The Tonk and the Eastil have always been at war, not a war with front lines and swords, but a war of magic. Talyn, a soldier trained from childhood to protect her country, had long ago resigned herself to her fate: to die in battle. But when the Feegash come from across the world, demanding to be allowed to negotiate peace, Talyn is out of a job and at a loss for what to do with her life. Rather than follow most of her fellow soldiers to other parts of the world, she stays with her family. When she meets a Feegash diplomat, and allows herself to be seduced, she discovers a dark side of herself that she hadn't even realized existed. Skirmig helps her save the lives of mistreated prisoners of war, forgotten in the new peace, but he acts as though Talyn/s honour means nothing to him. As she examines their relationship and his motives, she slowly discovers that what the Feegash brought with them was not peace but an overwhelming oppression, and an evil so insidious, no one noticed it until it was too late. But if Talyn can hone her use of the strange Feegash war-magic, she can turn their own magic back against them. With the help of one of the Eastil prisoners, she might be able to use it to save the Tonk and defeat the Feegash once and for all...if it doesn't destroy her from the inside out first.