King's quest to release the Serpent God of Chaos from his mystic prison. And when Averil learns that the King is building a fleet to attack the Ladies of the Isle, to destroy them as he destroyed the Orders of the Knights of the Rose in Lys, she rebels against her sworn duty, and flees to Gerient's side. Together they will raise their powers to protect both the Isle and the remnants of the Rose.