Nearly a thousand years ago, the tyrant-sorcerer Mordechai betrayed his people, forged a weapon of darkness, and led an assault against the Middle Kingdoms to claim the throne of Reality. He slaughtered the defenders, broached the Shimmering Door, ascended to the Unseen Realm, and sought to make himself a god at the Heart of the World. Only at the last moment was he thwarted—by the sacrifice of a young woman, Lightbringer, who slew the Servant of Darkness and ended his terrible campaign.

But now evil stirs in ancient strongholds, and blood-rituals claim the lives of innocents throughout the cities of the world, and fearsome shadow-monsters have reappeared to feast upon the living. The Servant has been resurrected. His armies have grown. His power has swelled. And he has resumed his bloody war against the free world. Again he marches for the Shimmering Door and the Heart of the World; and now there are few who remain to stay his hand.

Only a young forest girl, Ashera Eldibara, has any hope of standing against Mordechai. She bears the Sword of Light, the fabled weapon of her predecessor, and its magic hums in her bones. Others stand at her side as protectors and guardians—a wizard, a warrior, and a huntress, each prepared to sacrifice all in the last desperate struggle against the Servant of Darkness.

But they are few, and Ashera is young and untrained, inexperienced in the ways of magic and warfare—and the monstrous armies that she faces are vast and powerful . . . and already hunting her.