Ainah and Dirinalla have fallen. Once the vibrant Free City exemplars of the Ithar Principalities, they-like countless nations before them-became prey to the Dominion Federate and its lightning-strike shock troops, the Hunt, in the Dominie's eternal quest to bring its sterile, calcified "order" to the entirety of Nemesis. But there are rebels amongst the cities' survivors, those not yet taken to be programmed and assimilated into the Federate. They are hunted, harried, and driven to protect the civilians under their care, whatever the cost; and that cost has been high. The Hunt is looking for more than mere additions to the Federate's people, and no one has discovered just what that target may be. Stakes are high, the pressure is on...and the rebellion has lost its leader, and its inspiration. Firebird has left Dirinalla and its rebel cells on a quest to find the burning power that fragments of memory have told him he buried uncounted lives ago. If he is wrong-if his bones bleach in the Wastes-then his people will be doomed.