Aron Nels faces a daunting task. The lone surviving Defender of the Nuven people has challenged 19 enemy warriors to death duels. If he fails, the truth of the tragic events at Temple Darya will never be known. Aron is unaware another force is working against him - the powerful Seers. These psychic women have kept their people safe from space marauders for centuries and now they want to eliminate the Nuven threat. -- Willa Sydriker fights to free her world from the yoke of the Tanlians. To do this, the young woman has to convince her people to back a daring plot to hijack the space marauders' transport ship. If successful, she has to find and convince their former enemy - the "Earthers" - to help their cause. -- Gerro, captain of the Tarylan Guards, has committed an act of treason against the Seers. The bastard son of an estranged Seer and unknown father turns his back on the only life he has known to seek answers to his origin. He must cross the treacherous mountain to find his mother in the Valley of the Heroes, home of the Defenders. -- Jorn Nandez, a captain in the Colonization Alliance of Independent Nations space fleet, dreams of returning to Verde Grande, a planet his ancestor helped to bioform. No one has been in contact with the former Earth colony world for more than 300 years after it apparently was abandoned. The fearsome Tanlians stand in his way but even they avoid the mysterious "ghost world."