A nation's fate rests one one man's struggle between loyalty and desire.
His enemies call Prince Richius "the Jackal," but he is merely a reluctant warrior for the Emperor in the fight for the strife-ridden borderland of Lucel-Lor. And though the empire's war machines are deadly, when the leader of a fanatical sect sweeps the battlefield with potent magic, Richius's forces are routed. He returns home defeated—but the Emperor will not accept the loss. Soon Richius is given one last chance to pit the empire's science against the enemy's devastating magic, and this time he fights for more than a ruler's mad whim. This time Richius has his own obsessive quest—and where he hesitated to go for an emperor's greed, for love he will plunge headlong into the grasp of the deadliest enemy he has ever encountered. . . .
- ISBN10 0553578871
- ISBN13 9780553578874
- Publish Date 1 February 2000 (first published 2 March 1999)
- Publish Status Active
- Out of Print 14 July 2011
- Publish Country US
- Publisher Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc
- Imprint Bantam USA
- Format Paperback (US Mass Market)
- Pages 768
- Language English
- URL https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780553578874