Grand-commander Morath is dead, and the fragile peace between the Order of the Plains and their former allies in the northern mountains is close to breaking. The knights of Klinberg, riders of the madriel pride, are preparing themselves for the High-tourney, where the new Command of their Order will be decided, and with it, the future of hostilities. But this year the contest for the Orders' leadership will not be settled in the jousting ring. Four children will play a part in its outcome. Grifford and Tahlia Layne; brutish son and wayward daughter of the Order's finest Pride-commander, Maddock Jonas, a farm-boy who has heard his future told by a voice from the vault-weed, and Dakskansia, an Engineer's daughter, imbued with strength and intellect but not with courage. Their actions will set them on a course that will shape both the future and the past, but before they can do that, they must overcome their enmity towards one another.

Arius is the Prince of Egypt, the future Pharaoh. Everyone knows how great of a young man he is and he is respected by all of Egypt. However, he hates his father and because of this, his trip to becoming the next Pharaoh becomes a hundred times more difficult. Chione is a slave that works at the Pharaoh's palace. She has nothing, except for a loving grandfather who she was sadly separated from. But there is only one thing she wants, and that is to get back at the Pharaoh for killing her family. It doesn't take too long for these two people's lives to come together, and when they do, it doesn't take them too long to realize that they are breaking Egyptian laws and putting both their lives at risk. It is a forbidden love that could never last... For he is the Prince and she is merely his Slave.

When a knight-in-training sets out on a dragonquest to win the hand of a fair princess, he expects to return in time for a pavilion wedding in the fall. But after fifty years of tracking his quarry across godforsaken hinterlands, he is starting to wonder if he has the stamina to finish the job.

Sophia has sacrificed everything for her younger sister, Lucy. She has removed them from the only home they ever knew, taken on the care of Lucy's illegitimate son, George, and even assumed the role of a widow and mother in order to erase all hint of scandal from the boy's birth. But rumor continues to follow them like the darkest of clouds, and Sophia must adapt to her new existence as a false widow with no prospects beyond the doors of her small cottage. Lord Haughton - "Finn" to those close to him - will stop at nothing to prevent the slightest whiff of disgrace from tainting his family's name. When he learns of his younger brother's latest indiscretion-one that leaves a bastard child in his wake-Haughton rushes across the country to offer the boy's mother a comfortable living in exchange for her silence about the child's true parentage. But he arrives only to have his generous offer thrown back in his face by Sophia Brixton, a sharp-tongued and sharper-witted woman who proceeds to toss him out of her house. But just because he is banished from her home does not mean he is so easily banished from her life.