Book II of The Timura Trilogy. Safar Timura thinks he's safe now that his enemy and former blood-brother Iraj Protarus is dead and his kingdom is in ruins. Safar lives now in self imposed exile with his adopted half-demon child Palima in the fabled Valley of the Clouds. There he scours the ancient works of a master wizard for a solution to the mysterious forces that are poisoning the world. His mountain paradise is invaded by four giant wolves - shape changers - intent on wholesale murder. Iraj has returned from the dead with powerful magic and a horde of demon warriors and occult beings to support him. Safar must flee, with a thousand helpless villagers, crossing hundreds of miles of of magic-blasted lands and wild seas. Safar has only his own wizardly skills and those budding talents of young Palimak and in the end, he must enter the darkest contract ever conceived by ma or demon to win the freedom of his people.