Accompany a colorful cast of new characters as they battle to the death--and beyond--against a nefarious wizard and an evil unlike any they have seen before Zaranda Star never intended to bring the incessant Tethyrian Civil War to a head. All she planned to do was take a caravan of goods into the war-torn capital--but then the ambitious would-be king, Baron Hardly, confiscated her shipment. Little does he know, Zaranda is a retired warrior and wizard--and she isn't one to turn the other cheek.   Marshaling a motley company of an adolescent mage named Scab and an orcish paladin, Zaranda declares her own private war. But she alone must reckon with the machinations of the mysterious wizard Nyadnar--and the unearthly evil that lurks deep within the city of Zazesspur.