Three months ago, following his defeat at the hands of Prince Maxim Maresh, Rowan – the powerful Antari magician and mastermind behind the Night of Knives tournament – forcibly took control of a rag-tag pirate fleet known as the Rebel Army. Quickly he transformed it into a formidable and ruthless military machine and began attacking the settlements along the Blood Coast. Each town he landed at was offered a simple choice – join the Rebel Army or face utter annihilation. With each new conquest, Rowan conscripted magicians. The willing joined his cause and his army grew, until its might began to rival that of the Maxim Empire. Learning of the Rebel Army’s unchecked advance, Prince Maxim Maresh tried to send help to the neighboring coastal town of Milos. Before it could arrive, Milos was destroyed in a single terror-filled night of violence and death, leaving the fate of Verose and the defence of the entire Maresh Empire solely in the hands of Maxim and his Garrison…
